Yes, it really exists (and we might even have covered them before, come to think of it). Homeopaths Without Borders is a non-profit organization that tries to capitalize on the reputation of
Doctors Without Borders (no, HWB is not in anything but a homeopathic sense
associated with Doctors Without Borders), with a result so hilariously sad that
it is matched by little else I can think of. Their stated mission is “to provide humanitarian aid, homeopathic treatment and education by serving as partners with
communities in need,” which essentially means that they go to areas with
sub-standard healthcare to offer people nothing.
At least they are relatively open about their lack of association with Doctors
Without Borders on their website, which makes one wonder why they chose the
name they did in the first place. It should at this point be unnecessary to mention that homeopathy is amazing bullshit – it’s really no more than prescientific witchcraft aimed at rebalancing the humors (no, it really is) – or that evidence pretty much conclusively shows that it has no beneficial effects on any health-related issues whatsoever.
HWB briefly made the news in 2010 (or maybe that was just this otherwise somewhat similar group), when they went to Haiti to provide
humanitarian help after the Haiti earth quake. Presumably they didn’t manage to
do much harm, but they did point out that they discovered a need for “remedies to treat dengue, malaria, cholera
and other tropical diseases,” which should be cause for concern. These are real diseases that can actually kill
you, and New Age pretense doctors should have no business clowning around and
getting in the way of real doctors trying to help patients suffering from these
diseases. HWB could also report that the University of Notre Dame in
Port-au-Prince was to introduce a homeopathy course that could lead to a
certification from the American Medical College of Homeopathy in Phoenix, which
is not an institution that can issue diplomas worth quite as much as the paper
on which they are printed (since they have ruined the paper by printing on it, that
is).
In short, the HWB is not a humanitarian organization but an exploitative one.
Oh, and Jean Hoagland, under whose name this post is listed, is the president
of the American chapter.
Diagnosis: No, you are not helping. Think how much better
the world could have been if these people had actually spent their efforts on
something good instead of deluding themselves into thinking that they are
practicing medicine.
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