AN acupuncturist is off to Nepal to help treat people traumatised by the massive earthquakes earlier this year.

During her fortnight in the beleaguered country, Anna Jolly will train doctors and Buddhist monks and nuns in the Kathmandu area how to treat post traumatic stress disorder with acupuncture.

And you can help her mission with the Barefoot Clinics charity - Anna, from Kingston St Mary, is appealing for donations to buy another 100,000 needles, kits with forceps and other medical items to treat around 20,000 people over the next six months.

“The people of Nepal are in a desperate state – the country is traumatised after what happened, with five million people displaced, losing their homes or losing relatives,” said Anna, aged 55.

“Acupuncture can be effective in treating PTSD and I’ll be training Buddhist monks and nuns, police and doctors, as well as working at an orphanage.

“Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world and we were quick to report the big earthquakes when they happened earlier this year, but there have been lots more since that we haven’t heard about.

“The orphanage we’re going to survived, but the perimeter wall fell down and the children have only just plucked up the courage to go back there to sleep – it’s was terrifying for them to see the ground beneath them just open up.”

Anna said that Barefoot, which was set up by a friend, would like to treat more earthquake victims, but resources are limited by insufficient funds.

“We wanted to see up to 20,000 patients in the first month – that’s still the tip of the iceberg, but people we train can then teach others and keep things going,” said Anna, who sets off next Thursday.

“We’re having to limit our work due to lack of funds, so if anybody could help it would be fantastic.

“We have support from another charity, SARAID, and government bodies like the Nepal Health Research Council, but we still need more.”

To donate go to www.barefootclinics.org.uk or via http://campaign.justgiving.com/charity/barefoot-clinics/helpnepal Anna added: “Donations are only used to buy equipment to support the project - no donations are used to fund volunteers, such as myself, in any way.”