Hi Nancy!!

HWB volunteer Ivy Dieltiens, MD, with a child in Sri Lanka. Courtesy of Ivy Dieltiens

It was wonderful to eventually speak to you after 2 years now; its
one thing to communicate over email, another to talk, and I guess the next step is to meet in person! Meeting Rene was a treat on Wednesday - its so wonderful after all this time to meet the people who made my experience in Sri Lanka possible! As I was telling him (and you), I might’ve been the one in Sri Lanka carrying everything to completion, but I would never have been there in the first place if it wasn’t for a whole network of people, HWB for putting me there and initiating the whole process, and for my funders over the last 2 years who kept
me there.

I just wanted to share with everyone what happened, and what the
project in Sri Lanka has amounted to. Again, I’m very sorry I don’t have photos -
as I mentioned everything was stolen about a month ago, including my laptop
with the RADAR and MacRep systems which were so generously donated through
HWB. I lost my photos, all my reports over the last 2 years, my cameras, jewelry...
anything of value was taken. Its so unfortunate that is how my experience there had
ended, and it also prompted an earlier than expected departure. Anyway, I’m glad
to say not all was lost - that there is a wonderful clinic now in Peraliya being run by a
wonderful homeopath who I’ve been fortunate to meet and position full time there.

In summary, after my first 6 months of full time community work I accepted
a job in a hotel as the resident homeopath and spa manager. One day a week though I continued my community work in various clinics. Volunteers came over to
help, including Kate Diamantopoulos from the UK/ Australia, and Bie Maes - a
wonderful Belgian homeopath. Through them, and through contacts of Kuldeep
Jain of BJain publishers, I received funding, donations of remedies and books,
pretty much everything needed to sustain a clinic. A couple in England through Kate
donated a few thousand dollars (which in Sri Lanka goes a long way), which prompted me to leave my job in the hotel and once again take up my community
work full time - now that I could afford to do that!

At this stage, the clinic was being run from the Peraliya Community Health
Centre, a project conducted by a German maxillofacial surgeon Dr Thomas Stein,
an architect Justin Hill and a Sri Lankan Deepal Wickramasinghe. I joined the centre
full time, coordinating projects (teaching English classes etc.) as well as the
homoepathy Dr. de Zoysa, the local Sri Lankan homeopath who had volunteered
with me over the past year, was installed full time as the medical manager of the
centre. So consequently, he remains there seeing patients daily for the price equal
to a quarter (25c).

Amongst all of this, more projects were on the go. I had wanted to start
homoepathy first aid classes, so Dr de Zosa and myself made kits of 25 remedies
Prompted by my request to translate a simple pamphlet into Sinhala for
our future students, Dr de Zoysa ended up writing a book!!!! I mean a full book -
the publishing of which was funded by Bie Maes of Belgium. About 2 months ago
in February, the book was officially launched in a ceremony attended by the Minister
of Indigenous medicine, and was shown on the local news channel! As an aside, I
had written a note of thanks in the introduction of the book, mentioning HWB and
their efforts...

At the time I had left, we were in process of arranging the first first aid
classes - a project I hope Dr de Zoysa will continue in my absence.

Other highlights included me flying to Perth and presenting a paper of my
experiences at the Australian Homeopathic Medicine Conference - a speech
which was so well received. I was a guest speaker together with Roger van
Zandvoort, a very exciting opportunity for me. Again, the efforts of HWB were
highlighted at the conference.

So though I have left the shores of Sri Lanka and find myself in New
York, Dr de Zoysa continues to carry the torch which was lit by everyone in HWB.
We started an infertility programme based on the works of Liz Lalor, and our clinic
was growing rapidly with our success in the treatment of asthma and joint pains.
Dr de Zoysa is also finishing his ayurvedic degree, so hopefully by next year he
will incorporate this into the clinic. I continue to be in touch with Dr de Zoysa who
has become a good friend, and continue to support the clinic there through supplying anything he may need.

Anyway, this is just a synopsis of where the project has come along
in the last 2 years. I must be honest, there was a lot of luck involved on my
part - meeting the right people, connecting with someone as trustworthy as Dr
de Zoysa (which I still feel is a key in any development project) and having
so much support which all came together at the right times. So my role in this
success is just a link I played together with everyone who put time and money
into the project 2 years ago! Including Joe Lillard, Sushila Lalsingh, JD Millar,
as they were all key players!

And if I haven’t said it before..... My heartfelt thanks for making this all
possible!

Ivy
April 13, 2007