​Between August 1 and December 15, 2016 the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) worked to inspire up to 5 million Federal Employees to donate over $45 million dollars to pre-approved, vetted 501(c)(3) charitable organizations.  The CFC is the only federally run charity drive for federal government employees. Each year, it connects with these employees from September through mid-December. The idea is that by carefully organizing a once-a- year drive, Federal employees can be encouraged to support charities that provide much needed help in areas beyond the Federal Government's domain. Federal employees are given the opportunity to donate to their chosen charities either as a one-time donation or as ongoing monthly donations from their paychecks. 

​Participating charities are put on a list containing their name and a brief description of their services.  In addition, agencies of the Federal Government invite a few charities to local events in each building or in each complex in order to inspire their employees. These charity fairs are an opportunity to encourage employees to support a variety of worthwhile causes including one’s own.

​Although being a first-time participant in charity fairs, African PTSD Relief was invited to around 20 such events. Many of the charity fairs were aligned with the direct purpose of PTSD Relief, namely providing knowledge of (take out “our” - generic purpose of fairs suggested here) more rapid, inexpensive, evidence-based Post-traumatic stress disorder support. Fairs were held in office complexes for Health and Human Services (HHS), (comma) Department of Defense (DOD), (comma) as well as the Department of Justice (Bureau of Prisons).  Just in these three Departments alone, we went to 14 events this fall. Highlights of these meetings include: presentation to the Surgeon General of the United States who showed interest in meeting with us and the Committee on Emotional Health; (semi-colon) presentation to the Chief Lawyer of Homeland Security; and a brief meeting with Vice-Admiral Dixon Smith. Each received a short presentation tailored to his area of interest. General reduction in PTSD was the theme presented to the Surgeon General. Reduction in PTSD as a tool to reduce the anger and violence of PTSD-based terrorism and immigrants’ PTSD was the theme for the Chief Lawyer of Homeland Security. Resilience and suicide prevention was the theme for Vice-Admiral Dixon. 

​At Uniformed Services University, we gave an overview of our new PTSD reduction technology to 400-500 students, faculty and staff. 

There were other federal agencies not connected with health care that we visited (clipped and shortened here):  US. International Trade Commission, Office of Personnel Management,  Social Security Administration,  Federal Housing Administration, Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, Federal Mediation Board, CFC main office in Washington DC.

We were invited to give presentations to: 30 executives who run the Combined Federal Campaign, 300 employees at U.S. Federal Trade Commission and 50 Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board employees.

Federal employees may make a one-time donation or organize to offer a part of their monthly checks to their chosen charities. 

Along with working to explain how our charity gives inexpensive and rapid PTSD relief to Africans and to encourage donating to help those in need, we also partnered with Maharishi Foundation and offered a $120 discount coupon to anyone coming to these fairs. The coupon would reduce the adult price of learning TM.  National Capital area TM teachers, including Katie Grose (Bethesda), David Streid (Washington DC), and Jamie Grant (Alexandria and Falls Church, Virginia) joined a number of these charity fairs to encourage federal employees to support African PTSD Relief and to learn TM. In many cases, employees would know someone who had PTSD, (comma) and they wished to organize for their friends or family to come in and begin TM.

In the next few months African PTSD Relief will find out what the first year’s response was to our 20 Charity Fair presentations.  We have received verbal pledges by some employees, indicating there has been support. The coming months will tell us how much in one-time donations and how much support in monthly donations we will receive. Donors may also give to a “general” category (remove comma) in which case African PTSD Relief will receive a percentage of those general donations corresponding with the percentage of funds donated to African PTSD Relief in the CFC 2016 donations year.

All thanks go out to the CFC for organizing everything so well and to the TM teachers who joined in these presentations. Thanks, too, to Dr. Keith Snail for offering his home as our home and office during many of these trips. We would also like to thank Andrew Schoenbach for donating a 2004 Mazda van to African PTSD Relief thereby greatly reducing the costs to attend meetings in the National Capital area throughout the year.

For details of presentations and meeting notes for the 2016 Charity Fairs, please go to the African PTSD Blog posts September through December 2016. 

December 1, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Walter Reid Medical Complex, Bethesda, MD.

Three 501(C)(3) charities spoke to an audience of around 500 students, faculty and staff at Uniformed Services University ( USU) of the Health Sciences. Montgomery Hospice, a room and board service for families of ill children called Ronald McDonald House, and African PTSD Relief (CFC donation # 94568) each talked for 1-2 minutes about their charities. The students combined a talent show with the  fund raising drive for Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). We presented to a full dining hall.   

​The highlights of the 9-performance medical school student talent show were a lady dancing classical Indian dance and a bassoonist who had  a music major in his undergraduate school; he had excellent tone and technique, playing a somewhat avant-garde, free-form tone poem. 

A psychiatry professor in the Medical School, who was  in the audience, enthusiastically approached David after the presentation and asked to meet with African PTSD Relief to discuss our strategy. 

On Wednesday, November 30, Vice Admiral Dixon Smith spoke at the Navy Yard Charity Fair in Washington, DC attended by 40-50 military personnel and 10 charities, including African PTSD Relief. Charity Fairs are fund raising events held September 1 – December 15 of each year by agencies of the Federal Government to inspire their employees to donate to high quality 501(C)(3) charities. The Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) oversees this annual donations drive.

​Vice Admiral Dixon Smith spoke to the Navy employees present and encouraged them to find a cause that they care about and give. He explained that CFC was formed over 50 years ago in 1961 by President Kennedy and has been held each year since. 
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He said that, last year, 20% of Navy employees at the Navy Yard donated about $48,000. He encouraged more people to give and help the individuals and groups in true need.

​He encouraged military and civilian employees to visit the 10 charities present and learn about each one. He also showed a booklet with the list of 40,000 charities approved as part of the 2016 CFC donations campaign. He asked each Navy employee to find a worthy cause to give to in order to help those in need.

After the Vice Admiral gave his inspirational speech, founding President of African PTSD Relief David Shapiro spoke with him privately.  David explained the rapid and dramatic benefits of using TM for PTSD reduction and support in Africa. He reviewed the research on TM for reducing PTSD, explained how it would also reduce U.S. veterans' suicides (currently 22 per day) and spoke about African PTSD Relief. 
 
The Vice Admiral took the African PTSD Relief website and contact information and said he would share it with team to review our programs. We will also email him copies of the Hill Article.

African PTSD Relief (CFC donation # 94568)  has a $2000 matching fund set up so far for December end-of-year donations. The first $2000 will be matched. $25 brings relief to a widow or orphan in Tasmara, Kenya. Give before the end of the year and double your support for those in great need.  

​National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)/ CDC,  November 2. David standing with an NCHS employee.

​National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), November 1. Dr. Keith Snail, Ph.D. Physics, represented African PTSD Relief.

​ Federal Housing Finance Agency, November 10. Werner Pfleger represented our organization.

​ Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences – second Charity Fair, November 22

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​  Navy Ship Yard, November 30
Katie Grose, representing African PTSD Relief, shakes hands with participant in the Navy Yard Charity Fair.

At two of these events, The FRTIB and the FMCS, we gave a 5 minute speech accompanied by a video of Congolese refugee Esperance Ndonzi talking about how TM helped her to escape from the torment, sleeplessness and overwhelming and horrible memories of her sexual abuse and near-murder. 

The team of Katie Grose, Werner Pfleger, Jamie Grant and David Shapiro attended these 7 events, almost 2 per week, organized by the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC). The CFC is the single annual fund raising drive set up and run by Federal Government employees for the 5 million Federal Government employees around the world.  From its inception over 50 years ago, the organization now named CFC carefully screens non-profit charities for purpose, percentage of funds used for their cause, and economic transparency, among other criteria. The campaign runs from September 1 to December 15 to encourage donations during that last part of the year. By limiting the campaign to three months a year, it frees up the government for the remainder of the year to focus on providing public services.

In April, 2016, African PTSD Relief was accepted as part of the 2016 CFC Campaign and assigned a unique donations number:  94568. Along with raising funds from any Federal Government employee, African PTSD Relief may meet with agencies around the National Capital Area, and present its unique purpose and successes to those agencies and work to inspire donations.

In November, African PTSD Relief went to 7 Charity Fairs, listed above. At all events, we set up a table with a nice logo tablecloth and met employees. We explain how TM rapidly reduces PTSD across Africa and that thousands of Africans are receiving support. Employeses learn that up to 100 million Africans suffer PTSD. At the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board event, David Shapiro gave a 5 minute talk to 50 employees. At the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, Werner spoke to the audience and inspired them to make a difference. They explained that even $25 would help return an orphan or widow with PTSD back to a happy life.
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​​Please join us!!  All events are for Federal Employees in their respective agencies.

We receive invitations regularly, so we may be invited to additional events as well.
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the November 10-12, Sheraton Hotel, Dallas, Texas

For 3 days in Dallas, 1000 international experts from the World Health Organization, National Center for PTSD, Universities around the world and the United States, including Ph.D.’s, psychiatrists, psychologists, medical doctors and mental health professionals, gathered to review progress in evaluation and reduction of traumatic stress. The theme of this annual meeting was: “Trauma and Public Health: Innovative Technology and Knowledge Dissemination.” 

​The first keynote speaker was Dr. Ronald Kessler, Harvard Medical School professor and researcher for the World Health Organization. His presentation was on “The Epidemiology of Trauma and PTSD.”  He discussed the strengths and challenges of the measurement tools he used and his 100 million dollar grant to measure the extent of PTSD around the world. His work has made great strides in measuring PTSD in many countries in the middle-east, Latin America, Europe and Asia. When David Shapiro talked with him afterwards about the measurements in Africa, he said that they had only measured two countries, Nigeria and South Africa, but he offered to collaborate with African PTSD Relief on taking measurements in other African countries. 

The keynote speaker for the final day of the conference was Mark van Ommeren, Ph.D. He is  Public Mental Health Adviser in the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse at the World Health Organization (WHO). He spoke on “Supporting Vast Numbers of People in Communities Affected by Adversity: Lessons Learned (So Far). ”

Mark gave a very brilliant overview of the problems of handling vast groups with mental challenges and of making hard decisions with limited finances.  His conclusion, arrived at through his extensive background in international health challenges and of the mental health protocols he is aware of, is that rather than trying to use highly labor-intensive treatments that may produce excellent results but only for only a few people, he recommends using protocols that will quickly train locals so that modest improvements can be made rapidly for many people. He also favors handling extreme mental challenges that may produce severe problems for the person afflicted.  

Founding president of African PTSD Relief, David Shapiro spoke with him after his presentation and said that we had a highly effective protocol that would rapidly and efficiently reduce PTSD and depression; the two mental health challenges when found together are considered high risk for suicide. David explained that there are also a number of other mental health benefits produced by the African PTSD Relief protocol, Transcendental Meditation.  Moreover, David pointed out that large groups could be helped with this strategy. 

​On the final day, in the final meeting, the theme was for each speaker to explain “how I have changed my mind.” 
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The first speaker of that panel, Executive Director of the National Center for PTSD, Dr. Paula Schnurr, said that she appreciates how much psychology and psychotherapy have done for PTSD.  However, she has changed her mind and now wants to find a way to go above the current 53% recovery rate for this condition.

She would also like to incorporate new tools to bring the individual afflicted by traumatic stress to full, functional living. Absence of symptoms is not full, integrated living. A person who is free of symptoms may still need integration into society. This phase of PTSD cure should also be considered in the healing process.

The African PTSD Relief science team is discussing with her about a method that may increase effectiveness of the psychotherapy paradigm that can be added to their current approaches and significantly improve outcomes.

Another speaker on that final panel said that the fundamentals of PTSD therapy must be examined to hunt for better strategies.
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A third speaker said that more groups and strategies should be examined and alternative mental health care strategies carefully considered that could improve outcomes.

Each speaker expressed a need to expand the current paradigm and reach greater levels of success.

David Shapiro met with many of these speakers and many have offered to meet with the African PTSD Relief team of scientists to discuss how our approach might help them achieve their new goals.

On behalf of a team of seven scientists who had done research in South Africa, David gave a poster presentation on Thursday, November 10, on the high % of PTSD in South African schools.  While testing South African students for PTSD as part of a study using Transcendental Meditation, our research team found very high levels of PTSD in the student population and has submitted a paper on the results to peer reviewed journals. The results of the study were shared in a poster format at this convention with many of the 1000 PTSD experts from around the world.