What are the objectives of J2S? Providing healthcare, service, and education to people around the world who have no access to healthcare. Primarily our focus is sharing the Chiropractic profession with the world, in our opinion, one of the best and most natural forms of primary care. The vision is to empower people to become stronger, to live their lives in a more healthy, and optimal way. This means that our pillars are both providing primary healthcare as well as educational programs. Sustainability is key for us, meaning we don’t just show up in a community for one month and leave. Instead we aim to create long lasting ties, binding people to one another in solidarity.
How does J2S decide on a location and do you work with the government? Working correctly with people of need, within government regulations and cultural boundaries can be a challenge. What we do to overcome this boundary is identify local contacts on the ground in countries like Ghana, thus overcoming language, cultural and ethical barriers, that, as an American NGO, we may not have anticipated. Ground contacts come to the team through past experience and largely shape where/how care is delivered. One of the most prominent examples is the HardtHaven children’s home, which sets the team up with people of need, and provides the location in which we share our gifts.
How does my financial donation get used? An overwhelmingly large percentage of people who J2S doctors and team members meet cannot afford health care for themselves and/or their families. Financial donations directly impact people by allowing chiropractic care to be delivered. As Chiropractic care only requires transport of the doctor and a small table/equipment the dollars donated go very far. Nobody is turned away on account of personal or financial demographics.
What examples can you provide that give an idea of the benefits or what other donors have done to help J2S? Please read the accounts of Kweku, Harriet and Wisdom as well as our testimonials page to see how real people are affected via your donation. One example is that the cost for three months of care in Ghana was $2000, and with over 3000 people adjusted, this was cents on the dollar for each person adjusted. Taking into account exercise, education and other programs this stretches those dollars even further.
Is there anything in it for me as a donor? Despite the intangibles that each gift provides, each tax-deductible donation of $100 or more is sent an authentic Ghanaian hand painted bracelet.
Is the health care provided purely a Chiropractic and/or holistic venture? Primarily our focus in allowing the body to naturally heal itself by facilitating the nervous system. That being said, many of our orphan demographics are children born to a mother with HIV/AIDS, thus they are on modern Antiretroviral medications to help fight the infection. We do our best to provide resources that allow children to undergo testing and treatment for these and other infections/diseases.
Is there some way donors can track progress of what the team is doing? The website (http://www.journeytosolidarity.org) is blog style so it is frequently updated with how families and people of need are impacted everyday. As the reports are written directly from Africa via a primary care provider, it is can be infrequent and varied. Monthly Newsletters and Social media like Twitter and Facebook make this bridge easier to cross.
Is there something real or concrete that can be shown and proven of work and/or progress already made? What are the outcome measures? The partnership with Hardthaven Children’s Home (HHCH) has allow the team to gather a good amount of objective and subjective data on how Chiropractic and the nervous system is related and will be submitted to journals for publication within the year. This as well as testimonials and the sheer numbers of people seeing team members on site give us an idea of how well the care has been received. We also supply orphanages with items like diapers, baby formula, coloring books and have regular donations to schools in which everything from pencils to books to money for infrastructure is donated.
What major impacts are you seeing across the globe? We are actively pursuing the link between Chiropractic and HIV/AIDS, not just in terms of palliative care, but also as a tool to fight the disease. By receiving a chiropractic adjustment, people optimize their immune system to give an overall better quality of life (Click here for explanation of Chiropractic). It’s amazing to watch how people living an active life, with a more natural diet, quickly improve their condition, sometimes with just one or two adjustments.
How can I get involved? We have both long and short-term missions available. The long-term missionaries would need to be able to live on site for an extended period of time. On short-term mission trips deliver care, supplies, and provide education for one/two weeks at a time. For details of this program please contact us via email. Chiropractic team members can also assist from their office by participating in our “Cause for Compassion” program in which doctors partner with J2S in support of our efforts. From home you can help by donating money, goods or time. If you have a talent, we can find a way to use it, email the Director at jay[at]journeytosolidarity.org for more details.
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