My Chinese name is Du Xiang Jun (杜湘君）.

I am more fully realizing that my life has become for the sake of others, sharing knowledge and experience, Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and all facets of healing to alleviate suffering in the world.

I am currently in China doing fieldwork, exploring the "Social Fabric of Healing," the "Why Foreign Patients Explore Traditional Chinese Medicine in Mid-South China" and "Chinese Medicine-Cultivation and Innovation", hoping to provide the world health system, including the WHO with a better understanding and insight into these 5,000 years old healing practices. I am also teaching English and Chinese Medicine here and studying the practice of Qi-Gong and the application of Chinese Medicine.

I was introduced to Omidyar through my dear friend Dr. Ashis Brahma, whom I am so honoured to have encountered.

In this life, I have been many things, cast into the flames and carved by them many times. For eight years I served as a Behavior technician working with dual diagnosis adults and delinquents in the US. I have researched and written freelance for more than 25 years, including documents and reports for the UN Human Rights Committee, the WHO Traditional Medicine Branch and Intellectual Property Rights and others.

My main interest in this life is to alleviate suffering.

Consequently, that path seems to have led to the connection between culture and medicine, health and healing. Although I once aspired to become a surgeon, I would like to help M.D.s and other scientists understand the value of Traditional Medicine and help integrate more practices throughout the world. I sincerely believe we all have so much to learn from each other if only we open our eyes, ears, minds and hearts!

Fate or as the Chinese would say,"yuanfen" intertwined my life irrevocably with medicine and healing arts. My own battle with SLE merely propelled it and blazed the path. I have studied Western medicine for more than 30 years, Native American healing methods for more than 10 years, particularly those of the Sioux, the Lacondon Maya, Tibetan and Traditional Chinese Medicine for nearly 10 years. I strongly believe that Traditional Medicine offers affords a more culturally accepted and sustainable solution to many problems many nations and persons face. Eighty per cent of the world uses it! My specialty is difficult and chronic conditions and uncovering obscure research. A link to some of my work: http://www.tcmtreatment.net/inte rnational-case/102.htm

Because I was always driven by the idea that culture and medicine go hand in hand I went back to school to study. I focused on Cultural and Medical Anthropology, International Studies, east Asian Studies and Humanities and am now pursuing my PhD and Chinese Medicine Doctor (CMD) degree from China. Through these disciplinary studies and more than ten years of field research I have gained a great deal of insight on how we can and should apply traditional medicine and integrate their practices. I am currently formulating a new anthropological theory relating to health and healing- a more holistic one. (The ones available are segmented and ironically circumvent what it is to be human!)

I am currently putting together a team of people to gather and compile the healing traditions that are being lost so that the world could benefit from them. This also requires a little applied anthropology because we must see through "native healer's eyes" and consider the patient's belief systems. Anyone can accommodate. The marriage between the two is essential. We cannot simply treat the body without the mind and spirit. They are as connected as we are all connected to one another.

Because health is a universal right, I am networking to achieve a more balanced and accessible world health system. Since the signing of the 1978 WHO Alma Ata, inspired by China's Barefoot Doctors, no one has effectively managed the combination and consequently missed the goals of the declaration. Upon discovery, I realized that we could no longer wait. Suffering is universal. Accordingly, I am in the process of starting an international foundation and networking with other keepers of the traditional methods to make this a reality.---I'm putting this into action now, dedicated to my Algerian brother who lost his battle with ALS at home and the countless others like him...building from the ground up:-)

Mitakuye Oyasin! (We are all related.)

Namaste,

Debra 湘君