African Traditional Herbal Medicine Supporters Initiative (ATHMSI) is set to address complimentary efforts by the indigenous communities in the management of human and animal diseases. It’s target beneficiaries are Natural Products scientists, TMPs and farmers.
ATHMSI was created to promote the integration of traditional medicine practitioners into the healthcare delivery systems; to exchange information on ethnomedicines through networking both at national, regional and international levels. It was set up to encourage the registration of Traditional Medicine Practitioners as cooperative groups with the appropriate authority at the Local Government/state/regional/national levels.
With the creation of ATHMSI, there would be easy collaboration and constant flow of information between traditional medicine practitioners and orthodox medical practitioners. There would also be training of Traditional medicine practitioners through the organization of courses, workshops with emphasis on standardization, safety and quality of their products.
This initiative would help facilitate the activities that would fill the gaps that exist in research and development and communities on one hand and large-scale industrial production of plant products which could be bridged through commercial oriented research.