Intercultural Health - an Alternative Solution/ Salud intercultural - una solución alternativa

Salud intercultural - una solución alternativa

Elio Martinez will talk about interculturality in Bolivia – about the problems and possibilities created by contact between very different cultures in a country with poor infrastructure and communication. In his talk, Elio Martinez will partly draw on his experience with the project ‘Intercultural Health’ (‘Salud Intercultural’) which he is working on with the Danish NGO, International Medical Cooperation Committee, IMCC. The project focuses on creating mutual respect and understanding between the two very different parts of the Bolivian health system: on the one hand traditional health workers, on the other hand the public health system.

Elio Martinez is involved in organizing the traditional health workers, birth assistants and herbal specialists in the countryside so that they are able to cooperate with the public health system. This organization, in turn, also enables the doctors within the public system to gain greater knowledge of traditional treatment and exercise some form of control with it. Increasing knowledge on both sides will gradually make cooperation and dialogue possible and thus ensure better treatment for the rural population in Bolivia.

Read more about the project here.

The lecture is in Spanish

Elio Martínez is a doctor, educated in Sucre, Bolivia. For the past four years he has worked with IMCC in San Lucas, where he has developed the program ”Salud Intercultural”. He is currently working with this program in the Bolivian countryside.