Ripples from the Rupununi

Somewhere over the rainforest in Guyana there’s a land called the Rupununi, a creek-crossed savannah inhabited for millennia by Indigenous people of great capacity. This is where Dr. Jamshid Aidun, a Persian Canadian surgeon and a humble man of faith, went to lead the Bahá’í Community Health Partnership, and to heal his own broken heart.

Moving to Guyana from his surgical practice in Manitoba, Aidun was the only doctor for 17,000 people scattered across a region the size of Nova Scotia. For five years, he performed life-saving surgeries and travelled by Land Rover, canoe, bicycle, bullock cart, and on foot, accompanying Macushi and Wapishana villagers to take charge of their own health care.

Sourced from detailed interviews with Aidun and many key players, and from his own journals, Ripples from the Rupununi traces the transformation of an Indigenous community that was historically underestimated. Finding spiritual strength in service, Aidun rediscovered love and healed himself while he healed others.