In Zambia, botanical medicines custodians at this ministry are adding a new meaning to medicinal plants, shaping the healthcare narrative in farming communities.
Farmers growing medicinal herbs in the western province, particularly those in the Kaande area are not only enjoying an improved income according to Sister Masika Muyayalo Alice of the Comboni Missionary Sisters.
She understands it as a huge boost to their families especially the school-going age groups and the elderly as they are now leading a healthy lifestyle by including herbs and vegetables on their diets.
“We cultivate, process and sell Moringa powder and capsules. Thus, as we strive to sustain ourselves economically, we also sustain ourselves physically,” she added.
Sister Alice continued that the Moringa initiative at their spiritual centre has created a free-flow space for ethnobotanical knowledge to be shared amongst themselves to improve the relationship between people and plants.
On the other hand, the herbarium focuses on environmental stewardship education and the results are that some farmers no longer cutting down trees for charcoal.
“Currently we are empowering the community to address environmental and food security issues while promoting a sense of ownership and responsibility towards sustainable living.
“Our next steps are to educate people about conserving and protecting water bodies around them,” said Sister Alice.
She added that capsules produced are a testimony of how modernised and advanced drug development is gaining ground in southern Africa. Changing perception on this craft and art of herbal remedies as ancient and traditional.
Statistics in Africa indicate that 78% of indigenous healing wisdom keepers are female with males constituting 21% with women Religious Orders ahead of their male counterparts as far as this natural therapy discipline is concerned.
Sister Yulitha Chirawu from Zimbabwe’s passion for plants differs a bit from that of the Zambian ministry despite a shared identity.
She belongs to the Little Children of Our Blessed Lady Sisters (LCBL) and oversees day-to-day operations at a herbal clinic in Harare. Her pastoral work also includes training herbalists.
“Against sharing medicinal plants knowledge through word of mouth or parental training, we started by establishing training programs and recently we opened a herbal school,” she said.
At her herbal school, students are taught on common herbs and their uses. With focus on how to prevent and treat ailments using plant remedies.
Asked on why she chose training herbalists, Sr. Chirawu attributed the harness to her calling. She says support from her family and congregation played part considering that she only ventured into practising herbalism upon joining the convent.
In addition, positive legislation for registered traditional medicines practitioners in her country worked to her favour. She said the regulatory framework provided a cushion in her ministry.
Now, at the age of 70, Sr. Chirawu said her determination is to continue caring for the sick using medicinal plants. To pass on healing wisdom of plants to young people especially those running away from the social ills.
Sharing her journey with Kelvin Benjamin, Catholic Trends’ correspondent in Zimbabwe, she said that in the year 1994 she was appointed health coordinator for Chinhoyi Diocese, a city 71 miles northwest of Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital.
“During novitiate, my daily routine was to visit health facilities in the diocese and I remember witnessing people dying whilst holding medical prescriptions in their hands.”
“I then found out that it was because there were no medical drugs or they couldn’t afford them, I vowed to my self that I must save these lives.’ She recounts.
The idea of growing medical plants was incepted promptly. Her reasoning and reflection being that before Missionaries introduced modern hospitals and clinics in African communities, there was an existing healthcare system.
She says it was then that she found the irony between cultivating medicinal plants and her calling. Later, she was to engage Polish priest, Father Krystian Tracyzk of the Society of the Divine Word (SVD), to publish and print a book on common herbs and their uses.
With the Church in charge of more than 20% of health facilities in Africa, Sr. Chirawu says it is possible to promote healthcare through the use of both traditional and modern medicines. As happened with the midwifery practice.
In urban and rural Zimbabwe, then and now, the sick seek both traditional and modern medication. Although both sides are on the downside, the former is stigmatised whilst the latter is in short supply.
It is Sr. Chirawu fervent prayer that herbal medicines be accepted in the modern society the same way as traditional wild fruits and vegetables.
Her hope also is that in the near future space is created for this isolated indigenous healing wisdom to contribute meaningfully towards reproductive, maternal as well as mental health.
Data from Sr. Chirawu’s herbal clinic dispensary reveal that there is a growing desire for plant remedies made from healing plants such as basil, apple mint and candula.
Lighting hope that ancient natural and healing wisdom is not just a substitute way of living but peculiar with customs and communities as being witnessed by a huge demand of organic products world over.
