AngeLog

Swiss, not Swedish. Anyhow: a great man with a great heart.

Oh no, I got it wrong! Damn those nice European countries that begin with ‘S’. I’ll change it in the original post so nobody gets the wrong info. Thanks for noticing that.

Swiss pediatrician Dr.Beat Richner has headed three hospitals in Cambodia — Jayavarman VII Hospital with its maternity annex in Siem Reap and Kantha Bopha Hospitals I and II in Phnom Penh since 1992. His hospitals are renowned as the only world-class hospitals in Cambodia that offer first-world health care free of charge to all children. Everything is free of charge (outpatient consultations, hospitalization, surgical operations, deliveries, transportation to the hospital, and all medicine) because 95% of Cambodian families are too poor to pay. During the last 13 years, Dr. Richner has achieved what no international aid organization has been able to do in Cambodia. He has set up three corruption-free hospitals giving first-world health care, including cutting-edge diagnostic equipment, CAT scans and ultrasounds. With an annual budget of $17.5 million Annually for the three hospitals combined, , here are the results:
• 750,000 parents receive basic health and hygiene education.
• 750,000 children receive outpatient treatment.
• 100,000 healthy children are vaccinated.
• 60,000 critically ill children are hospitalized. (85% of all hospitalized Cambodian children are hospitalized in Dr. Richner’s hospitals. Lacking hospitalization, 75% of these children would die.) 50% of all in-patients have tuberculosis. The biggest killers are tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS. The 4. 5 day average hospital stay costs only $170.
• 16,000 children receive life-saving surgery.
• 11,000 babies are delivered, thereby preventing AIDS & tuberculosis transmission during birth.

In 1992, only 52 doctors survived in Cambodia. Since then, Dr. Richner has realized one of his most important goals: He has overseen the training of over 5000 Cambodian doctors and nurses in cutting-edge western medicine at his hospitals. Today, all 1540 hospital professionals are Cambodian, except for Dr. Richner and a French microbiologist. These three hospitals have become the nation’s university hospitals and training centers for physicians, medical students, physiotherapists and nurses. Today, Kantha Bopha has become the highly respected model for the entire Southeast Asian region of how efficient corruption-free medical and humanitarian aid can be delivered in the areas of preventive and curative medicine as well as in long-term staff training and research.
Dr. Richner’s hospitals run almost entirely on donations. Of the $17.5 million total annual budget for the three hospitals, 92% comes from private donations by the Swiss people, many of them Swiss children. The Swiss government pays 2%. The Cambodian government provides 1%. No funds currently come from U.S. citizens nor from the U.S. government. Administrative costs of the foundation are held to 6.3%
Today, Dr. Richner faces two huge challenges. The Asian tsunami diverted donations so that Kantha Bopha has a $1.5 million shortfall. In 2005, termite-ridden Kantha Bopha II Hospital has to be replaced. The new 450 bed hospital is stalled, half-completed, lacking $10 million yet for completion. Dr. Richner pleads for immediate tax-free donations of any amount. Ear-mark your checks for Kantha Bopha and send them to the Cambodian-American National Council. What your donation buys:
• $1.66 pays for the outpatient treatment of one child.
• $ 17 pays for one child to receive his six necessary childhood vaccinations.
• $ 100 cures one child of tuberculosis during year-long treatment.
• $133 covers the C-section of one TB and/or HIV+ mothers.
• $170 pays the total cost to hospitalize one critically ill child.

I am a music teacher (strings) at singapore American school. I would like to try to contact Dr. Richner. I have had difficulty on the internet. IS there an email address available for Dr. Richner or one of his hospitals?

THanks

Darrell Townshend