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Peter Morgan named WCA NGO liaison

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Peter Morgan, DC, long-time head of Mission Chiropractic and organizer of dozens of chiropractic humanitarian missions to developing nations, is undertaking another “mission” — this time, to the United Nations.

Morgan has been tapped by the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) to serve as its primary liaison with the United Nations and the World Health Organization (WHO). The WCA is a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information.

Since earning that designation in 1998, WCA representatives have worked with health officials in numerous countries, and have served in leadership roles with the NGO Health Committee. The WCA was a signatory of the Declaration on Patient-Centered Healthcare developed by the International Alliance of Patients’ Organizations, and established a working relationship with the WHO, participating in the WHO Consultation on Chiropractic in Milan, Italy, and providing valued information for the WHO Guidelines on Basic Training and Safety in Chiropractic.

Morgan also heads the WCA Council on Humanitarian Efforts, which provides support for various chiropractic organizations providing free chiropractic services to underserved populations around the world.

For the last 20 months, the primary NGO liaison spot was held by Tim Merrick, DC, who attended briefings at the UN’s Manhattan headquarters, met with representatives of other NGOs from around the world, and shared information about chiropractic and the role chiropractors can play in addressing health concerns in developing nations as well as in first-world countries. Morgan worked closely with him in maintaining chiropractic’s presence in the NGO community. Dr. Merrick will continue to work with Morgan on UN-related issues.

Morgan is familiar with the special needs of the developing world, having participated in numerous humanitarian trips to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Cuba, Trinidad, Tibet and other nations. His frequent missions to Haiti after the devastating earthquake in 2010 gave him firsthand knowledge of the special benefits of chiropractic aid in such areas. He often shares his stories in The Chiropractic Journal, and has inspired many DCs to volunteer in humanitarian efforts.

World Chiropractic Alliance works with the WHO on chiropractic projects

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Ever since officials from the World Chiropractic Alliance met in Geneva with representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO), they have been busy planning and working on several important projects to ensure chiropractic’s proper place in global health care programs.

The first task was to create a Power Point presentation documenting the laws relating to chiropractic which exist throughout the world. The WCA was called upon to research and present information on the licensing and legal status of all nations. He also needed to provide information on the number of D.C.s licensed and/or practicing in each country.

The WCA realized that the information not only needed to be accurate but had to be presented in an interesting manner in order to project the proper professional image of chiropractic to the world health care community.

The presentation helped provide WHO officials with much needed background information on the current status of chiropractic around the globe and was only the first of several projects which the World Chiropractic Alliance plans to work on with WHO.

The next two projects will be even more challenging:

#1 — Assist in the development of an international model law for chiropractic. This is particularly important since chiropractic is only now being introduced into many emerging nations.

In the next few years, as chiropractic spreads to all parts of the world, many countries will be formulating their own licensing and scope of practice laws.

The World Federation of Chiropractic (WFC) has already tried to infiltrate many of these nations and will undoubtedly promote a quasi-medical, musculoskeletal model of chiropractic. It will either ignore or, more likely, ridicule the concept of vertebral subluxation.

Until the World Chiropractic Alliance began working with the United Nations — first as an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information and now with other global health agencies such as the World Health Organization — the WFC was the only voice speaking for chiropractic in the international arena.

However, the strong presence of the World Chiropractic Alliance has ensured that subluxation-based chiropractic will be represented and protected throughout the world.

#2 — Chiropractic missions to underdeveloped and emerging nations. The World Chiropractic Alliance has always supported and publicized the humanitarian and international educational work of doctors of chiropractic.

The Chiropractic Journal has featured stories of WCA members traveling to India, Honduras, Costa Rica, Russia and other nations. In the years to come, this effort will be even more critical as the world faces the potential health crisis caused by the overuse and misuse of antibiotics and the uncontrollable spread of infectious diseases

The World Chiropractic Alliance will be at the forefront of the efforts to use chiropractic to strengthen the immune system, improve overall health, and fulfill the dreams of a subluxation-free world and the vision of worldwide wellness.

What is a chiropractic humanitarian?

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by Peter Morgan, DC

A major focus of the World Chiropractic Alliance is to promote chiropractic humanitarianism around the world, and that raises the issue: what is a chiropractic humanitarian? The ways in which we all help others – from the patients we see daily in our offices to the third world children we meet on missions – makes us all “humanitarians” in a way.

As chiropractic humanitarians, we believe that improving human welfare is a moral imperative and by correcting subluxations we help to alleviate the suffering of others. Chiropractic humanitarians strive to ensure that those who are poor and those who have suffered traumatic events receive a chiropractic adjustment, so they can cope with this the physical, mental, and emotional stress they are called upon to endure.

Chiropractic humanitarians are strong professionals, students, and lay people. They are male and female, young and old, of all colors, cultures, ideologies, and backgrounds. Their motivations for humanitarian work are diverse, but all are united by their commitment to humanitarianism and chiropractic.

Chiropractic humanitarians strive to provide assistance to the increasing number of people affected by man-made and natural disasters every year. They reach out to the poorest and neediest people regardless of where they are in the world or what nationality, social or religious group they belong to.

They reflect everything that’s good and compassionate about our profession and our humanity – and should be respected and supported financially.

We face a future in which more humanitarian aid will be needed. If chiropractic humanitarians do not have full access to those in need, many thousands of people will not receive the chiropractic care they require. The best way to ensure chiropractic humanitarians can fulfill their mission is by improving awareness of and respect for the principles upon which chiropractic work is conducted.

In theory, humanitarian work is simple: you help people in need. But knowing how to help others is not always easy. The World Chiropractic Alliance, in its role as a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information, is in a unique position to support and publicize a variety of chiropractic missions. This is why it’s so important to be a member of the World Chiropractic Alliance and, in that way, support the efforts of chiropractic humanitarians everywhere.

Visit www.WorldChiropracticAlliance.org for more information on supporting or joining this remarkable organization.

 (Peter Morgan, DC, is head of Mission Chiropractic, and has led dozens of chiropractic humanitarian missions to developing nations. He is the chairman of the World Chiropractic Alliance Council on Humanitarian Efforts. Dr. Morgan and Tim Merrick, DC, serve as the WCA’s NGO representatives affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information.)

WCA mission update… Returning to Haiti

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by Peter H. Morgan, DC

The World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) has coordinated and supported a number of humanitarian chiropractic mission trips in 2013, including a return visit by chiropractors to Haiti. The trip took place in October and involved a team of 55 DCs.

The effort was definitely in keeping with the new mission statement of the World Chiropractic Alliance, which states that the organization is dedicated to:  “develop, promote and support humanitarian programs that reach out to populations that, due to geographic or economic factors, cannot access chiropractic care.”

Although team members stayed at a Four-Star hotel on a beautiful white sand beach, with a view of the mountains behind them, the trip was anything but a fun vacation.

Each morning, we rose at seven, grabbed a quick breakfast, and were out the door in a half hour’s time. In two rented buses and three SUVs, we fanned out to reach 20 different destinations.

The group was divided into 10 smaller teams, with each unit going to a school in the morning and a church in the afternoon. At each school, we taught the “Straighten Up America” program and checked about 250 children. When we pulled up at the churches, thousands of people were usually lined up waiting to be adjusted.

Each 10-person unit cared for as many as 600 people a day, meaning the whole mission team saw more than 6,000 people a day for four days straight. We not only check and adjust each individual, we tell the chiropractic story to groups of 50 at a time. This is awesome and fun work. Giving for the sake of giving, giving out of our own abundance, using the blessing that God bestowed upon us: our healing hands.

It’s been nearly two years since the devastating earthquake hit the island in January 2010. In many ways, little has changed since then and, in some ways, things have actually gotten worse. There was a cholera outbreak in the quake’s aftermath, and other diseases run rampant as well. During each trip we’ve made to Haiti in the years since the earthquake, we adjust many with cholera. At one orphanage, all 100+ children I see have fungal infections on their heads. Some have never owned a toothbrush.

Exhausted, this trip’s mission team members returned to the hotel each evening to share a meal and swap stories of the miracles we’d witnessed that day. Then we’d hold an impromptu chiropractic philosophy roundtable, and even teach and review chiropractic technique.

I’m back in New York now, but I get phone calls and e-mails from Haiti every day. “Please don’t forget us. Please help us,” they plead. I tell them we won’t forget. Ever. And we’ll be back to help. Again and again, until we bring chiropractic healing to every one of the people in that area.

(Peter Morgan, DC, is head of Mission Chiropractic, and has led dozens of chiropractic humanitarian missions to developing nations. He is the chairman of the World Chiropractic Alliance Council on Humanitarian Efforts. Dr. Morgan and Tim Merrick, DC, serve as the WCA’s NGO representatives affiliated with the United Nations Department of Public Information.)

WCA mission adjusts 60,000 in 7 days

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In March, a team of 22 chiropractors — joined by 51 chiropractic students — made a powerful impact on the lives of approximately 60,000 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic during a humanitarian mission sponsored by the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA) and Mission Life International.

Leading the group was Peter Morgan, DC, the WCA’s representative to the United Nations Department of Public Information Non-Governmental Organization section. It was his 12th mission to Haiti since the devastating earthquake in January 2010.

“This is an area of the world where countless numbers of orphans roam streets paved with garbage. There are thousands of homeless people,” Dr. Morgan noted. “Continuing to respond to the critical needs of this devastated country, each chiropractor brought two suitcases filled with toothpaste, tooth brushes, soap, shampoo, pencils, and small notebooks for the children. More than 7,000 pounds of items we take for granted in the United States, were distributed to children in lands where such goods are needed desperately.”

After serving for four days in Haiti, the team traveled to the Dominican Republic, where they were met by the students. Together they traveled into the jungles and remote villages, bringing chiropractic care to residents in the cities of Ouanaminthe and Cape Haiti.

“The blessed hands continued with thousands of adjustments in other Dominican Republic cities, villages and hilltop towns,” Morgan said. “We’re making slow but steady progress in the most impoverished nation in the western hemisphere.”

One of Morgan’s patients, a famous Haitian actor known as “Boss Massel,” traveled with the doctors for a while, as did Dr. Eddy Delaleu, the only chiropractor in Haiti, and Alex, who runs an orphanage on the island nation.

“Each morning we would drive the bus into Haiti and adjust all the orphans throughout the city. We visited five different orphanages and adjusted about 2,000 people every day at three different churches,” Morgan recalled. They made their “headquarters” in a town named La Vejia DaJabon, where “the horses are not tied down, 200 cows will pass by every hour and herds of sheep pass every two hours. We adjusted everyone in this town as well as all the people they brought from other towns,” he added.

After adjusting such large numbers of people each day, the group would meet in the evening for classes held by Steve Simonetti, DC, past president of the Congress of Chiropractic State Organizations and Gary Deutchman, DC, founder of the Scoliosis Care Foundation.

The group also held a philosophy meeting, where Drs. Simonetti, Deutchman, and Morgan were speakers along with Drs. Bradley Rauch and Ronald Sinagra.

“The following morning, we divided up into 20 different teams and headed out on four buses. Each team had a translator from the local English school and at each site we also had a team coordinator,” Morgan related. “So our team of 70 grew to a team of 110 plus the four bus drivers. On Thursday and Friday mornings, we adjusted in schools. Every school had between 400 and 700 students, teachers, and bus drivers. We averaged 600 adjustments at each school. We checked and adjusted approximately 12,000 children on Thursday and 12,000 children on Friday.”

At one school, Morgan got permission for chiropractic student and team member Sebastian Colon to give a chiropractic talk during a conference with about 100 teachers. The response was so positive that the young man ended up arranging for similar talks to be given to 25 schools during the next mission trip!

By the time the 7-day mission ended, Morgan estimated that some 60,000 people had been adjusted, including a blind man whose sight was restored after an adjustment by Dr. Sinagra. “He was totally blind,” Morgan explained. “After his adjustment the man’s eyes became watery and he began to see shadows. This was witnessed by the chiropractic students and the other people who were waiting to get adjusted.”

Although they lived in the homes of local residents while in Haiti, the group did include a stay at a 5-star resort hotel in the Dominican Republic. “They have more than 1,500 employees, with their own heliport, a harbor filled with yachts and the biggest waterfront Casino on the island, Morgan noted. “For the next trip, we’ve arranged for every employee to be checked and adjusted. It’s amazing that just a few miles away from this incredible beach front resort is a land of immense poverty.”

Before he’d even landed back in the US, Morgan was planning future missions.

“We’ve been tremendously blessed by God for being born in the USA and our greatest blessing of all is our gift of healing hands. What our chiropractic missionaries received from the experience in Haiti is beyond words. We went to Haiti and the Dominican Republic with one purpose, to give of ourselves. We’ll never forget this!”

Chiropractic mission to Cuba a first

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Earlier this year, a team of three chiropractors, three chiropractic students, three chiropractic advocates and one chiropractic office manager brought chiropractic care and humanitarian supplies to the people of Cuba.

Peter Morgan, DC, founder of Mission-Chiropractic, led the five-day mission to the communist nation at a time when new hope has emerged among the Cuban residents. The group made new friendships and brought home a better understanding of the plight of people on the island. It’s believed to have been the first successful major chiropractic mission ever to visit Cuba.

The trip was endorsed and promoted by the World Chiropractic Alliance (WCA), whih has put an new emphasis on humanitarian efforts throughout the world. It’s new mission statement specifically notes that it intends to “Develop, promote and support humanitarian programs that reach out to populations that, due to geographic or economic factors, cannot access chiropractic care.”

Terry A. Rondberg, DC, president and founder of the WCA, admitted that he never expected his organization to endorse a trip to Cuba. “The nation has been off limits for so long, we expected a ton of red tape, if you’ll excuse the expression. But Dr. Morgan was able to cut through the bureaucracy and focus everyone’s attention on what really mattered – bringing health care to people who needed it.”

From Nassau in the Bahamas, the team boarded a small, old Russian propeller plane. They encountered turbulence for the entire hour ride and were happy (and relieved!) to touch down in Havana, where they were greeted by hundreds of Cuban workers wearing swine flu masks. “It was really eerie, as was going through an extensive and exceedingly thorough customs protocol,” Morgan explained. “When we finally exited the airport, we felt as though we had stepped back in time. Most of the cars were made in the 1950s—but they all ran and looked as if they were brand new.”

The group stayed in a beautiful hotel overlooking Havana’s majestic harbor. The entrance to the harbor is guarded by a 400-year-old fort, built by the Spanish between 1589 and 1630, to ward off attacks by pirates and enemy fleets. In 1845, a huge lighthouse was built adjacent to the fort, which makes the entrance to the city even more picturesque. Havana looks like a combination of Spain, the Caribbean and Italy, with statues and fountains gracing many of the spacious squares, Morgan explained.

“We spent the first day like typical tourists, eating at great restaurants and even watching Cuban soldiers dressed in the uniforms of British redcoats performing a curfew-time firing of the canon, as they did when the British captured Havana in 1762.”

The following day, they set aside their tourist hats and went to work on their chiropractic mission, boarding a ferry that took them across the harbor to Regla, a poorer part of the island, completely different from the downtown tourist area of “Old Havana.”

They arrived about 8 a.m. and were met by a large group of local residents who had put on their “Sunday best” clothes. They had been waiting patiently to see the chiropractors from the United States and now jockeyed for position to get a glimpse of us. Morgan told them the chiropractic story and set up the adjusting rooms. They had not been allowed to bring portable chiropractic tables into Cuba, but the hosts had made a number of tables and set them up in several rooms of the converted church building.

The next day, part of the team was driven out to the countryside about an hour outside Havana. They set up adjusting rooms in a small church and attached house. Many of the Cubans living in the home had severe disabilities. The beds were simple slabs of wood, many without a pillow or even a cover. The floors were manufactured by the pastor in order to make more room for the people who lived there.

“When we broke for lunch or dinner we were told that honored guests eat first, everyone else later. They had so little yet they offered it to us!,” Morgan recalled.  “They are so generous that when one of us made a comment on how much we liked their small, old-fashioned coffee machine, they wanted to give it to us as a gift!”

The floor of the kitchen and eating area was plain concrete but swept and mopped perfectly clean, Morgan recalled. “Life there is simple, slow,” he stated. “Generations have been born on this property and shacks have been added to accommodate the new marriages. They work hard to live; it shows on the roughness of their feet, hands and faces, but their hearts are as warm and innocent as children.

“Speaking of children, they followed us everywhere. We felt like Pied Pipers! Our digital cameras always caused fun, laughter and smiles as the children transformed themselves into athletes, circus artists, clowns and acrobats for the camera. They all posed and began doing cartwheels and flips. They immediately wanted to see their pictures. As we were leaving, kids ran alongside us, waving.

One of the team doctors enthusiastically noted, “What an incredible experience I had in Cuba. It was five of the most meaningful days of my life. …We were humbled to see many chiropractic miracles while we were there. We saw God working through us as we taught and adjusted in Havana and Regla, Cuba.”

The Cuba trip was one of a number of humanitarian efforts by Mission-Chiropractic, which has also brought chiropractic care to poor communities in Central America and the Caribbean, including Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti. Trips to Ethiopia and Ghana are scheduled for 2010.

To help fund the missions, Mission-Chiropractic has partnered with Mission Life International and “7 Weeks to Wellness Ministry” to create an evangelistic health ministry geared to generating new patients.

To learn more about these missions, or to sign up for an upcoming trip, visit missionlifeinternational.com or call 404-786-2014.

Nine days in Tibet

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by Derek Conte, DC

“Two months after my mother, Sarah, passed away in Dec. 2009, I saw an invitation in The Chiropractic Journal to join a mission trip to the mysterious and far away land of Tibet. A photo showed a small temple on a hill and two monks, robed in red, nearby. In the background rose the massive, snow-covered slabs of the Himalayas. I was entranced. The trip was to be led by the World Chiropractic Alliance’s World Chiropractic Humanitarian Forum and Dr. Peter Morgan. I never had any desire before to visit such a place, but somehow I was strongly called to go.

I had moved mom in to live with me the previous year after I took the x-ray that revealed her cancer in what turned out to be the last year of her life. Back in the late 1960s, I remember her reading to my sister and me from the books of Lobsang Rampa, a Tibetan Lama, which told of his world and religion. Perhaps it was this connection that I was feeling when I thought about taking this journey, or maybe some need to break free from my own world and routine, but I knew it was time to look outward again.

The chiropractic mission was attached to a group called “Sacred Journeys,” which offers guided tours to Tibet and other sacred places. When I spoke with Dr. Morgan and asked for his advice on how to help create the mission in Tibet he said to me, “Doc, just make it happen. Go there and you’ll know what to do.” That simple direction left no more to be said. I knew it was up to me to use my chiropractic skills to help wherever I could. So, I left on August 1st with just a backpack that held only a minimum of gear plus a vial of my mother’s ashes. I kept my mind and heart free from expectations. Our mission team had five members: a doctor of Chinese medicine (Kip Clauss), a clinical psychologist (Michael Katz), two chiropractors (myself and Tamara Petersen) and a laywoman (Amparo Far) from Spain who is a practicing Buddhist.

Upon arriving in the capital, Lhasa, I noticed a striking quiet and stillness. The air was fresh and sweet. There was a heady, dreamy feeling as we carried our bags to the waiting caravan. The overall environment in Tibet is extreme with rocky, dry and unforgiving ground that prevents growing anything other than barley or rice near the river banks. It was cool in the day and cold at night. The sun is so strong that covering the head and arms was crucial during hikes.

To get to the hinterlands we visited, we would drive off-road as high as our trucks could take us and then hike for two or three hours more, as high as 16,000 ft., up to a village, nunnery or monastery nestled in the mountainside.

The thin air took its toll on all during these hikes. On our first day of hiking, after hours of walking up toward the sacred caves in Samye (one of Tibet’s spiritual centers), I began to falter and lagged behind the group despite working to push myself through the pain. I had to stop on the steep slopes every few steps to pant for breath. My legs were dead. I felt at the breaking point, physically and mentally. Eventually, I noticed I was alone and found myself wondering if I would die up there. Would that be so bad, I wondered, in a place like this? I stopped, gathered myself, and began to notice the majesty of the space and quiet around me. A great sense of well-being swept through me. I knew my mother would have loved this place and I used this moment to pray for her and spread some of her ashes on a cluster of beautiful wildflowers and in a stream I discovered nearby.

Our first stop after these mountain hikes would be an eating-place, usually a moderately sized room seating 15-20 people where we would have dinner. This was conducive to mission work because people were relaxed. At dinner this same evening, Michael Katz noticed a local who was favoring his neck. We had our Tibetan guide, Tsering, speak to the entire room and say that there were doctors present who would help them if they wanted. The man was reluctant, but at the urging of his wife the brave soul came forward. After a brief translated history was taken, the people gasped as the adjustment was done and the patient laughed and smiled as he moved his neck freely and without pain. And in that moment, the mission began. Everyone started lining up to tell us of their ailments.

Word traveled quickly through the village, bringing even more people. A tremendous energy was in the air as Kip Clauss grabbed the video camera and translated for Tamara and me as we interviewed the patients. The languages bouncing back and forth, the tension of the evaluations, the physical surprise of the adjustments, and the joy of the results combined to make an indelible memory. One teenage boy had hip and groin pain, bladder control problems and testicular pain with an elevated testicle. We adjusted the mid-lumbers and stretched the psoas muscle and cleared the genitofemoral nerve for him.

This scene was typical of how the mission work would unfold. From modest beginnings grew intense and exciting moments of healing, joy and communion. The effect of pure chiropractic, in its elemental form, was profound.

Another day, at an outdoor eating-place, I offered to help a woman who was rubbing her hurting foot. As I was working with her, a crowd gathered around and a five-hour adjusting session ensued, during which I adjusted dozens of monks and villagers alike. We saw many problems, like chronically dislocated joints, tooth decay, old severed tendon injuries, thrombophlebitis, suspected organic problems and much more, which would have benefitted from earlier chiropractic or medical intervention. But we advised the people accordingly and did our best to help everyone with the only tools we had: our hands.

Tibetans are beautiful people with deeply lined faces etched by a hard life, and skin made reddish-brown by the unfiltered sun. They smile easily when engaged and believe it rude to complain, even when hurt or sick. Most have never seen a doctor, dentist or hospital, much less a chiropractor. In a place like this, a single, well-placed chiropractic adjustment can change a life. One villager I helped was stooped over from a motorcycle accident 10 days earlier, his face badly bruised, and within a few minutes he was upright and smiling with his family. He can earn a living again.

For me, this feeling of usefulness and being needed was very rewarding. I now know that wherever I am, I have the capacity to bring a ‘chiropractic mission’ with me and that is a very formidable idea. Ironically, though I was giving something to the people, I felt like I was the greatest recipient; not only from the work we did, but in the way I received so many blessings to my soul just by being among the Tibetan people. There were several powerful moments on this journey for me, spiritually, when what I witnessed brought me to tears, like hearing the nuns chant and sing in a temple, meeting a holy woman whose radiant energy penetrated me and when in the marketplace on my last day in Tibet, a child broke away from her mother’s hand just to run up before me and declare, “Welcome to Tibet!” It was like being hit with a hammer. I only wish she could have said that to my mother, too.

(Dr. Derek Conte lives and practices in Smyrna, Georgia. Contact him by e-mail:drderek57@msn.com)