By Joanne Callahan, President, ATFT Foundation

Africa and malaria have been in the media forefront lately.   From the Christmas Tree raising in Vatican City to the Bill Gates Foundation, and scientific groups worldwide, there is a great effort and focus on the need to reduce the spread of malaria and help the victims of this disease.  In light of the recent earthquake and tsunami tragedy, the control and treatment of malaria will continue to be an important and urgent need.

The ATFT Foundation’s first humanitarian project was in response to the extreme suffering caused by malaria.  This disease affects half the world’s population and kills a million children a year.   The ATFT Foundation’s focus will first be in Africa.

Father Luis Jorge Gonzalez, Dr. Jenny Edwards, Dr. Miguel Vera and Mr. Alvaro Hernandez, Engineer, all TFT practitioners and teachers, have been traveling to Tanzania, Africa over the last few years to teach TFT to a local Carmelite Order of the Catholic Church and other local caregivers to help them relieve the suffering of these people.

Recently, the missionaries in Tanzania invited the ATFT Foundation to send a team of TFT teachers and researchers to explore the uses of TFT to reduce physical and emotional suffering associated with the deadly disease of malaria, and to set up a study to determine the effects of TFT on that population. Local personnel will continue the study once the team has left. It is anticipated that two to three follow-up visits by Foundation members will be required for supervision, further training, and monitoring purposes.

If the study supports our previous anecdotal evidence that TFT is beneficial in relieving symptoms and effects of malaria, the ATFT Foundation will need to proceed with the second stage of the project, which is to determine the most effective methods for disseminating and teaching the appropriate TFT techniques and protocols to vulnerable populations. The third stage of the project will be to carry out what is developed in stage two.

The first team of four TFT practitioners and teachers went to Morogoro, Tanzania  June 9 thru June 30, 2005. This team of volunteers consisted of:  Dr. Mary Cowley and Dr. Cecily Resnick from San Diego, California and Mr. Chris Milbank from London, UK.  Mr. Alvaro Hernandez, Engineer, from Mexico City returned with this group.  They worked with the local people to directly help the victims of malaria and their families as well as teach a large group of local missionaries and health care personnel.

We are asking for help from all of our readers.  We can accept funds for travel, assessment tools, teaching aids and much more.  The mission is in need of laptop and/or notebook computers.  Donations of airline mileage would assist our teams with travel costs.  Please join us in this vital humanitarian effort!

Just think, if we could only help the related trauma and stress on these families and thereby strengthen their resistance to the spread of this disease, how many lives could we save and how much suffering can we relieve?  We won't know until we try.

We can accept donations in the form of credit cards, Mastercard or Visa, or checks made payable to the ATFT Foundation, PO Box 1220, La Quinta, CA 92247.  If you have any questions about how to donate for this project, please e-mail me, Joanne@tftrx.com, or call me, 760 564-1925

This is an opportunity for all of us to participate in a project of worldwide importance.

*Note: ATFT Foundation is an IRC Section 501(c)(3) public charity to which contributions are deductible for federal (USA) income tax purposes in accordance with the provisions of IRC Section 170.