The association

                         Our reason to be, our goals.

According to WHO, two-thirds of humanity does not have access to basic health care. All the speeches, all the international organizations, all political cooperation could not come to end with this reality. All international humanitarian assistance and the excellent modern western medicine in emergency situations (epidemics, disasters, war), but they are not made for the context of a long-term approach.

The health as a basic right of human beings is an overall state of well-being physical, mental and social environment. Allowing access for all to health to take into account all of the physical and cultural environment of a population.

This finding, increasingly topical,led the Dr. Jean-Pierre Willem to rethink the concept of basing International Solidarity Association Barefoot Doctors in 1987 (BD).

The Barefoot Doctors believe that the charitable and humanitarian needs to evolve and give way gradually to the integrated and planned at the community level and governments.

The barefoot doctors argue populations of emerging countries in their efforts to achieve sustainable development, environmentally friendly and based on the human community and local resources.

The objective of barefoot doctors is to put in place structures to allow better access to primary health care through the use of traditional knowledge and local resources.

Depending on the context encountered and feasibility, these health facilities must be integrated into a social system and economic self-sufficiency for the community and for the following specific objectives:

• The assumption of self-medication and improvement of the food balance,
• the upgrading of cultural identities and medicinal knowledge,
• exchange and transmission of knowledge,
•  preservation of biodiversity and awareness of environmental problems.
•  An endogenous integral development of communities.
  
                   One starting point: traditional medicines.
  
  Unlike Western medicine scientist which studies the man from its major functions, traditional medicines consider the man in its entirety and replace in a wider context, notably in its environmental dimension. The traditional practitioners are located at the confluence of a non-religious search of the sacred and research of non-medical health. They use local resources for providing effective and responsive care (plants, minerals, animals).
  
  Thus, the existence of other medical practices makes us aware of the relative nature of Western scientific medicine. And therefore the need to develop a way of thinking and a more global approach.
  
   Developing countries have a rich heritage and ancestral experiences of practitioners that it is important to preserve for the development of traditional medicines. The people of these countries in their majority, believe this approach to health as their own and accede without refusing to use chemical treatments when the local pharmacopoeia is no longer a possible therapy.
  
  The barefoot doctors, participating in the approximation of traditional (shamans, healers, midwives, herbalists ...) and local authorities, working in the identification and development of the use of medicinal plants.
  
  This exchange of knowledge and mutual respect are particularly effective because adapted to local needs, a low cost, locally available and fast using, hence autonomy in the long term. The approach of Barefoot doctors is not meant to be in conflict with modern scientific medicine. The scientific study of substances from plant, animal or mineral and knowledge related to it, leads to the development of drugs from biological effects and the mechanism of action are clear.
  
  It identifies remedies without side effects, and offer an alternative to a Western pharmacopoeia which does not provide answers therapeutic pathologies yet
  Current (malaria, sickle cell disease, leishmaniasis). '
   
                                The MAPN and ethnomedicine.
  
  The ethno-medecin is a multidisciplinary approach of societies and cultures. It places the disease in its cultural context and thus avoids the pitfalls of a Western intervention inappropriate. This discipline integrates psychology, sociology, anthropology and epidemiology, for a comprehensive understanding of the disease beyond its biological reality.
  
  Indeed, in all cultures, the medical is identified as a major event with two main features:
  
• Therapeutic dimension, which is based on knowledge and practices mingling elements of a pharmacopoeia more or less developed,
• a cultural dimension, which is expressed in a particular interpretation with constant reference beliefs, the environment and the holy.
  
  The Barefoot Doctors base their actions on understanding the companies they work with, they combine the human sciences, natural sciences and correct sciences.
  
  In addition to their initial training volunteers of Barefoot Doctors follow a dual training in ethno and Phyto-Aromatherapy. Thus prepared, they are suited to the community and apprehend adequately effective and situations they encounter.
  
  BD acts only to people who request them through associations, local doctors, nurses, social workers ... The association is not acting in emergency situation).It proposes substantive actions, long-term based on an exchange of knowledge with traditional (shamans, healers, midwives, herbalists ...) and the local medical profession.
  
  Exploratory missions precede MAPN programs. They allow volunteers to better understand the socio-cultural environment of the target communities. In this perspective, the establishment of a multidisciplinary team, made up of both BD volunteers and local partners will identify the different needs.
  
  This preparatory work helps to understand the way of life, rituals and traditions, food, art, a sense of the holy, cosmology, the local pharmacopoeia and comprehensive understanding of the disease and medical traditions in the community.
  
  It also gives the opportunity to identify problems in the community, local resources that can answer to and difficulties likely to implement them in a sustainable manner. This is true for all aspects of community life, but BD will specifically identify the type of knowledge and medical skill.
  
  This preparatory mission takes place over several months to enable volunteers to integrate in the community and to enter into a relationship of trust. For the sustainability of projects, it is essential that they are initiated and managed by the people concerned who become actors and drive motors.
  
  More than an economic alternative to the problems of health, traditional medicine is a set of integrated activities in the cosmic community and represents a healing power in itself. As such, it represents a valuable link between man and his environment. It is necessary to preserve this knowledge and transmit it to future generations.