Introduction: Poor rural areas are faced with amultitude of problems that area not being met by all the so called development
actors in the developing world. among the many needs is the accessibility to health services including nutrition and access to nutritious foods. This problem is particularly affecting the womenfolk and the childrem most of whom are orphened and heading families at an early age as low as 12 years.
Working with such communities in the south western and central regions of Uganda, east africa, I learnt that many people in the lower strata of the poor are living a survival nature of life and living by the mercy of mother nature. To this effect a study I conducted among
traditional healers and clients indicated that 85% of these people in these regions derive their survival from use of traditional herbal medicines. The varied
traditonal systems include among othersdirect use of raw herbal medicines from bushes and forests, extracted concoctions, production of powders and mixing them with traditonal cow ghee to make skinrash lotions andtraditonal counselling systems and strengtening of the traditonal social fabrics of helping each other in times of need.
Worthnoting is that this traditional system is accessed free of charge by these people and interestingly, life continues with a lot of happy people in their own setting.
In conclusion,despite the noted general happiness, there is great need for the development actors especially those targeting the developing world to first study the coping mechanisms of these people before going in full blown with their very new, strange and expensive inappropriate interventions.
The writer is a final student of an MA Development studies with Uganda Martyr University, Nkozi.