CNM Relief Team and Imran Khan Join to Aid Suffering in South Asia.

The day after disaster struck Dr Nadeem Iqbal attended a meeting with the CNM Principal, Hermann Keppler, about how the CNM could help aid the suffering of the victims in South Asia. Already over 50,000 people had been killed and the catastrophe seemed to be much vaster than the Tsunami on Boxing Day the previous year. Dr Iqbal and Mr Keppler felt sure that with the support of the CNM graduates, students, teachers and their knowledge of alternative therapies, they could make difference.

Within just a few days of the initial earthquake Dr Iqbal had set up a special donation account with the ANP (Association of Naturopathic Practitioners), raised over £50,000 to buy food, tents and blankets, and organised a CNM Relief Team to visit South Asia. Homeopathic remedies and food supplements were donated free-of-charge by English companies such as Helios Homeopathic Pharmacy and G&G Food Supplies Ltd.

Dr Iqbal and his CNM team arrived in Pakistan and Indian Kashmir the very next day to begin their work. Concentrating on the mountainous areas, which were some of the worse hit but with the least access, they hiked for miles at a time and within a week the team in Pakistan managed to treat more than 2,000 people and the team in Kashmir over 1,000 people. Unlike some of the major charities who stayed in the larger hotels, the CNM team slept in freezing conditions in tents with little food and water. An hour or two a night was their only rest after relentlessly travelling by foot to aid the local villagers. Many towns had been completely wiped out and there were aftershocks happening every 30 minutes. Despite this, in their first week the team treated injuries and gave naturopathic remedies for shock, hepatitis and gangrene to name but a few. Dr Iqbal comments, “Many people were suffering from gangrene and were having their legs and arms amputated. The medical doctors were getting very upset with having to cause extra discomfort to the already suffering. We provided them with alternative remedies such as Arnica and Nux-vom, which were very successful and saved many people from losing their limbs.” In fact, the medical doctors actually requested more supplies of the remedy so that they could continue to use it instead of amputation. As well as this the team also provided tent houses with food to 120 families and warm blanket ‘comforters’, especially designed to keep out the cold in the then fast approaching winter months. With this first stage in place and with many of his team remaining in Asia to further assist, Dr Iqbal returned to the UK to see what more could be done.

Before his next visit to Pakistan, Dr Iqbal arranged a meeting with Imran Khan, former Pakistan Cricket Team Captain, Politician and Chancellor of the University of Bradford, UK. Imran Khan has strong links to South Asia and had previously established the Shaukat Khannum Memorial Hospital, the largest hospital for cancer patients in Asia. He had also been assisting the sufferers and discussed with Dr Iqbal the earthquake, the CNM’s efforts so far and how he could assist the CNM to help further. They planned to set up tent villages and discussed reconstructing the destroyed schools, most of which at the time were still filled with unclaimed bodies. By December 2005 the CNM, with Imran Khan’s collaboration, had set up four small tent villages meaning housing for around 600 people and Imran Khan accepted the invitation to become a Patron of the CNM.

Since Dr Iqbal and Hermann Keppler’s first meeting about the earthquake in October, the CNM and its supporters have visited the area four times, raised in excess of £100,000, set up shelter, food, gas cookers and blankets for thousands of homeless and treated thousands of physically and mentally injured men, women and children with homeopathic remedies. In November this year, members of the CNM Relief Team were presented with the CNM Health Award and Imran Khan and Dr Iqbal were each given a CNM Special Award for their outstanding contribution.