In the framework of the UNDP-GEF Global ABS Project, the Global ASB Community has made publication about Ludmila, a traditional knowledge holder in Belarus.

Ludmyla is one of folk herbalists and healers in Belarus identified as a traditional knowledge holder. She has lived in the village of Sanyuki since 1958. In Sanyuki, traditional knowledge of medicinal plants has been a matter of feminine linage. Lyudmila has learned how to use and prepare elixirs, herbal tea mixes and dried medicinal plants from her grandmother and mother. She knows the names of all plants in her locality. Many of them are medicinal. People turn to Lyudmila for help in cases where academic medicine fails, or simply with symptoms that do not require a visit to the doctor. She has elixirs, herbal tea mixes, dried medicinal plants and more.

Lydmila does not practice as such, it is part of her everyday life. She works in the library, and that’s why healing is an extra activity. Lydmila’s dream is to buy the village’s club building and make the Dom of Travnik (Herbalist’s House) there.

Ludmyla tries to impart her knowledge to future generations. Gradually, Ludmyla passes on what she knows to her daughter Oksana and son Yaroslav. She speaks at school, takes schoolchildren on a field trip to study medicinal plants in their locality.