Barefoot Doctors

In 1983, we began offering classes in natural healing and midwifery in Louisiana. Our 501(c)(3) status has been in effect since 1996, enabling us to now accept tax-deductible funding to further accomplish our visions and goals. The Barefoot Doctors’ Academy (BFDA) was formerly known as, Birth Rite Education Center (BREC) and changed its name officially as of January 1, 1999.

In 1983, we began a specialty library on herbal medicine, midwifery, childbirth education, natural healing, bodywork and Qi Gong that is deep and vast. In 1988, BREC co-sponsored an international midwifery convention of the Midwives’ Alliance of North America (MANA) in New Orleans. This brought together hundreds of midwifery educators, practitioners, students, consumers, and others from the United States, Central America and Canada to promote understanding, training and coalition building in the area of Midwifery, which contributed to the ability to legally practice midwifery in Louisiana in that same year.

Since its inception, the Barefoot Doctors’ Academy has coordinated the establishment of a series of grassroots, complimentary healthcare centers, serving thousands of people seeking safe and effective natural healing remedies and childbirth options. BFDA administrated multi-disciplinary teams of healers, doctors and midwives to team together to provide holistic treatment plans and provided weekly healthcare education classes to the public and other healthcare professionals.

Through our School of Natural Healing and our School of Midwifery, the Barefoot Doctors’ Academy offers various workshops, programs and conferences, and serves to educate people from a diversity of cultural backgrounds in the ways of community medicine, natural healing, indigenous and traditional medicine, midwifery, breastfeeding, family planning, barefoot doctoring, ethnobotany, permaculture, and conservation. The Barefoot Doctors’ Academy has promoted hundreds of classes and certification programs. Since our relocation to Hawi, Hawaii in 2002, BFDA continues to promote natural community medicine education & emergency preparedness on the Big Island.