Cello Fellow Not So Mellow
Dr Beat "Beatocello" Richner is passionate about the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospitals in Phnom Penh and in Siem Reap. Our travels included a chance to hear him speak and see his works at Phnom Penh.
For more than 10 years Richner has raised funds and has overseen construction of three children's hospitals in Cambodia. He is the founder and acting head of the facilities.
Richner's huge task is overwhelming. His hospitals each treat 2000 outpatients a day and more than four million patients per year for free.
"I would say in Siem Reap 95% of the families and here in Phnom Penh 85% of hospitalised they cannot afford one dollar cash for hospitalisation," he said. "The only way to treat the children is free of charge otherwise they have no chance."
And every week, and atop of an already demanding schedule, Dr Richner gives a one hour performance in Siem Reap and again in Phnom Penh to promote awareness of the issues of child health in Cambodia.
The cello recitals, short films, and the lecture on the ethics of funding, makes for a strange and uncomfortable mix.
"We ask old tourists to give money, the young tourist to give blood, and those in the middle to do both," he said.
Thousands of children are admitted each year to hospitals in Cambodia with Dengue haemorrhagic fever. It requires huge amounts of blood and blood products to save the life of the infected child. He said this does not make the world news, unlike SARS and chicken flu concerns.
During his show he makes repeated calls for donations of money and blood. Eighty five percent of the $15 million annual budget is from private donations, 12% from the Swiss Government (Dr Richner's country of origin), and 3% from the Cambodian government.
Half of the budget is spent on drugs and medicines. Richner insures that the drugs used in Kantha Bopha hospitals are pure and from a central pharmacy in Copenhagen authorized by UNICEF. The medicine is from the original manufacturer and not copies. "Not to be criminal is very expensive," he pointed out.
Dr Richner said that in 1992 he started with 12 expatriate and 62 Cambodian staff. The hospitals currently employ two expatriate and more than 1250 Cambodian staff.
Richner has been criticized for spending too much money to give free health care for the poor people of Cambodia. Some of Richners critics pay $340 a day to stay at the Hotel Sofitel Royal Angkor next door to the hospital. Compare that to the $210 to treat a sick child and it is stiking.
"Our hospital is even an economic factor," Richner said. "First, we give thousands of Cambodians a good salary. They can survive with their families. And second we prevent the small economic system of these families of these farms we prevent them from selling their ox's, and their land in order to save their child because it's free of charge.
"Without these hospitals 2800 children would die every month. Eighty percent of the hospitalised patients could not survive without this hospital," Richner said.
Some of Richner's practices have been called into question. For instance, his concert is set in a big, modern conference hall with seating for a few hundred people, fully air-conditioned, and well-equipped with modern sound, video equipment and big spotlights. Critics ask if funds for these buildings might have been better spent elsewhere.
However Richner is annoyed with these critic because, he says, they block his attempts to provide the same levels of medical practices to Cambodia as in the western world. He gives an example where he says that people from funding agencies stay in the nearby Sofitel Hotel for ike $US300 a night and tell him that his treatment is too expensive.
For more information on Dr Richner visit here and here.
For more than 10 years Richner has raised funds and has overseen construction of three children's hospitals in Cambodia. He is the founder and acting head of the facilities.
Richner's huge task is overwhelming. His hospitals each treat 2000 outpatients a day and more than four million patients per year for free.
"I would say in Siem Reap 95% of the families and here in Phnom Penh 85% of hospitalised they cannot afford one dollar cash for hospitalisation," he said. "The only way to treat the children is free of charge otherwise they have no chance."
And every week, and atop of an already demanding schedule, Dr Richner gives a one hour performance in Siem Reap and again in Phnom Penh to promote awareness of the issues of child health in Cambodia.
The cello recitals, short films, and the lecture on the ethics of funding, makes for a strange and uncomfortable mix.
"We ask old tourists to give money, the young tourist to give blood, and those in the middle to do both," he said.
Thousands of children are admitted each year to hospitals in Cambodia with Dengue haemorrhagic fever. It requires huge amounts of blood and blood products to save the life of the infected child. He said this does not make the world news, unlike SARS and chicken flu concerns.
During his show he makes repeated calls for donations of money and blood. Eighty five percent of the $15 million annual budget is from private donations, 12% from the Swiss Government (Dr Richner's country of origin), and 3% from the Cambodian government.
Half of the budget is spent on drugs and medicines. Richner insures that the drugs used in Kantha Bopha hospitals are pure and from a central pharmacy in Copenhagen authorized by UNICEF. The medicine is from the original manufacturer and not copies. "Not to be criminal is very expensive," he pointed out.
Dr Richner said that in 1992 he started with 12 expatriate and 62 Cambodian staff. The hospitals currently employ two expatriate and more than 1250 Cambodian staff.
Richner has been criticized for spending too much money to give free health care for the poor people of Cambodia. Some of Richners critics pay $340 a day to stay at the Hotel Sofitel Royal Angkor next door to the hospital. Compare that to the $210 to treat a sick child and it is stiking.
"Our hospital is even an economic factor," Richner said. "First, we give thousands of Cambodians a good salary. They can survive with their families. And second we prevent the small economic system of these families of these farms we prevent them from selling their ox's, and their land in order to save their child because it's free of charge.
"Without these hospitals 2800 children would die every month. Eighty percent of the hospitalised patients could not survive without this hospital," Richner said.
Some of Richner's practices have been called into question. For instance, his concert is set in a big, modern conference hall with seating for a few hundred people, fully air-conditioned, and well-equipped with modern sound, video equipment and big spotlights. Critics ask if funds for these buildings might have been better spent elsewhere.
However Richner is annoyed with these critic because, he says, they block his attempts to provide the same levels of medical practices to Cambodia as in the western world. He gives an example where he says that people from funding agencies stay in the nearby Sofitel Hotel for ike $US300 a night and tell him that his treatment is too expensive.
For more information on Dr Richner visit here and here.
posted by Unknown at 8:48 PM
2 Comments:
I am french canadian and have been traveling in Cambodia in feb 2005.I am presently a primary teacher in the Turks and Caicos Islands,the British West Indies.When I was in Siem Reap I heard that they needed desperatly blood to save children's life due specially to the dingy fever epidemy and other fatality circomstances that the Cambodian's people had to suffer after the genocid and the Vietnam war and the debris left by mines and bombs.So I postpone my return to Bangkok another day.With great fear after a bad experience in Africa with a blood test i had to take I took the chance.I have been really amazed how clean and professional it was.
Also I never send money to third world charity cause I understand that a lot of it goes for the administration and "god knows what"but always thought that trough my traveling someday I will find a good cause corruption free.It is there that I found it and finaly keep my promise that i made to myself.Little money can do big there.
I invite everybody else to do the same and if you ever plan to go to Cambodia don't be scared to save life and give your blood that money can't do.
With apology for my English and all my respect to Beatocello
Viviane Guilbault
Well done Viviane. One of our fellow travellers also found time to give blood and said the experience was much like your own. Very professional and very safe.
- Tan and Trev
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