The School of Nature is a program of the Center for Holistic Health Care to learn from nature basic lessons to be healthy and experience harmony with God, Self, Others and Creation exploring more the secret of nature.
INTRODUCTION:
Today there are many signs that Nature is suffering. Eleven thousand scientists all around the world have signed clearly that planet “Earth is facing a climate emergency”.
Coronavirus is an additional alarming reality in the world to the point that many are asking “What can we do?”
The Center for Holistic Health Care and the Dialogue with Creation Partners Movement of the Silsilah Dialogue Movement have conceptualized this new program called, “School of Nature”.
RATIONALE and OBJECTIVE:
The Harmony Village is the venue where people of different cultures and religions are invited to meet together and work for the common good. Guided by this vision, the School of Nature will be a new opportunity to help those who wish to undergo some basic learning, information and formation that the School of Nature program will offer in contact with nature in Harmony Village giving some orientation on how to apply the learnings of the School of Nature in each house, school and work place.
ROGRAM
This program will present three modules to groups, schools, institutions and communities in the schedule agreed between the groups and us.
The maximum number of participants can be twenty (20).
AGE
There is no limit of age provided that all the participants are willing to follow the program in and around Harmony Village according to the proposed schedule of the day.
CERTIFICATE
At the end of the three modules, a Certificate of Completion, will be given to those who finish the three modules of the School of Nature.
COST
₱ 100- Registration for each course/module
For other needs (food and accommodation) each group has to coordinate with the Harmony Village coordinator.
METHODOLOGY
The School of Nature offers the possibility to share experiences and to be in contact with nature in Harmony Village which is:
- A farm and woodland nestled on a hill in Pitogo, Sinunuc, Zamboanga City.
- An area donated to Silsilah and developed as home of the Silsilah Dialogue Movement.
- A place of silence where people of different cultures and religions are invited to experience dialogue in its four levels: Dialogue with God, Self, Others and Creation.
- An ecological zone where serious efforts are made to practice biodynamic and organic integrated farming, utilizing only natural and sustainable means in harmony with the whole environment.
SCHEDULE OF THE DAY
Experiences and presentation of the School of Nature will be divided in the three (3) modules in three consecutive days or in three different schedules.
The time will be properly divided according to the module of the day, but always with time for inputs, view of relevant educational video, visit of specific areas of Harmony Village. Teaching and practices of method of organic farming, vermiculture, etc. will also be presented in the program “Plant, Care and Share” that anyone can be apply in each place, even in small residences.
Address: Harmony Village, Pitogo, Sinunuc, Zamboanga City, Philippines
Tel no.: 983-0014 or 983-0155
Email Address: holisticare8@gmail.com
In the midst of many alarming news of violent conflicts in Mindanao and trainings to contain violent extremism conducted by international, national and local organizations, the Silsilah Dialogue Movement has organized a special training for fifteen volunteers, some from Zamboanga and some from Ipil, all of them staff and friends of Silsilah. It was a special training offered by two (2) Italian Doctors, who came in August 2016 to train six Silsilah staff, and now the same group and others have been trained by the same Doctors who came again on voluntary basis from Italy. They are, Dr. Carlo Moiraghi, ALMA President and Dr. Paola Poli, AGOM President. This year, they also invited two other friends from Greece. They are, Dr. Konstatina Theodoratou, SAMAG President and ICMART President and Prof. Aristotelis Karagkuunis, KYTA HELLAS President and also Hellenic Yoga Association President.
The training was done for ten (10) days with a practicum in Acupuncture and Acupressure for all the fifteen volunteers. They were around in different poor communities in Zamboanga City giving more time to the Zamboanga City Jail, to the Zamboanga City Medical Center and to the Center for Holistic Health Care (CHHC) in Harmony Village. This is, indeed, a Love without Frontiers between the volunteers from Italy, Greece and Mindanao who dedicated their time and expertise to serve. Listening to the sharing of the volunteers from Italy and Greece, we are happy to know that in their experience going around the World to serve many poor countries, in many critical situations, they have found much openness and friendship in Mindanao, including the City Jail of Zamboanga, where there is a proper discipline to follow, but where they also felt their friendship. This experience for us in Silsilah is a new challenge because we started the CHHC ten years ago and along the years, we have found support and collaboration. This has inspired us to make the CHHC more active in serving our people. Many know that the CHHC produces Herbal medicines that have helped many. Now, with this new training, thanks to our friends from Italy and Greece, the CHHC is ready to do more. Thanks also to Dr. Gay Gonzales, a respected Doctor from Zamboanga, who has promised to offer voluntary service to Silsilah through the CHHC. She will be the Doctor in charge of this program of Silsilah. With this new development we can now serve better those who come to the CHHC and help patients through Acupuncture and Acupressure. We hope to provide our CHHC with a laboratory for analysis for doctors’ to identify diseases better and properly treat patients also with the help of our expert team in Acupuncture and Acupressure. In the past, the CHHC identified a number of doctors and other friends willing to help and now we hope to restart with more determination. Silsilah is also confident that providence will help to be able to provide the equipments and the laboratories needed to make the services of the CHHC more effective. For us in Silsilah, this service is a way to reach out especially those most in need not only in the CHHC at Harmony Village, but also in other communities in terms of possibility of time and coordination with local authorities and other doctors. The Silsilah Dialogue Movement, from 1984, has explored many forms of formation programs and services. This good story shared now is another step to reach out to many without frontiers of nationalities, cultures and religions. This is the Silsilah way. We believe that love is stronger than hatred.
Pitik-pitik – RUELLIA TUBEROSA LINN. decoction of the root with pansit-pansitan (Peperomia pellucida Linn), fresh leaves of serpentina – (Andrographis paniculata)& grated fresh turmeric (Curcuma longa)rhizome as tea infusion cured a young girl suffering from inflammation of the cervic with pain diagnosed as STD
In 2010, a middle aged peasant woman approached Silsilah Holistic Health Care to help her daughter, a fresh graduate and working at a hotel as a new staff, who was experiencing a psychological trauma due to shame of getting sick of a medical diagnosis on a disease similar to (STD) Sexually Transmitted Diseases that made her suffer from an inflammation of the cervix with pain.
The young lady almost committed suicide due to confusion and shame but was saved by a close friend in a boarding house.
Holistic Center Staff requested the mother to bring her daughter to the Center for Holistic Health Care advice.
Immediately the young lady responded. She was given proper information to understand the diagnosed disease that seemed to be similar to STD.
From her life-style story, it was discovered that she was not eating proper food and most of the time instant noodles and processed food from the hotel with soft drinks and poor intake of good water.
This made her constipated and could not defecate for one week or more. She was suffering from severe bowel movement problem making her reproductive organ dirty as well causing inflammation of the cervix with pain.
It was explained that the reason for her disease is dirty food intake, not because of an-out-right medical diagnosis of having dirty sexuality.
She was advised to drink as “agua tiempo” a tea decoction of pitik-pitik root with pansit-pansitan introduced by an elderly Subanon, Manang Sabel, who is very knowledgeable on subanon healing plants. An intake of extracted turmeric juice and infusion of fresh serpentina leaf was also introduced to be consumed after every meal.
Also, she was advised to leave her work for a while for a good rest so she may focus on her healing at their home in a farm with good healthy plant-based diet from consumption of more fresh native vegetables abundantly available like the tree-spinach known as “likway”.
She devotedly followed the advice and even planted pitik-pitik and pansit-panstan to easily make the healing plants available at their backyard.
After a week, she was experiencing good bowel movement and completely recovered from a cervical inflammation without pain after a month of focus healing therapy at their home in a farm.
In three months, she fully recovered and gained enough energy to go back to work with good understanding on how to maintain a healthy life-style with a healthy diet.
THE ALOE VERA & SOME HERBS INSTANTLY HELPED SWOLLEN REDDISH EYE DUE TO ALLERGY
Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis miller.) matured fresh leaf gel compress instantly helped a swollen reddish eye due to allergy.
During the Zamboanga siege, ward 9 patients of Zamboanga City general hospital were accommodated at harmony village as temporary shelter.
At this time several people were visiting the harmony village and one of them was Ma’am Emma Suñez, a sister of one of the staff at the Zamboanga city general hospital.
She was glad to see a herbal garden with medicinal plants and a center for holistic health care producing herbal by-products.
After the Zamboanga siege in 2013, the following year 2014, Maam Emma Sunez visited Silsilah Harmony village together with family friends and one of them was a middle aged lady suffering from a swollen eye due to chronic allergy.
They were hoping to get some medicinal plant that could somehow cure the disease of that lady with a swollen eye.
It was a holiday at that time but they met Fr. Seb working at his office. Out of sympathy, Fr. Seb entertained the request and got help from a resident staff working for holistic health care.
The lady with a swollen eye was advised to take serpentina and turmeric to strengthen the liver and to help the swollen eye subside. She was given a matured aloe vera leaf.
Right at that moment, one aloe-vera leaf was immediately used to show how to apply this on her swollen eye. The leaf was cleaned and opened with a clean knife to get the gel then directly compressed on her swollen eye. A clean handkerchief was used to hold the compressed aloe-vera leaf.
They left harmony village with high hopes for a healing that could happen with God’s help.
The following day, a call from Ma’am Emma Suñez was received gratefully giving us a feedback that the swollen eye had subsided.
THE COBRA VINE FRESH LEAVES AND STEM CURED AN AILMENT OF ARTHRITIS ON THE JAW
Cobra vine seeds (Ipomoea setosa) fresh leaves and stem cured an ailment of arthritis on the jaw
In 2005, a Silsilah Muslim Staff, Maureen Amiluddin, was diagnosed with arthritis of the jaw.
She could not chew her food properly due to a painful locked-jaw.
Her doctor declared that she got this disease because of her poor diet in eating too much of grilled chicken intestine entrails and chicken extremities like the foot called “issau” in the local dialect.
Silsilah Holistic Center advised her to chew cobra vine seeds (7 to 9 pcs) together with a tea decoction of fresh cobra vine leaf (7pcs) and cut stem (6 inches length).
She was also advised to stop eating chicken in whatever form and just rely on simple native food without preservatives like steamed fish and green native vegetables.
In 6 days to one week time she felt better until the pain was relieved and she could properly chew her food.
Serpentina (Andrographis paniculata)bio-enzyme with root crop as staple food and raw vegetable salad dressed with ginger sauce cured a government
During one of the sessions on environment in 2015, a government official approached Silsilah Holistic Center for an advice on what herbs to take to recover from severe diabetes. We were surprised to see him haggard looking and underweight caused by his uncomfortable disease.
He said the disease started when he was assigned in Jolo to do research work where he experienced a poor supply of drinking water and consumed mostly canned food.
After a month back home in Zamboanga City, he was diagnosed with severe diabetes and was even given insulin for treatment.
Silsilah Center for Holistic Health Care advised him to stop his insulin and instead to try a natural medicine of serpentina bio-enzyme with root-crop diet as staple food and raw vegetable salad diet with ginger sauce as dressing
He did this consistently together with prayers and good exercise every sunrise and sunset.
In 6 months to one year, he was able to recover. He gained back an average weight with good body constituency.
Today he is very much alive serving Filipino people as a good government official.
CURED ON AN AILMENT OF ARTHRITIS OF THE SPINE BY COMPRESS OR POULTICE & DECOCTION
Sambong (Blumea balsamifera) plant applied as warm compress or poultice as well as a decoction herbal tea beverage and for foot bathing cured an ailment of athritis of the spine
In 2017, a Silsilah staff, Virgie Montebon, appeared at the Silsilah office of the president after a month’s leave. She could hardly walk with an appearance of a weak body constituency. She looked underweight with bony cheeks.
The president immediately called for assistance from the Center of Holistic Care for home care treatment inside Harmony village.
Virgie complained of excruciating back pain and could hardly sleep.
She was immediately given acupuncture treatment with chlorophyll juice and sambong tea.
She had a relief of pain after the treatment and was able to sleep soundly, upon waking up she felt better and decided to be brought home assisted by her daughter Venus.
She was advised to do the following home care treatment which her daughter devotedly applied on a daily home care-giving therapy:
- Hot compress of sambong leaf at her back with coconut oil
- Foot bathing with sambong leaf
- Fresh decoction of sambong leaf as regular tea drink
- Herbal fuming of aromatic herbs with sambong leaf
- Plant-based diet from native veggies with buko juice every day.
- Mega-dose in-take of herbal capsule supplement of sambong, serpentina, turmeric and red roselle.
Her medical examination showed that she was having arthritis of the spine. Her daughter, Venus, untiringly did the hot compress of sambong leaf not only at the affected area but at the entire spinal column area until the pain was gone in a week and she could walk properly.
After a week of home care treatment, she went back to work and maintained her good body constituency with turmeric tea drink and healthy life-style.
SERPENTINA, TURMERIC AND RED ROSELLE CAPSULE WITH VCO SAVED A GIRL FROM OPERATION OF THE OVARY
In 2016, a DepEd teacher, Mr. Ricky Basilio, referred his 11 year old student to visit the holistic center with her mother to seek advice before undergoing an operation of the ovary.
The mother explained that her daughter was having pains on her lower abdomen and had not been defecating for more than a week and had painful menstruation.
The girl was having a distended stomach that was hard like a stone.
According to the mother, her daughter never ate vegetables and consumes a lot of instant food like noodles.
The girl was advised to cooperate if she wanted to be healed. The center could only give an advice but the owner of the body needed to do the job of purification or cleansing, nourishment and balance.
Change of diet from instant food to natural plant-based food was the advised with a daily herbal supplement of mega-dose herbal capsule on serpentina, turmeric and red roselle including large amounts of VCO in-take of at least 3 table spoon before every meal.
Chlorophyll juice made from native veggies was also introduced with golden milk or golden chocolate to be taken at least once a day.
The girl followed the regiment and in one week time, mother and daughter with grandmother visited the center to share their successful family healing therapy.
The mother updated the center that her daughter is already having a good defecation of at least 2 to 3 times a day. The distention of her stomach disappeared with no more pain and with good menstrual flow.
The mother was proud that her daughter gained good body resistance making her a good swimmer with a medal for every competition from local to regional level.
Mother and daughter were able to empower themselves to do healing in the most natural way as a loving family in home care therapy.