It was by chance that two Italian doctor experts in acupuncture, Paola Poli, president of AGOM and Carlo Moiraghi, vice president of AGOM and president of ALMA school of acupuncture in Milan, offered to Silsilah the possibility to serve our people in Zamboanga City for two weeks. They left Zamboanga on August 20, 2016 and now, after a few days, we are happy to share with friends and our readers of OASIS NEWS around the world our reflection and the new challenge that we have taken as a new beginning to serve through the Center for Holistic Health Care (CHHC), one program of the Silsilah Dialogue Movement based in Harmony Village.
For a very touching coincidence we were already planning to develop the acupuncture service through the CHHC by sending some of our staff for a special training outside Zamboanga, and the providence arrived though the two doctors from Italy. The two doctors were our guests in Harmony Village for two weeks. They accepted the challenge to train six of our staff and serve the people of Zamboanga according to our requests. After informing the proper authority of this plan we invited the two doctors with a team of the six staff/members of Silsilah to go to the city jail of Zamboanga where, at present, there are about two thousand five hundred inmates, majority of them men. The Silsilah staff gave on regular basis, three times a week, formation to the inmates. We know the great need for them to be helped and we gave the priority to them. It was a very friendly atmosphere where inmates and security guards availed of the same service together. The doctors and the team were able to serve hundreds of people in the city jail working hard in the spirit of mercy. It was a simple gesture of love and many were cured. The two Italian doctors and the team also served many at the Zamboanga Medical Center, at the City Health and the Center for Holistic Health Care in Harmony Village.
At the end of the experience our team developed confidence and expertise to practice alone the acupuncture and each received a certificate from the two Italian doctors. We also gave the doctors Certificates of Appreciation. The two doctors expressed joy to find in Silsilah a very good atmosphere of friendship expressing their satisfaction of contributing to the training of the Silsilah team which now has the responsibility to continue the mission of acupuncture to serve those in need.
The two doctors were able to visit the areas destroyed by the siege in 2013 in Masepla, Mampang, Paniran extension and St. Catalina/Padayon center. Silsilah is present in all these places offering different programs, including kindergarten education for the Muslim and Christian children
We gave to the two doctors the opportunity to visit Santa Cruz Island where Silsilah has an elementary school and to meet the mayor of Zamboanga City, Hon. Isabelle Climaco Salazar. The mayor was happy to see them and expressed her gratitude on behalf of the city for the service done to the people of Zamboanga.
One common reflection and commitment during the closing program and sharing with the two doctors was that we now have a responsibility to continue and for us this will be taken as a new beginning going on regular basis in some communities in the spirit of mercy. There are so many who need and this service is an additional one that Silsilah started with the hope that many will benefit and we can train more people to continue this mission. We never stop to explore possibilities to express our mercy to others and in doing this we express our gratitude to God who put in our hearts the desire to serve and to love. This is the dialogue of Silsilah: love for all to build a new society where we can call each other brothers and sisters.