Canadian Government funding of Homeopathy in Honduras #3

The previous two posts (here and here) were not easy to write. Hence these posts are shorter than they might be. The more that this matter is looked into, the more alarm bells ring. It is difficult to believe the hubris of the homeopaths involved. It is difficult to believe that there has been no real oversight, no check on their activities.

Homéopathes de Terre Sans Frontières
HTSF doesn't directly say what it does on the pages devoted to it. That's elsewhere -

Homeopathic remedies help reduce the symptoms of Chagas disease and reverse the illness, improving the quality of life of those affected.

That is an astonishing claim. In the chronic stage, Chagas is incurable. Early diagnosis and antibiotic treatment is essential.

The purpose of the project in Honduras is to train local resources in homeopathy, homeoprophylaxis and prevention, to bolster their community health interventions, in particular those related to Chagas disease. Homéopathes de Terre Sans Frontières will focus on four municipalities located in the centre of the country and will work with Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Honduras (UNAH) professors and students, as well as community health promoters.The project also entails the creation of a laboratory to manufacture homeopathic remedies, as well as the set-up and supply of homeopathic dispensaries. 

It is expected that the project will have an impact on close to 36,000 people over the next five years.

36,000 people? Even if only a fraction of those were given homeoprophylaxis and believe they are protected against infectious diseases, it is possible to imagine bad outcomes.

It is strange that the UNAH website makes no mention of working with HTSF. Martine Jourde gets a mention in this document on a symposium on natural medicine products but it makes no mention of any links to UNAH. It also tells us that the "initiative" has been going on since 2006.

Terre Sans Frontières
HTSF doesn't really exist as a separate entity. It is part of Terre Sans Frontières (TSF). TSF has its origins in evangelical missions by the Brothers of Christian Instruction. Its current mission statement doesn't mention any religious activities.

It's quite possible that TSF does not fully understand what HTSF is doing in Honduras. It's possible TFS don't know that the HTSF homeopaths are medically unqualified lay persons, that they are conducting unethical research and so on but that would be poor governance to say the least.

It could be that TSF are fine with HTSF members and their activities. That would be deeply worrying. 

Global Affairs Canada
It's unknown whether GAC were aware of who the HTSF are and what they get up to. It is not clear if the money that HTSF are spending was specifically allocated by GAC to the mission or if monies were granted to TSF who then decided to allocate it to HTSF.

GAC are handling criticism badly. 

Instead spokesperson Maegan Graveline reaffirmed Global Affairs's support for the homeopaths in an email, "The World Health Organization and Pan American Health Organization in its 2014–2023 strategy encourage the integration of traditional medicine and complementary medicine, including homeopathy, into national health systems". 

In fact, WHO in 2009 after criticism stated that there were a number of conditions that homeopathy should not be used for. 

Picking up the pieces
If there are bad outcomes, if people believe that they are protected against infectious diseases, especially Chagas, who is going to support these people when they become ill? The homeopaths? The Canadian government?