How long do AWB missions last?

• In the first instance, an exploratory mission is carried out in partnership with the local authorities (health ministry, heads of clinics, etc.), to plan AWB’s course of action: questions dealt with include the duration of training sessions, the number of participants, the medical facilities available, coordination of the training program, etc.
  
• AWB interventions generally consist of three sessions of actual training, each lasting three to four weeks.
  
• These three sessions are spaced at intervals of six to twelve months.
  
• One or more control and follow-up missions may be put in place subsequently, at intervals of two to three years.

  What kind of training does AWB provide?

• Grounding in acupuncture theory and practice is offered to care providers within an existing medical institution such as a hospital or dispensary.
  
• The necessary training material (books, manuals, acupuncture charts) as well as acupuncture supplies (needles, moxas) is supplied to the interns from the first training session on.

  Who provides the training proposed by AWB?

• For each mission, training is provided by experienced acupuncturists with prior pedagogic training, acting as volunteers.

  What is the training program developed by AWB?

• The program combines theory and practice, covering from the very first session all the basic aspects of the discipline in respect of acupuncture energies, their pathways and the location of control points, as well as physiopathology, diagnosis and therapy, including needling techniques and the use of moxas.
  
• By the end of the first training session, interns will have a practical command of the therapeutic procedures for about a dozen of the most common illnesses in their country: dysentery, rheumatism, gastrological or gynaecological disorders, influenza, and malaria, and so on.
  
• Upon completion of this training, the interns receive a Certificate of Participation in AWB International Training. This Certificate testifies to the participants’ aptitude to give acupuncture treatment to disadvantaged peoples, in line with the objective of AWB.