MEDICINE FROM TREES — North Rupununi group bottling traditional medicine
Veronica Farias
Veronica Farias

AMERINDIANS traditionally have been relying on plants and herbs to provide cure for their ailments, but a North Rupununi, Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) group known as ‘Medicine From Trees’, is taking things to a new level.
The group, made up of indigenous women, is converting leaves, tree barks, seeds and roots traditionally used by their ancestors into bottled medicine to treat cold, arthritis and cervical cancer, among other ailments, with help of local and overseas experts.
Veronica Farias, 28, told the Chronicle that the group was formed in 2006, and is made up of three members who work closely with the elders of North Rupununi and visiting experts.
Apart from the medicine, the group also makes Crabwood oil soap, coconut oil soap, Neem Cream and Kiambe Cream, all of which are sold in Region Nine and are available at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) office on Brickdam, Georgetown.
IICA, an international organisation of the Americas, specialises in agriculture and rural well-being. It focuses on providing technical cooperation, innovation and specialised knowledge to promote competitive and sustainable development of agriculture and improvement of life of rural inhabitants of its member countries.
In a bid to better market its products, the members of Medicine From Trees recently joined the Women’s Agro-processors Development Network (WADN).
WADN, formed in 2011, consists of 11 women groups drawn from Regions One, Two, Six and Nine, which are involved in agro-processing.
It seeks to, among other things, develop market linkages locally and overseas; build capacity of member groups; and provide support to the communities in which member groups are located.
According to Farias, in 1994, the Macushi Research Unit examined traditional sources of medicine used in the North Rupununi and found some to be medically sound to treat common illnesses.
The unit subsequently compiled a list of herbs available and the illnesses they can treat in a booklet, with the help of a UK expert.
And with the help of community members, local experts and the overseas professional, the group began to extract the healing properties from the traditional medicinal plants, converting them to bottled products and tablets.
FUNDING
Since its founding in 2006, Medicine From Trees has been receiving funding from Pro Natura, an international organisation tackling social, economic and environmental problems that face rural communities in the developing world.
According to Farias, the group manufactures dozens of medicine, soaps and creams on a monthly basis, and receives a ready market in nearby villages, but this has not been good enough.
She told the Chronicle that the group is looking to expand production and secure a market on the coastland and possibly one overseas.
But she said it would need help from the Government to move beyond North Rupununi.
The scenic and vast North Rupununi area comprises 27 villages, with a population of over 9000; the vast majority of whom are from the Makushi tribe.
Aptly described by the website Rupununi.org, the 8000km2 area is an extraordinary natural zone in southern Guyana that, for the last 30 years, has been isolated from the public eye.
The North Rupununi extends from the Siparuni River to the Kanuku Mountains and from the Essequibo River to the Brazilian border.
The area was well known in the 19th and early 20th centuries, when it received visits from David Attenborough, Gerald Durrell, Evelyn Waugh and Charles Waterton; all of whom wrote eloquently of their experiences.
The North Rupununi is today recognised again as an astonishing haven for wildlife. However, neighbouring Roraima State – with one of the fastest growing human populations in Brazil – now economically dwarfs the Rupununi.
The recent upgrading of the Georgetown-Lethem Road and completion of the Takutu Bridge opens new economic opportunities that may bring rapid change to the highly sensitive savannah, forest, and wetland ecosystems of the Rupununi.
According to Rupununi.org, over the coming years, it will be important to effectively marry development and conservation interests in the Rupununi to ensure culturally, socially and ecologically sustainable development that builds on the unique natural and social capital of the area.
Farias said that in an effort to promote the products made by Medicine From Trees, samples are given out as tourism packages to visitors of the vast north land.
By Tajeram Mohabir

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