Through contact with Marianne Roth, a Swiss photographer and homeopath who was married to a Tuareg and organised trips to the desert, the first project phase began in 2000 with Angelika Güldenstein as project manager. She spent 6 months in Niger and treated people there with homeopathy together with our partner organisation, the Iferouane Foundation.
Initially, the project was designed so that a homeopath from Switzerland travelled to Niger three times a year and undertook treatment tours by camel or jeep. The homeopath was supported by two interpreters who translated Tamaschek into French and vice versa during the treatments. They were continuously trained in homeopathy and reached the basic level of handling emergency medicines. We also began to introduce young women to Schüssler salts. We were always under the protection of the local medicine man, with whom we worked closely.
We treated around 40 people a day at various locations and documented everything very carefully so that the next treatment tour could follow on from this. We frequently encountered rheumatism, high blood pressure, ulcers, cancer, injuries, burns, eye problems and animal bites. We achieved many successes with people and animals. Not only in the context of treatments, but also in terms of understanding homeopathy. We were helped by the fact that the traditional medicine of the Tuareg is a spirit medicine that goes very well with homeopathy.
The death of Marianne Roth and Mömmöti, our local liaison officer, following a car accident in the desert had a lasting impact on the project. In the years between 2007 and 2009, there was also a rebellion by the Tuareg against the state. The subsequent repression of the population by the military made our missions impossible for security reasons. After the rebellion, the whole area became so unsafe that it was no longer possible to resume the treatment and training missions and we had to end the project with a heavy heart.
