STORIES
Santa Barbara, CA
Wildfire Trauma Relief
After narrowly escaping a wildfire that took her home, Renee was suffering from debilitating traumatic stress.
"I had been experiencing panic attacks…and the NADA protocol, ear acupuncture treatment really helped my body tone down and was able to diminish and completely stop having the panic attacks after that. And it allowed me to help me start sleeping again. Before I got the acupuncture…I couldn’t sleep unless someone was holding me tight."
- Renee Barsa, wildfire survivor
US/Mexico Border
Integrative Reproductive Care for Migrants, Refugees & Asylum Seekers
AWB partners with the Parteras midwives in Tijuana, Mexico, to provide integrative reproductive healthcare for refugees and people seeking asylum from poverty, disasters, and violence.
"This week we learned a new acupuncture protocol for the ear and it specifically treats pain that, honestly, most of our patients come in with different types of pain. So it was a method that I believe we will be using daily with many of our patients. It is a simple method, a practical method, and I really feel that it brings back hope faith and strength to each of the people who can experience it in their own body."
-Anissa Ortiz, midwife with the Parteras Midwives in Tijuana
Puerto Rico
Hurricane Maria Relief
"After the treatment I feel like I released all the stress I have in my body. It started with one of you touching me….I’m sure that God put her behind me to touch me and I feel that God was hugging me and saying ‘I’m here with you. I sent these people to help you. You don’t have to worry.’ I’m so happy, I’m so glad that he put me here today with you. "
-Migaldia Ruiz, Hurricane Maria survivor and AWB Clinic participant
US/Mexico Border Project
"I have worked with AWB since its inception as a volunteer, team leader, and trainer. I have treated thousands of people, victims of hurricanes, floods, earthquakes, fires, all in the name of disaster relief.The AWB Border Project feels different. The refugees waiting for asylum have fled their homelands due to violence, poverty, fear for survival, and a search for a better life. Reaching the border towns has given them hope and strengthened their faith in God. They have gratitude for the free health care services provided, given the anti-refugee atmosphere they have heard about on their long journeys.
Volunteering for the AWB Border Project is a humbling experience. The strength of mothers fleeing battering husbands with their children, the strength of kidnap victims fleeing gang violence leaving their families behind, the strength of LGBTQ people fleeing oppression and seeking the freedom to be who they are. There are people from all cultures, Central Americans, Mexicans, Haitians, people from African countries, like Cameroon, all coming together to seek healing as they wait for an unknown time period for their asylum hearing."
- Julia Raneri, AWB Volunteer