Dr. Elkana Waarsenburg - The Netherlands

After finishing high school in 1996, Elkana Waarsenburg, started studying Biology at Leiden University (NL). In 1997, she attained a degree in Biology and started studying Medicine. During her second year in Medicine, she volunteered to work in South Africa. She was really shocked by the poor medical circumstances there and realised the importance of traditional medicine in developing countries. Fascinated by this she decided in 1999 to go to Indonesia to do research on traditional medicine. Elkana Waarsenburg went in the summer of 2000 to the island Flores to a village Kewapante. There she worked together with Sr. Revokata S.Sp.S.. She is a nun who is in charge of a dispensary where medicines, extracted from medicinal plants, are being produced and put into practice. By following a course in Medical Cultural Anthropology at the faculty of Cultural Anthropology in Leiden (NL) under the supervision of Prof. Dr. L.J. Slikkerveer, Elkana gained more insight in the importance of integral medicine.

Focussing on Upper Respiratory Infections (URI) and Tuberculosis (TB) she gained insight in the medical situation in the Indonesian Sikka district. In 2002 she concluded her docteral medical studies with writing her final thesis on Flores Home Remedies, Self medication through indigenous Indonesian medicine in case of URI and TB.

During her stay in Indonesia she was confronted with severe electricity problems in the clinic. Supported by Remedi (a non-profit volunteering organisation, www.remedi.org), St. Viccentius Vereniging ‘s-Hertogenbosch (a volunteering organisation) and Rembrandt Het Concert Leiden (a foundation for good causes), she worked for a year with Rien Cooijmans (a Dutch volunteer) to collect money for the clinic on Flores. With this financial support, the clinic was able to buy a new generator.

After obtaining her degree in Medicine in 2002, she started her residency at the Academic Medical Centre in Leiden (NL), which she finished in September 2004. Since then, she is attending several courses in Flower essences, Bio–energetica and Tibetan meditations ( Lama Gangchen) , which she put, together with other experiences both in live and in medicine, into practice. In March 2006, she will start specialising to become a general practitioner. In the future she hopes, with starting up her own practice, to bring her (growing!) knowledge of integral medicine even more into practice.