PARIS, Sep 12 2012 (IPS) – Jean-Pierre Georges Foucault is a former scientist who is used to dealing with fact and evidence. But when a friend became ill and had excruciating pain, he accompanied her to a traditional healer who, with the placing of his hands, managed to effect a reduction in the pain.

“As a scientific person, I don’t necessarily believe in such things, but there are some amazing healing skills that you can’t explain,” he told IPS.

Foucault is currently the honorary chairperson of the National Committee of Public Health and Bioethics of the Grand Orient de France, the largest Masonic organisation in France. This week he has been an observer as experts discuss “traditional medicine and its ethical implications” at the Paris-based United Nations…

Enrique Hernández Pando is Executive Director, Commercial Development & Impact, GALVmed

PREVENT project in Tanzania/Iringa, 2021, Helena Kindole. Credit: Colin Dames/CEVA

El Castellar, Spain, Aug 22 2023 (IPS) – El Castellar For 33-year-old mother-of-seven and poultry farmer Helena Kindole in Chanya village in Tanzania, one of the main barriers to growing her chicken business is a lack of access to health services. But not for herself or her family – for her animals.

With smallholder poultry farming often a lifeline for millions of low-income and rural families – accounting for in the region – access to medicines and vaccines i…