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Poverty, hunger, and lack of
schools and health services are
common problems faced by the people
of the San Juan del Gozo peninsula in
El Salvador . When people are ill,
they often can not afford to treat
their ailments through conventional
medicine.
Fortunately, there is a long
tradition of using medicine derived
from plants to cure certain illnesses
in El Salvador . In rural areas in
particular, where there is great
biodiversity and a large variety of
medicinal plants, people have handed
down knowledge about their
cultivation and use through the
generations.
In 2002, Friends of the Earth El
Salvador set up a school for natural
medicine, including a laboratory and
a nursery in San Juan del Gozo, in
order to promote the use of medicinal
plants to treat common illnesses
including diarrhea, gastritis, muscle
pain, rheumatism, digestive and
respiratory illnesses and
headaches.
Those involved in running the
school now have a steady income and
the health of the local population is
improving. The ultimate goal, when
the effectiveness of the medicinal
products has been widely established,
is to sell them first locally and
then regionally.
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