– Bakja Health Movement marks 25 years

HAVING realised the value of working with natural medicine and the problems that individuals end up with psychologically when they are ill, Dr. Iamai Aowmathi decided to establish the Bakja Health Movement.

Dr. Aowmathi, who completed his studies in Germany and the United States, views this facility as the means by which he can assist the less fortunate. He is opposed to those physicians who seek to capitalise on people’s illnesses.
Ever since its establishment some 25 years ago, the center has been located at Lot 32-33 Dr Miller Street, Triumph Village, East Coast Demerara.
“I considered that in a place like Guyana, where medicine is so expensive, and where we have access to the natural cures, it would be a good idea to help the less fortunate, those who cannot pay huge sums of money to be looked after,” Dr. Aowmathi told the Chronicle in an interview recently.
Bakja offers the following services: dementia and private retirement and assisted living care; residential and physically disabled care; nursing and end of life care; respite, convalescent and Parkinson’s disease care; personal care; nursing care; short-term respite care; and intermediate care.
“We offer care of the elderly; general services of health, in terms of physical illnesses; we do psycho-therapy, psycho analysis, massages, steam treatments, and meditation,” the Bakja founder further informed.
The facility also features a gym, steam room, prayer room, patient room, general examination room, dressing room, and a small pharmacy. The upper flat of the building houses the Guyana Association for Alternative Medicine Institute (GAAMI), an institute born out of Guyana Association for Alternative Medicine (GAAM) of which Dr. Aowmathi is also founder.
Bakja is open to people from any part of Guyana. Apart from a $2000 consultation fee, there is a cost attached to treatment. However, Dr. Aowmathi explained: “We work along with the patient. Many patients come to us who have been ill for years and they have spent money. They have no more money and we can’t send them away. So we do a lot of charitable work here. I feel that more should be done to help those who are less fortunate in this country, especially among the elderly. The elderly are really suffering. I think generally more should be done.”

Forms of Discrimination
For there to be success in Guyana’s health sector, Dr. Aowmathi said conventional medicine ought to be used in conjunction with alternative medicine. “We can’t clap with one hand. Our conventional colleagues should cease to be discriminating and understand that a lot of the products they use derive their properties from herbs. Around 5 to 8 percent of the medicinal properties that are used by conventional doctors derive all their active ingredients from plants,” he observed.
Furthermore, Dr. Aowmathi noted how patients are compensated through insurance based on which doctor they go to, something he flatly condemned. “How fair is it for you to be sick for ten years and the NIS (National Insurance Scheme) has been paying for you and then you decide to try alternative medicine and you feel better, and the NIS doesn’t want to pay for you? The NIS should be open to pay whichever doctor has been capable of relieving you of your suffering,” he expressed.

GAAM and GAAMI
Dr. Aowmathi, believes that all of the operations surrounding alternative medicine in the country ought to be regularized.
“We know that alternative medicine needs to be regulated. And I can understand that the Ministry of Health would not want to work with or give recognition to people who practice this medicine who are not qualified or who are not certified. I can understand that. There are people who practice this medicine who cannot read and write and they are able to administer this medicine to people who have been treated by professional, educated doctors. So what do we do with these people?
Not that he wishes to infringe on the livelihood of the herbs’ vendors outside Bourda Market and other selling places, Dr. Aowmathi clarified, but he is of the view that these individuals ought to become certified and fall under an umbrella that makes them accountable for what they prescribe to customers.
“We are saying that the practitioners of this medicine should be affiliated to GAAM and let GAAM be the regulatory body. GAAM will then regulate in terms of who GAAM feels or have tested and tried to know that they are capable of administering this medicine.
“The same thing goes for the vendors. I would not want to interfere with the livelihood of these vendors but the conditions under which they operate and these herbs are sold needs to be regularised and the vendors need to be certified. And if you attend a six-month course as a vendor at GAAMI, you will learn how to package your herbs, how to preserve your herbs, how to sell your herbs, how to display your herbs. You go to a person and you see the GAAM certificate and you know that this person is trained.”
For years now, Dr. Aowmathi has been lobbying the government to make GAM the regulatory body for alternative medicine in Guyana.