Dying child inspires homeopath

Sambhavna Clinic- Bhopal, India

Sambhavna means compassion. On the night of December 3rd 1984, the American owned Union Carbide factory, built in Bhopal with the promise of jobs and ‘keti ki dawai’, medicine for the fields (insecticides), exploded, creating the world’s worst chemical factory disaster.

Over 20 years have passed, but the thopusands of deaths that night have grown with continuing death and suffering. The legacy of that night hjas become frightenly apparent- cancers, menstrual problems, birth defects, breathig difficulties and so on. Union Carbide planned the death of insects but it is the human death and maiming that is remembered.

Over 20,000 people have died as a result of the disaster and the individual compensation grudgingly achieved works out at enough to buy one cup of tea a day.

Union Carbide have locked the gates of their ruined factory and deoparted without bothering to clean up. The factory’s warehouses are stil stacked high with rotting sacks of insecticides; chemical slag heaps are exposed to the elements. Thousands of tons of toxic chemicals were dumped into two solar evaporation ponds. Inevitably these have seeped into the earth and spread to the underground water supplies which provide wells of drinking water. Bhopal, already a victim, continues to be pouisoned on a daily basis.

Sambhavna meand possibility. Ther eis hope and determination in Bhopal, and ther is self-help. As the indian and American governments would prefer the situation to ‘go away’, the people of Bhopal began their own clinic, aptly named Sambhavna. It is run for survivors by survivors, because everyone has been affected by the disaster in some way. Nobody is turned away.

Patients are offered modern medicines alongside alongside Yoga breathing techniques and massage for lung complaints. Great emphasis is placed on Ayurvedic remedies, and a wonderful herb garden has been deloped, which grows a collection of the most widely used herbs in Ayurvedic preparations.

Union Carbide is now wholly owned by the Dow Chemical Company which refuses to clean up the factory, or to share knowledge of the chemical effects on human physiology. The clinis relies on donations to keep running.

A collection of poetry is being compiled to raise funds and awareness for the Bhopal Medical Appeal. Please call Jane Thornton for further details 07891 368064.

The Bhopal Medical Appeal is a project of the Pesticides Action Network UK. (PAN-UK). This is an independant body which works to eliminate the hazards of pesticides. www.bhopal.org