Apology

It is the policy of Compassion Response Network to release an informational circular every two or three months. The last CRN Circular was issued in September 2003, and therefore an explanation is warranted for the long delay in publication.

It was originally the intention to publish a circular in November or December 2003 describing the anticipated commencement of the Kinshasa Imusil project. However when the Imusil project commencement was delayed for unforeseen reasons, it was decided to also delay publication of the CRN circular. For the last few months of 2003 and the first three months of 2004, I was seriously ill, and having no secretarial support, could attend only to emergency tasks. In April my computer and email broke down, and in May the Kinshasa Imusil project commenced and took up all my time. Now, with the commencement of that project, it is vital that the circulars recommence, for our work has now moved on and there are many new exciting areas for group service opening up.

As secretary of Compassion Response Network, I am retired on a disability pension with renal failure, requiring dialysis three times a week. My health is at times rather frail, and for the past year I have been inviting others from affluent countries to share the secretarial duties, but so far without any response. For the moment, my health is adequate to once again become immersed in this very rewarding work. I do not know how long my health will remain adequate as there are many strains in coordinating a global goodwill network. We simply pray to God that our work may continue to grow and expand. Until now this prayer has been answered and our work has been blessed.

As with the circular, the CRN website has been neglected for several months, but I hope to get it up to date within a month or so.

The Kinshasa Imusil Project

Compassion Response Network launched its original global appeal in April 2003, with an appeal for US$90,000 to trial nine treatments in Harare, Zimbabwe and three treatments in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. The donations received over the next few months were disappointing, barely enough to finance some office necessities for the Harare headquarters. And so CRN decided to finance and facilitate a much more modest project, providing Imusil injections to three advanced HIV patients in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, and facilitating comprehensive blood tests pre-treatment and post-treatment for up to six months. During August/03, our Inner Planning Circle thoroughly discussed the financial specifications to sponsor such a project, and on 10th/September/03, we approved a budget for financing the project for a little under US$5,000, a sum seemingly within the scope of raising by our small charitable organisation.

I present below a copy of the approved Kinshasa Imusil project budget as it was later amended in early November 2003.

The first two items in this list related to private courier delivery of blood samples every two months to Toga Laboratories in South Africa where the samples would be tested for viral load count (bDNA), immunity count (CD4) and Full Blood Count. Sending blood samples to South Africa was necessary because at the time there were no such blood testing laboratory facilities in Kinshasa. "Other tests" referred to such blood tests that were available in Kinshasa; urea, creatinine, ferritin, and hepatitis (liver function and enzymes) tests.

You will notice that the budget was broken down into two time periods, the first two months, and the last four months. This was because we resolved to proceed if sufficient money was raised to provide for the first two months. Well by the end of September we did in fact raise over US$3,000, thanks to one particularly generous donation. And so we set plans in motion to commence the trials in mid-October 2003. Or so we thought, for over the next six months our planned commencement was deferred again and again for the most extraordinary and unexpected reasons.

The first deferral was in response to a suggestion from Vicki Kushner in Canada who advocated we adopt a system of reporting case studies keeping the patients’ identities anonymous. The system required two sets of files for each patient, the official medical records with full personal details, and separate case study reports with patient details anonymous, but identical in medical details. It took over a month to adopt the system and for Albert to translate the templates fully from English to French (the common language in the Congo). And so by late November the case study records were ready and Dr Tsumbu who had made many sacrifices to support our trial, had found three advanced HIV patients agreeing to undertake the trials.

We were ready in early December to send the first set of blood samples off to Toga Laboratories in South Africa. Or so we thought. At that moment, the Congolese government introduced certain taxes to airports, and these drastically reduced the number of courier delivery services available. At last Albert found one service that had one service a week suitable for our needs. But by that time the Christmas/New Year holiday period had come and so we had to wait until after the holidays.

Eventually, on 14th/January, the set of three blood samples was couriered to Toga Laboratories in Johannesburg, where the laboratory confirmed that all three had very high viral load counts for HIV-I. The blood samples however had been sent in the wrong specimen tubes. Albert had ordered a set of special EDTA tubes which are used for international courier of blood samples because they prevent the blood from clotting. Albert had twice received confirmation (by sources that ought to have been dependable) that he had proper EDTA tubes. But Kinshasa being a Third World country is inexperienced in such technology, and it turned out that they were in fact the wrong tubes. As a result, though the viral counts were legally valid, we could not get immunity count (CD4) and Full Blood Count from the clotted samples. All the pre-treatment tests would need to be done again.

In February, the patients arrived weekly to have their blood samples taken and sent once more by private courier to Toga Laboratories to get CD4 and Full Blood Count analyses. But time after time these plans were disrupted. One week there was a power cut on the day of the appointment, and there again was a power cut the next week. The week after only two of the three patients, the boy (patient A) and woman (patient C) turned up at the appointment to take blood samples but the man (patient B) did not turn up and could not be contacted. We decided to cancel the blood specimen taking because we had no spare money for an extra courier delivery.

March began in the same way, with only two of the three patients turning up for the appointment at the medical laboratory for blood samples to be taken, as patient B again did not turn up. The doctors decided however to take the blood samples and send them by private courier to South Africa, even at the risk of reducing our project to just two patients. The stress on the patients coming back week after week was too great to continue indefinitely. The stress of waiting for the treatment to commence continued however for another week while the doctors confirmed from South Africa that these test samples were received and tested properly.

The rest of March was used up firstly in arranging the three patients to attend a local Kinshasa laboratory to have blood tests taken for urea, creatinine, ferritin and liver function and liver enzyme tests. Though patient B had missed his immunity count test, we continued him on our program as it was difficult to find applicants for the trials. The last half of March was taken up with Dr Tsumbu making an appointment with the Secretary to the Minister for Health. After one cancelled appointment, they met a week later and the Secretary showed much interest and provided his approval for the trials to proceed. This keen interest may be of great benefit in the future.

April was a month of further delays, this time because the doctors needed time to work out how to correctly administer the Imusil injection. There was a delay while they looked for and purchased materials essential for the smooth conduction of the Imusil injections. There was a delay in working out dosage procedures, and then when all three came in to receive their treatment, patient B did not turn up. So the treatment again was delayed so to avoid double charging for the four days of clinic hire and nurse hire to monitor patients after receiving the Imusil treatment.

The doctors eventually decided to treat one patient at a time, each on a different day, even though the clinic hire and nurse hire charges might double or triple. And so on Thursday 7th/May, Albert guided patient B to have all his pre-treatment tests and receive the Imusil injection, after which procedure requires nursing supervision in a clinic for three days. By this time, facilities were available to have viral load count, immunity count and full blood count taken and tested in Kinshasa (this would save us in future on private courier). Patient B had previously claimed that he had gone to have his other tests (urea etc) done, but now admitted had not had these tests as he was afraid of having the tests and treatment. With Albert accompanying him on that day he was able to overcome his former fear. He was amazed at learning how the treatment was sponsored from overseas, and in the end was very happy to receive the Imusil injection. This all happened on the day following the Wesak (May) Full Moon, a very powerful time energetically.

The boy, patient A, had his injection on Monday 11th/May. He was very eager to have the treatment at last. This time it was the woman, patient C, who did not turn up for her appointment, and despite numerous attempts to contact her, she refused to come. After the frustrations of six months of waiting for the trials to start, she seemingly was now afraid to have the treatment. Dr Tsumbu sadly decided to seek a patient D to take the place for receiving the third Imusil injection for the CRN project. After a period of consultation, a patient D was found, and he received full blood tests on Thursday 27^th/May, and will receive the Imusil injection in the following week.

The first two patients had their first fortnightly medical checkup on Saturday 29^th/May. The fortnightly checkup is also an occasion for a group meal and gathering when the group can discuss things between themselves. For this first special group gathering, I wrote and shared with them an article which invited them to reflect on the possibilities for future service opportunities to help the many others in Africa with HIV/AIDS. That article, I share below.

A Message to the Three Imusil Patients in Kinshasa

I HAVE A DREAM

By David Keane, May/2004

I have a dream, of a time not so far in the future, when our children themselves will have children. In that dream, the children of Africa are laughing and playing happily. All are well fed and there is no fear or disease among them. The mention of the word "AIDS" for them is no more that a memory that the older folk speak of with stories of sorrow. If that disease ever arises, the sick person now goes to the healer and receives a simple and safe treatment for free and is cured.

I have a dream. In that day, there will be neither Christian nor Jew, neither Hindu, Buddhist nor Muslim, but there will be simply one great body of believers. They will accept the same truths through their spiritual living, they will share right human relations and brotherhood one with another, and they will see the spark of God within every creature.

No national boundary will restrict freedom of movement, for there will be just one people, enriched by a multitude of diverse cultures. All traces of selfishness and separativeness will have vanished, for the people will think in terms of group living, and the good of the whole. Goodwill and world unity will be the keynotes, and the resources of the Earth will be shared according to need. Humanity will re-establish a harmonious and sustainable balance with nature, and working under the inspiration of the Christ and the Masters, they will bring down to Earth the divine Plan of love and light.

I have a dream. In that day, whenever anyone is sick, they will go to the healer and receive free treatment for their basic health needs. In our present day, our small group Compassion Response Network is doing what it can to build that dream. We are providing some free healing devices to goodwill service groups, so that those who come may receive effective goodwill treatment for free. Many other groups are also providing free treatment to the poorest of the poor. A future of peace and progress for the whole human race is assured when enough men and women of goodwill accept responsibility for the establishing of right relations, and work actively with the principles of unity and goodwill

I have a dream, that medical doctors and scientists will one day gather together scientific evidence that will demonstrate in world courts that there exists a cure for HIV/AIDS. First we must establish an international independent federation of organisations to provide a comparative survey of the safety and effectiveness of all alternative treatments for HIV/AIDS.

Compassion Response Network is doing its own small part in building that dream. Several of our members from many countries around the world have formulated a plan of action, in which nine alternative treatments for HIV/AIDS that are claimed to be cheap, safe and effective, are each provided to three patients with advanced HIV/AIDS. Treatment, regular blood testing and medical checkups will be continued regularly over six months for each patient, and we will publish the results over Internet. .

The Kinshasa Imusil project is the first step in this plan of action, and when enough funds and enough goodwill workers are attracted, we will commence similar projects for others of the nine treatments, in Kinshasa or in other African cities. Then for the first time the world public will be able to look at our results on Internet, and they will have scientific evidence to indicate which treatments for HIV/AIDS are best for future research and distribution. When this body of evidence is complete, we will invite people to come together for a global convention on alternative treatments for disease, and together we will debate in detail what needs to be done in practice to develop large globally supported projects to prove in world courts that there exists a cure for HIV/AIDS.

I have a dream. Even now, as we together build that dream, we will be inviting the people of Africa, and especially those who now have or have in the past had HIV/AIDS to participate in the planning and facilitation of future projects. It is our goal to slowly build through direct activity a comprehensive compassion response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic. And so it is, that as you who have so recently received an Imusil injection gather together to discuss the changes in your life, we invite you to become the seed group to develop a Kinshasa Compassion Response Centre. For you have suffered the fear and wasting of the physical body that comes with HIV/AIDS. You can understand the terrible plight of over a million people in the Congo who have this dreaded disease. Yet also (should the treatment prove effective) you know the joy of renewed health and of hope.

Let that joy and hope be your group keynote, and radiate it forth like a beacon to all who despair and are afflicted with this terrible disease. Please invite others with HIV/AIDS to come to the Kinshasa Compassion Response Centre to form a group that will gradually grow and in time develop into an HIV/AIDS movement within the Congo. Then let the cry of your heart reflect the cry of all in Africa who despair in the darkness, and we of Compassion Response Network will listen to your call and share your message with those who choose to listen.

We are a small group. We have few co-workers and we are poor with very little money to spend. It will take time for us to plan, develop and facilitate new projects. But what projects will in future best serve the HIV/AIDS community in Africa? It is not for doctors or goodwill servers in affluent countries to decide such a question. The "solution" of triple drug therapy leading to life extension does not cure but rather brings other types of illness. Surely the people of Africa want life and vibrant health and total release from this disease. And many other needs there are also, provision of more treatments, prevention, education, caring for orphans, employment, the list goes on. Which of these needs are the most urgent? For which of them can we start to build projects of action, with our limited resources and money, so to gradually discover through our collective activity a solution that touches all humanity?

It is so vital that you who have experienced the despair of the wasting disease and yet also the joy of renewed physical health, pass on your blessings to those who still suffer and sorrow. Give and you will receive, so that you can give again.

For many years those of us within Compassion Response Network have meditated and prayed, planned and discussed and given where we are able, and slowly our dreams are turning into reality. In our hearts we ever connect with you. And yet the road for us has not been easy. We have had to learn that progress only comes when we are prepared to make great sacrifices, and to love until it hurts. Often our plans have been frustrated and we have been disappointed at the smallness of the public practical response to our appeal. And yet through it all, we sense the overshadowing presence and support of our spiritual Helpers. We sense that we are participants in a great divine Plan that is unfolding before us, as we learn to make the necessary sacrifices and to walk the narrow razor edge path of service for humanity. Thus do we now invite you to join us. Blessed are those who serve for love of humanity, for they shall know true joy and laughter and for them all things will be possible.

For the past year, at this time and into the future, many dozens from many countries around the world pray daily for you, sending light and love. As you think, so do you create. Let us come together and put this principle into practice through our daily living.

A strand of love and light ever links our souls,
David Keane,
Secretary, Compassion Response Network.

Building a New Vision for CRN

Over the past nine months, the strain upon our little organisation was immense. Albert Mananga in Kinshasa spent many hours waiting in doctors’ rooms to discuss preparations for the trials with the doctors, in communicating with patients, in networking overseas through email, in translating materials between French and English and generally coordinating the Imusil project. All this he did voluntarily for no pay and often had to go without meals. From Perth, my own efforts as secretary were to support the commencement of the Imusil project in a multitude of ways, despite failing health at the time. The project was often short of money, and so I placed myself upon a strict personal budget so to help pay for urgent project and networking costs.

Our sponsorship dried up save for the barest of funding for the bare essentials. All donations had to be directed to fund the Kinshasa Imusil project. We had to abandon for those nine months any expenditure on making or gifting healing devices or spending on all but the most essential postage.

There were few active co-workers at that time and the physical vitality of Albert and myself was drained to the limit. We could not broaden our public appeal because this all was waiting for the results that the Imusil project would demonstrate. I could not respond affirmatively to appeals for assistance from groups working with AIDS in Africa, and all I could say was "We must wait until the Kinshasa Imusil project has commenced". So we focussed on doing little things to push forward the Imusil project.

In those months, long have I pondered those requirements that would lift Compassion Response Network onto another level, and now at last I can speak freely of them. I know there is no other way forward, for unless we expand in a spiritual sense, Compassion Response Network must perish.

The first and greatest challenge is that our fundamental group purpose must be lifted up onto a higher level. Our former stated group purpose was "to facilitate a comprehensive compassion response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic". Despite broad publicity, this purpose attracted so few co-workers when the going got really tough. We must now lift our purpose to embrace the ideal of "anchoring the science of right human relations upon Earth". Only when the issue of world discipleship for service to humanity is lifted up will we in future attract those dedicated disciples who then choose to enter the cauldron of their personal experience. Only then will spiritual energy flow in sufficient freedom to lift up our practical purpose "to facilitate a comprehensive compassion response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic".

The second challenge must be to lift up the third pillar of the work of Compassion Response Network with AIDS, which is to invite direct participation by HIV/AIDS affected people themselves into the planning and facilitation processes. The opportunity now exists in Kinshasa to launch this dream. We must facilitate the building of an HIV/AIDS people’s movement and support and help facilitate their invoked demands. This is a supremely difficult task, but Albert and I both agree that we must begin with the three recipients of the Imusil injection, and we must begin urgently.

The third challenge is to adopt the principle of sociocracy to directly involve everyone concerned in the decision making process. This means opening up discussion to plan development of projects in other countries such as Kenya, South Africa, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe. We must expand our forum for an Inner Planning Circle. Only when many African group leaders participate in such a forum, can we develop any sense of a pan-African policy, and until we develop a pan-African policy of practical action and planning for many projects, the media and potential sponsors will be indifferent to our requests. If we ignore the call from Nairobi or Freetown for participation in the future Compassion Response Network activities, then even our modest work in Kinshasa will wither and become unsupported.

With the commencement of the Kinshasa Imusil project, the work of Compassion Response Network to anchor the second of its pillars of direct action, that of facilitating a comparative assessment of nine alternative treatments for HIV/AIDS, has become anchored with respect to at least one of the nine treatments. The project has become born to Earth, the level of practical outer manifestation, though clearly the new-born project remains still delicate and needs much nurturing care until the full 6-months trial period is completed, recorded and the results are openly published.

Developing the Science of Right Human Relations

Why is it that there has been such limited support for realisation of the vision presented by Compassion Response Network for the four pillars to provide a comprehensive compassion response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic? These four pillars are;

1. provision of free basic health care to the poorest of the poor,
2. open inquiry and open publication of comparative studies of all alternative treatments for HIV/AIDS,
3. direct involvement of African HIV/AIDS patients and most HIV/AIDS affected peoples in central planning, evaluation and production,
4. facilitation of a global goodwill network through which the many groups interested in participation in a comprehensive compassion response to HIV/AIDS can creatively contribute to the whole effort.

Yet despite the vigorous presentation of this vision, the practical support for the Kinshasa Imusil project was barely sufficient to see it to the stage of physical commencement of the treatment. Why have not more co-workers been attracted to support this and similar projects of goodwill? The reason is, before we choose the higher path of world discipleship through service to humanity, we each must make a major decision, "What are we ultimately guided by?"

Do we really choose to put love of humanity and service to God’s Plan first, or are we more concerned for our material and emotional comforts, welfare and security? Do we rather say, "When things get better personally, I will then be free to serve"?

As long as such an attitude prevails, then things will only get worse upon the physical level, which is where we need to turn things around. Then the challenges of service that we ourselves have ignored and left undone, and will be passed on to our children, who will in time need to make the same choices through twice the difficulty and twice the suffering. Do we choose to hand such a burden to our children, the burden of our own inaction?

We each then must choose what is most important to us personally, when all upon the physical level becomes devastated or lost and physical life itself must be risked. If the vision of action as presented through the four pillars of CRN is self-evident to the heart, then only as a server chooses to respond to that call of the heart with focussed intention and before all else, only then will a sufficient number of goodwill workers be attracted to the needed work, for the vision to become transformed into reality.

Those responsible for the creative work upon the outer must begin with the subjective work. The server must seek within to find the calling of his heart, and then follow that calling unconditionally and with directed focus. The outer work will be successful or non-successful (speaking in a long-term sense) according to the intensity of purpose and the depth of love demonstrated through this inner work.

The task then is to unite the inner work (the foundational work for all service) and the outer work into the one spiritual undertaking. This requires that the server chooses to serve through an effective subsidiary activity demonstrating practical goodwill on Earth, while simultaneously developing deepened subjective relationships and increased sensitivity to higher impression and inner inspiration.

The server will intuitively know from the message of his heart, his field of outer service, for the effective subsidiary activity that will engage his physical duties. He will intuitively understand his role within a group, and how he contributes in harmony with the service activity of others.

The work will then require a meditation of synthesis, in which the server identifies unconditionally with those he is seeking to help and serve. He identifies with their suffering and pain, yet also with their joy, hope and happiness. The server must then "take the plunge" and enter into the cauldron of his own personal experience, in taking such action as responds directly and with compassion to the calling of his heart.

The server then vibrantly radiates forth the note of his own soul to all that he contacts. A subtle quality of will and a profound love for humanity nurtures in him a focus of intention to respond practically to the calling of his heart. He learns to direct positive, synthesising and healing energies (through intuitive understanding of the Divine Plan and a reverence for all life through the constant practice of harmlessness), so to manifest the desire of his heart, and overcoming all obstacles along the way. These obstacles are overcome not by coercion or force, but because the radiance of soul energy that he sends forth awakens the life within those forms he contacts, so to bring alignment with the higher, all-embracing Divine Plan.

Only as such servers are found, who indeed step upon the path of world discipleship, will the vision of Compassion Response Network, to develop a comprehensive direct response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, expand and gradually come to full outer manifestation.

A world disciple is one who, forgetting about all personality concerns (of himself, his fellow co-workers and all he meets), fills his mind constantly with thoughts about the needs of humanity, and seeks unconditionally to serve with loving understanding. He accepts a portion of the world karma as his own.

Until more are found to serve with the total commitment of a world disciple, the dreams as presented in the vision and four pillars of Compassion Response Network to provide a comprehensive compassion response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, will remain only partially fulfilled.

Top

Main Index --- Treatments Index --- Circulars Index