Our Goals
During the past few weeks we have been asked repeatedly, by various people: “what is your business plan?”, and we would like to use this platform to answer this question as best we can.
Health reThink is a ministry that began nearly 4 years ago. We started off with two main focus areas, which are still the same today:
This may seem pretty streight forward. Earn some money through doing consultations, like any other GP, and share health education in spare time… or so we thought. What we did not bargain on was the overwhelming demand for a doctor who does not charge by the minute. I decided that I would share my WhatsApp number with people even before I graduated from medschool, because I felt like this was something people needed and hardly have access to - a doctor who can answer even the small questions that don’t warrent a trip to the surgery. I was right, more than I anticipated. The need for an open channel to ask health/disease-related questions to a trained professional, is ENORMOUS. And so the flood began. Health questions come in by the dozens.
So let me backtrack 20 years.
I have had a passion for health education since I began my health care career as a nursing student in 2005, and even before that, when I began tutoring in basic human anatomy before finishing high school. I saw from the start of my work with sick people, that most health problems have a root in human choice, which tends to lean strongly toward the unhealthy side when individuals know very little (or are in denial) about the long term negative impact and risk to their own health and wellbeing. Since discovering that the Bible can be trusted as a health textbook (nearly 5 years ago), I have learnt new skills which help me discern between accurate and false health information, and for this reason my passion for sharing truthful health information in harmony with God’s Word, has continued growing.
With this passion still burning strongly, both focus areas for Health reThink centre around sharing information. During medical consultations, I usually spend 45min or more with a patient, making sure that I gain a thorough understanding of their health condition, medical diagnosis, and what some of the contributing factors may be. Rather than patching up symptoms with a quick script, I try to connect the dots through health education, and connect the individual with resources where their knowledge of healthful living (and healing remedies) can grow in my absence. One primary goal during medical consultations, is not to ensure that the patient will be dependent on me for each 6-monthly script, but rather to teach them how they can adjust their lifestyle to aid healing (thereby needing medical care less and less).
One positive side of education-centred medical consultations, is that much of this can also happen telephinically or virtually through various technologies.
Now of course, when someone sends a health question to my phone number (even when not asking for a consultation), I recognize that the same education is necessary as I would have offered during a formal medical consultation. Therefore, I aim to be equally thorough in my responses to simple health-related questions, and this takes time.
Health reThink is a ministry that began nearly 4 years ago. We started off with two main focus areas, which are still the same today:
- Medical Consultations
- Health Education
This may seem pretty streight forward. Earn some money through doing consultations, like any other GP, and share health education in spare time… or so we thought. What we did not bargain on was the overwhelming demand for a doctor who does not charge by the minute. I decided that I would share my WhatsApp number with people even before I graduated from medschool, because I felt like this was something people needed and hardly have access to - a doctor who can answer even the small questions that don’t warrent a trip to the surgery. I was right, more than I anticipated. The need for an open channel to ask health/disease-related questions to a trained professional, is ENORMOUS. And so the flood began. Health questions come in by the dozens.
So let me backtrack 20 years.
I have had a passion for health education since I began my health care career as a nursing student in 2005, and even before that, when I began tutoring in basic human anatomy before finishing high school. I saw from the start of my work with sick people, that most health problems have a root in human choice, which tends to lean strongly toward the unhealthy side when individuals know very little (or are in denial) about the long term negative impact and risk to their own health and wellbeing. Since discovering that the Bible can be trusted as a health textbook (nearly 5 years ago), I have learnt new skills which help me discern between accurate and false health information, and for this reason my passion for sharing truthful health information in harmony with God’s Word, has continued growing.
With this passion still burning strongly, both focus areas for Health reThink centre around sharing information. During medical consultations, I usually spend 45min or more with a patient, making sure that I gain a thorough understanding of their health condition, medical diagnosis, and what some of the contributing factors may be. Rather than patching up symptoms with a quick script, I try to connect the dots through health education, and connect the individual with resources where their knowledge of healthful living (and healing remedies) can grow in my absence. One primary goal during medical consultations, is not to ensure that the patient will be dependent on me for each 6-monthly script, but rather to teach them how they can adjust their lifestyle to aid healing (thereby needing medical care less and less).
One positive side of education-centred medical consultations, is that much of this can also happen telephinically or virtually through various technologies.
Now of course, when someone sends a health question to my phone number (even when not asking for a consultation), I recognize that the same education is necessary as I would have offered during a formal medical consultation. Therefore, I aim to be equally thorough in my responses to simple health-related questions, and this takes time.
Business Plan:
You may ask, why not just insist on booking a consultation and charge the person? Well there are many reasons, one of them being that a massive percentage of people who send health questions, can’t afford to pay anything. But another reason is that I simply won’t get to life if I had to have a formal consultation with each person who asks a health question. When responding to health questions over e.g. WhatsApp, I can think over the case, research, and respond… sometimes while driving, sometimes while cooking, sometimes while doing my washing, or while researching another person’s problem. Often times I end up replying to health questions late at night, when the person is not awake. Replying when I don’t need to co-ordinate my availability with the other person’s availability, drastically increases the quantity of questions I can answer per day. In a nutshell, responding to messages at odd hours of the day, is the only way I am managing to keep up with assisting everyone who contact Health reThink for advice. And yes, you guessed it. I can’t recall when last I “knocked off” at 5pm in the afternoon.
This brings me to the second main focus area: Health Education.
Yes, I do that all the time with each individual I reply to, or each patient I consult with in person. But that is just it. The questions indicate the massive need for accurate health information about lifestyle and preventative medicine. And this is why Health reThink has been so keen to reach larger groups of people. Churches, schools, woman’s groups, any groups - where ever a group of people are keen to learn more about health, we are prepared to share. Because, in essence, the more we can share with groups, the more people we can reach with the same information that changed around our own lives, and the lives of patients I work with on a daily basis. The more positive feedback we get, the more motivated we become to share health information with a wider audience.
Another part of health educaiton is training more medical missionaries. Medical missionary work is a spectrum that includes professional medical care as well as a layperson learning how to do safe hydrotherapy, and everything in between. Medical missionaries who are thoroughly equipped with a sound anatomy and physiology knowledge, and who are trained to use natural remedies and hydrotherapy in a safe and effective manner, can assist to lessen the burden of disease in any part of the world, in particular in low-economic areas. Health reThink is excited about every new opportunity to help with training more medical missionaries to work safely and effectively to aid those who are sick and suffering.
And then of course there is the aspect of developing digital health tools that can be shared for people to study/read/watch in their own time. Thus far we have begun recording videos about health topics, videos sharing some of our journey as medical missionaries, and we are working on topic-based health brochures which we have already begun uploading to our website.
This brings me to the second main focus area: Health Education.
Yes, I do that all the time with each individual I reply to, or each patient I consult with in person. But that is just it. The questions indicate the massive need for accurate health information about lifestyle and preventative medicine. And this is why Health reThink has been so keen to reach larger groups of people. Churches, schools, woman’s groups, any groups - where ever a group of people are keen to learn more about health, we are prepared to share. Because, in essence, the more we can share with groups, the more people we can reach with the same information that changed around our own lives, and the lives of patients I work with on a daily basis. The more positive feedback we get, the more motivated we become to share health information with a wider audience.
Another part of health educaiton is training more medical missionaries. Medical missionary work is a spectrum that includes professional medical care as well as a layperson learning how to do safe hydrotherapy, and everything in between. Medical missionaries who are thoroughly equipped with a sound anatomy and physiology knowledge, and who are trained to use natural remedies and hydrotherapy in a safe and effective manner, can assist to lessen the burden of disease in any part of the world, in particular in low-economic areas. Health reThink is excited about every new opportunity to help with training more medical missionaries to work safely and effectively to aid those who are sick and suffering.
And then of course there is the aspect of developing digital health tools that can be shared for people to study/read/watch in their own time. Thus far we have begun recording videos about health topics, videos sharing some of our journey as medical missionaries, and we are working on topic-based health brochures which we have already begun uploading to our website.
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But all of this takes time and resources. And a team.
Adrian (my husband) is an Electronics Engineer, and for the first 3 years of this ministry’s existence, he worked remotely in a full-time capacity. It may sound perfect to have a steady income that supports the mission work, but it was impossible for me to keep up with daily tasks. Furthermore we are trying to offer a service that requires us to be mobile. Being willing to do talks/training/workshops/etc. in various parts of the country implies being available to travel frequently. This implies that setting up a standard GP practice in a fixed location (where client basis builds and offers a steady income) is not possible. Mobility also means that home-schooling is a must. In all honesty, fitting in mom-duties, homeschooling, medical consultations, replying to countless health questions, researching topics, compiling health education brochures, preparing talks and presentations and offering training lectures… it is a lot. Oh and did I mention recording videos to reach an even wider audience? Adrian joined me as a full-time missionary for the past few months, and it has made a massive difference. Sharing home-duties and homeschooling responsibilities, and having his assistance with some of the other tasks involved in being a traveling health educator, has not only been a blessing, it has proven essential to the success of our work and mission. His practical skills have proven to be a blessing where ever we go. His media and electronics knowledge is indispensible for the various ways in which we have been spreading and sharing health information and connecting with people to assist them with advice. In short, our productivity has increased ten-fold since we are both doing mission work full-time. |
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Your Support:
This is where you might say we should just go back to standard income-earning work. And yes, that would make things more financially stable in our lives. But it would reduce our mission work drastically.
We would really love to continue developing health brochures, recording videos about various health topics, and building a network of well-trained medical missionaries who can serve those in need. We hope to continue anwering health questions and offering thorough health advice (even to those who have nothing to pay in return). Of course we would like to travel to locations where there is an audience interested in learning about health and seeing cooking/remedy demonstrations. And your support can make this happen.
First and foremost we ask for your prayers that God will continue leading us, and that He will guide us to prioritize the tasks He sees to be most valuable. Another way that you can support free of charge is by subscribing to the Health reThink YouTube channel, sharing videos, following our Facebook page, and forwarding content that you find useful and helpful.
Your financial support can assist with:
With your assistance, we can keep prioritizing the making of health content and building a bigger database of topic-based health brochures, which can assist us to answer more health questions in a shorter time (i.e. reaching more people each day with life-saving health advice). Your support can also help us reach the goal of training more medical missionaries to support the work of missionary doctors. Your contribution can literally save someones life.
Our prayer is that we may all be drawn closer to our Redeemer as we follow in His footsteps of service.
We would really love to continue developing health brochures, recording videos about various health topics, and building a network of well-trained medical missionaries who can serve those in need. We hope to continue anwering health questions and offering thorough health advice (even to those who have nothing to pay in return). Of course we would like to travel to locations where there is an audience interested in learning about health and seeing cooking/remedy demonstrations. And your support can make this happen.
First and foremost we ask for your prayers that God will continue leading us, and that He will guide us to prioritize the tasks He sees to be most valuable. Another way that you can support free of charge is by subscribing to the Health reThink YouTube channel, sharing videos, following our Facebook page, and forwarding content that you find useful and helpful.
Your financial support can assist with:
- Covering living costs like food and rental fees for places where we park our caravan;
- Covering fuel costs for us to reach various communities;
- Covering costs of supplies necessary to present health demonstratons and workshops, especially in low income areas;
- Supporting our living costs while we devote extra time to video health content;
- Paying for basic medical supplies (e.g. wound care items) for patients who can’t afford to pay for these services and for when we set up small mobile clinics to assist under-serviced communities;
- Covering homeschooling supplies and fees;
- Covering costs involved in spreading health info electronically (e.g. website fees/subscriptions), etc.
With your assistance, we can keep prioritizing the making of health content and building a bigger database of topic-based health brochures, which can assist us to answer more health questions in a shorter time (i.e. reaching more people each day with life-saving health advice). Your support can also help us reach the goal of training more medical missionaries to support the work of missionary doctors. Your contribution can literally save someones life.
Our prayer is that we may all be drawn closer to our Redeemer as we follow in His footsteps of service.
Donate
First National Bank (FNB)
Jade Erasmus
Acc nr: 603 683 55141
Br code: 200212
Swift code: FIRNZAJJ
For international payments, please use the following link to make payments through Yoco
https://pay.yoco.com/health-rethink
If you would like to sponsor food vouchers, here are some options:
Checkers: https://www.shopriteholdings.co.za/articles/Newsroom/2020/send-a-virtual-shoprite-or-checkers-grocery-voucher-straight-to-.html
PnP: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1501880399
Jade Erasmus
Acc nr: 603 683 55141
Br code: 200212
Swift code: FIRNZAJJ
For international payments, please use the following link to make payments through Yoco
https://pay.yoco.com/health-rethink
If you would like to sponsor food vouchers, here are some options:
Checkers: https://www.shopriteholdings.co.za/articles/Newsroom/2020/send-a-virtual-shoprite-or-checkers-grocery-voucher-straight-to-.html
PnP: https://www.webtickets.co.za/v2/event.aspx?itemid=1501880399
If you wish to keep your donation anonymous, we respect that, but we would really like to get in touch with you to share what your contribution has accomplished. If you would like to receive this feedback, we would appreciate if you email us or send a WhatsApp to let us know that you have donated funds.
For any support you share, we thank you in advance, from the bottom of our hearts.
For any support you share, we thank you in advance, from the bottom of our hearts.
