South Africa: A Land of Contrasts and Possibilities – Including a Homeopathic Clinic

By Peter Kreft, CEO, CoMed Health, South Africa

After driving about two and a half hours along the N2 Highway — a perfectly modern four-lane highway stretching from the Port of Durban to Richards Bay — you arrive at the quaint and respectable little town of St. Lucia. It is a centre of well-known nature and wetlands reserves that are situated right in the north of the historically rich area of Zululand.

The town and its residents are typically first worldly — you could be forgiven for thinking that you are somewhere in Western Europe. As you venture about 10 miles into the rural countryside, you encounter some of the absolute poorest areas of the country. Here you will find many grannies, or Gogo’s as grandmothers are called in Zulu, who look after their grandchildren. Out of necessity, the children’s parents have migrated to the cities to find work.

In this area you will find an absolutely inspiring homeopathic clinic. Since being founded in 2017, the Khula Natural Health Centre has treated about 46,000 patients with homeopathy. This charitable non-profit organization also serves as a community upliftment project in Khula Village.

When my wife, who is a trained homeopath, and I arrived recently at the clinic on a Monday morning, we were immediately struck by the friendliness and competence that radiated from every corner of the place. Altogether there are eight consulting rooms in which patients are seen by qualified homeopaths, and sometimes students as well. They communicate with the patients by means of translators.

The method used to treat patients is to take the case with the help of the translators and then to search for the best remedy by repertorization. Medicines are generally provided free of charge by companies such as Natura (a subsidiary of CoMed Health) and a few others. There is no shortage in terms of the width of choice of remedies. The patients contribute 10 South African rand (ZAR, the currency of South Africa) per consultation when they can — roughly the equivalent of U.S. $0.50.

The 25 or so staff members start the day by sitting in a circle and discussing problems and opportunities and how they plan to deal with the day. They end it by singing as only African people can sing and move. Sometimes when the practitioners have a bit of time between treating patients, they teach the waiting patients about nutrition and health care.

The level of commitment, care, and positive smiling passion is palpable.

The Khula Natural Health Centre is an official accredited training and internship site and provides much needed and valuable training facilities for homeopathy students and interns. It has a close collaboration with the Departments of Homeopathy of the Universities of Johannesburg and Durban, which send their 5th year students and interns to the clinic on a regular basis.

Readers are strongly encouraged to check out www.khula.org. Choose the “About” tab on the menu and scroll to the bottom for a short 5-minute and uplifting video on the clinic. It will be hard not to be inspired by the clinic’s wonderful work. As the U.S. celebrates its November holiday of giving thanks this month, I challenge all AAHP newsletter readers to consider donating at https://www.backabuddy.co.za/donation/khula-natural-health-fundraiser. The U.S. dollar goes a long way in economically depress South Africa. Thank you.