WAINIMATE

Women’s Association for Natural Medicinal Therapy - Fiji (1999-2003)

The Women’s Association for Natural Medicinal Therapy is a women’s non-government organization, registered as a Charitable Trust in Fiji, to ensure the promotion, conservation and protection of safe and effective traditional medicine knowledge and medicinal plant resources for women and their families through training, awareness, demonstrations, consultations, networking and research.

The WAINIMATE support project combined preservation and enhancement of traditional science based knowledge with forest and environmental protection. It raised women's status and potential for poverty alleviation through support of a womens’ healing collective protecting culturally and economically significant biodiversity, preserving traditional ecological knowledge and practicing traditional medicine. It forged links with Canadian First Nation traditional medicine practitioners through exchanges that included workshops on governance, intellectual property rights and biodiversity conservation. A traditional medicine handbook was published and widely distributed. Traditional medicinal gardens were established at health centres with the cooperation of the Fiji Ministry of Health.

Due in large part to the intervention of PPP's work with the collective WAINIMATE was able to secure UNESCO funding for its work in the preservation of Indigenous Knowledge as well as for its success in improving the health of local communities.