Healing Animals Organisation Working Trip to Sri Lanka 2011

I have just returned from a working trip to Sri Lanka where I was working eight hours every day with cats, dogs, cattle and people. I have been utterly rocked by the local people and their animals. There are so many stray dogs and cats with broken bones, infested with ticks, fleas and lice, it was important to help these animals in any way we could. I was invited to work with a wonderful animal charity and I took with me two of my students Janine & Maddie, I was so proud to be with these two healers, they were both brilliant!

As you know I am a human practitioner as well and as soon as the local people heard a healer was in the outreach districts I was swamped with patients. (Please see the pic of woman with elephantitis.) They have nothing and cannot even afford a bar of soap. I was utterly humbled by the experience. I even bought milk to feed the children as they only have powdered milk and were emaciated.

In one week I have been working side-by-side with Dr Rohan in his vet clinic. He has requested I come back and assist him with my plant remedies as he always wanted to study ayurvedic medicine and was fascinated how his own dog, who was ill, self selected my plant remedies and enjoyed the healing.

The elephant sanctuaries where I washed elephants in the river and cared for them were fascinated by my massage techniques on the elephants have asked me back.

70% of the population are Buddhists and the main Buddhist temple in Nugumbo takes in stray dogs. I worked with them and they have requested I come back and teach meditation and animal welfare to the children and create a community interest. I also worked with the Christian, Catholic & Hindu communities and it was a wonderful experience to work with such lovely people.

I had a meeting with a principal of an international school with children from 3 to 18yrs who have appointed me their animal welfare officer. I am going back in July to create a herb garden so that we can grow our own topical applications to treat mange, ticks etc. I intend to educate the children on animal husbandry matters.

It is not all doom and gloom, we rescued two pups that we named Tiny Tim and Luchio (See pics). We smuggled them into the hotel for round the clock care. These two fortunate dogs will be cared for by HAAAW animal welfare run by this amazing woman Janice whom I worked with all week.

As you know I have a great interest in indigenous plant material and I was grateful to Dr Nishan (Established Dr in ayurvedic medicine) who showed me his botanical herb garden, a scaled down version of Kew, and talked about the medicinal properties of Sri Lankan plants and their uses. We discussed in detail how I could use this natural resource to help heal our beloved animals.

I feel incredibly excited about all these projects in Sri Lanka; I know our healing work will make a big difference. Luchio means light and that’s what I intend to spread here.

Warmest wishes Elizabeth