Dr. Honda’s Soliloquy（40）2012.2.27

Marvellous Gift of Painting from David Werner :
Ajoya Clinic in 1966, Sierra-Madre, Mexico

Toru Honda, Chairperson of SHARE
　
As I have mentioned earlier in this series of essays, ‘Dr. Honda’s soliloquy’, that by the time Primary Health Care was crystallized in Alma-Ata Declaration in 1978,　there had been a lot of creative and indigenous efforts on the part of communities, NGOs and governments in Africa, Asia and Latin American countries which finally converged and formed the stream called PHC.

We are proud to say that Dr. Wakatsuki and his team in Saku Central Hospital in Japan were also one of the great precursors in that respect by organizing the preventive and health promotive movement in the vast rural area of Saku, Nagano Prefecture, since the late 1940s, long before the PHC was called by that name.

By the same token, Project Piaxtla based in Ajoya Clinic, that David and the villagers in the remote mountain areas in Sierra Madre had jointly continued for more than 30 years was again a laudable, pioneer example of PHC movement.

David, in rekindling his memory, recently depicted the lively and hectic Ajoya Clinic in 1966 and sent the picture to me and for SHARE.

As many of you already are in the know, David was invited by SHARE to Timor-Leste in November 2011 and gave us brilliant and inspiring workshops and lecture sessions in Aileu and Dili for people of Timor-Leste and SHARE staffers.I am sure that he was motivated to draw the picture by seeing how much the Timorese people are doing their best to improve their health situation, though natural and economic conditions remain really hard.

I am deeply grateful to David for this beautiful gift.

So I am personally very happy and gratified to share this marvelous picture with you in this essay.

The Picture by David Werner: Ajoya Clinic in 1966

As you can easily guess from the picture, a young man kindly bandaging the arm of a girl is none other than David himself. It’s simply wonderful that the bearded young care giver’s tender and loving attitude has never been worn off after more than 40 years of service. Another thing that really struck me by seeing this picture in detail was its fecundity in creatures.

Like a puzzle picture for children to let them search hidden objects, this drawing is full of animal ‘residents’ in the clinic, such as reptiles, snakes, caterpillars, frogs, scorpions, dragonflies, rodents and spiders lodging in the crack of stones. So vividly were they depicted, that my eyeballs never cease to roll in joy and amazement.

For those who are strict in keeping today’s hospitals from any harmful ‘bugs’ by the state-of-the art sanitation guidelines and infection control measures, Ajoya Clinic might look like something egregious and out-dated. However, from another perspective, you can see the harmony between the humans and the creatures or humans and the environment. The picture shows us something important that we should cherish and retain even in the technology-driven world; the ecological thinking.

Or we can associate David’s picture with the Tendai esoteric Buddhism, in which all creatures including plants and animals have divine souls and as such all creatures on earth can attain Buddhahood.

According to Professor Umehara Takeshi, an eminent philosopher of our time, this belief in ubiquitous spirituality has formed the backbone of Japanese people since more than 1000 years ago.

I would also like to inform our readers the happy and rewarding news that David, in his latest newsletter ‘Letter from Sierra Madre’ kindly and eloquently reported on Timor-Leste, the country and its people, his lecturing tour, critical analysis and warm advice on health promoting activity in the communities and SHARE’s role in it.

・「HealthWrights」 http://healthwrights.org

Newsletter from the Sierra Madre #69 , Feb. 2012 issue:

“East Timor – The Challenge for Human, Environmental and Political Health by David Werner.”

I would also draw our readers’ attention to the archives on Project Piaxtla in the same homepage of HealthWrights, so that you can read more about this courageous, brilliant, and waterhead experiment in PHC by the poor but wise and self-respecting people in Sierra-Madre.