Ceragem -panacea for stiff joints

GALE NGAKANE
Correspondent | Monday June 13, 2011 00:00

She knew, from the word go that she had found the panacea for stiff joints, chronic back pains and other health problems afflicting the people of Francistown, and others from afar.

For those who have since discovered CERAGEM, they are coming to the place with apostolic zeal. It is a hit with everyone, young and old, rich and poor, but what the doctor ordered much more for the senior citizens of the northern capital of Botswana who no longer walk around with stiff joints.

Since opening doors to the public last November, there is no day in the middle of the week, 7:40am to just before 4pm, that people do not come for free body massages, performed exclusively by machines, at Ceragem. 

Situated inside the Botsalano shopping complex, just ahead of Nyangabgwe Referral Hospital, on your right eastwards, a seemingly inconspicuous room turns into a beehive of activity as both young, old, rich and poor take turns to lie on the beds similar to the ones found in hospital wards.

On the bed are multi- coloured lit bulbs, which radiate heat that massage the backside, from waist to the nape, and then on the stomach side, it is from genital area, naughtily called 'Parliament' by the attendants, up to the abdomen.

Customers leave the place feeling like they have just acquired a new body. One such patron was Mmolaadira Serake, 73, a headman of a ward in Matsiloje, who lives across the street from the Botsalano shopping complex.

His hair having gone completely white, he should be doddering around with the help of a cane. But not Serake. As he waltzed out of the massage palour, all sweaty, a towel around his shoulders and a spring in his step, he was health personified and confident to the hilt that he can outrun a man half his age.

'When I first came here, I was having difficulties in walking. My shoulders were very stiff. But now, you can see for yourself. I am feeling very healthy. Just place a prancing cow in front of me. I will catch it by the tail,' he exaggerated, but his whole persona undeniably exuded health.

As I was speaking to Serake, a 65-year-old grandmother, stopped by to greet us whereupon I asked if she, too, was a patron of the place and she did not hesitate to say, 'Yes'.

Mma Nzwaligwa said she was in wheelchair when she started coming to Ceragem in March. She said her knees were giving her problems and she had been to a number of doctors and specialists without any help when she started coming to Ceragem, she was using a wheel chair as her knees had become weak. 

Godson Tafa, a businessman who is always on the road told The Monitor that Ceragem has helped him a lot and that a niggling pain in the shoulder is a thing of the past.

'I had an accident sometime back while driving from Mahalapye to Gaborone when my car skidded off the road and left me and my companion badly shaken. Since that time I have been having pains in my body.

'I went to see specialists in South Africa who thoroughly examined me, but the pain in the shoulder stubbornly refused to go away. I can happily announce that it has since disappeared after I started coming to this place' said Tafa.

A prominent man, said to be a chief in one of the nearby villages was being massaged on the 'Benz', the automatic massager when we entered. He had come with his wife and some relatives who kept changing his positions.

The chief, who cannot be named here, had to be assisted out of the car parked at the Ceragem entrance when he first came the previous week. But a week later, he was managing to take a step with one foot, though heavily reliant on the support of family members.

'You will see, very soon, he will be able to walk. There were worse people than him who are now walking about unassisted,' a sympathetic onlooker whispered his assurances.

Patrons, both young and old are commandeered to the beds that line the walls of the room by five energetic employees, in red t-shirts inscribed with Ceragem on their backs, who shout 'Viva Ceragem Viva. Halala Ceragem Halala'.

The whole day people stream in and out and those that have just arrived sit on chairs provided in the middle of the room. There, they await their turns at the beds.

Ceragem is a franchise from South Korea and Mokgathi got wind of the business from a friend and she applied. After that she went for training at the regional headquarters in South Africa and thereafter sent the five attendants for the same training.'It makes me feel good that I got them something that is helpful to the society,' she said modestly.

People who come for exercises at Ceragem, which means heat (Cera) and stone (Jade-precious minerals), have the option of buying the machines to use in the confines of their homes or at their offices.

Machines used for the massaging include the Portable Thermal Massager and the Automatic Thermal Massager. The latter one is said to incorporate massage and Ceragem pressure while Radiant Far-Infrared Heat is optimised utilising jade and Epoxy Carbon Panel.

The massagers alleviate stress and pain that accumulates in the body from everyday living by improving blood circulation, loosening still muscles and easing joint pains that include aches associated with arthritis.