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(photo by Ulli Steltzer)
"The point of development is to seek measures that create and activate a community, rather than leave it passive and waiting. Real change requires patience and commitment." Dr. Carroll Behrhorst graduated from Washington University Medical School. After a period of private practice in the United States, he went to Guatemala where he established a many faceted medical program to serve the rural Kaqchikel Indians of the Guatemala Highlands.
In 1962, Dr. Behrhorst founded the Behrhorst Clinic and Hospital, a health and development center, in Chimaltenango. The Clinic also served as the headquarters and training school for a comprehensive community health care program that reached tens of thousands of Kaqchikel Indians. Dr. Behrhorst's approach combining health and community development was selected in 1974 by the World Health Organization as a model for all developing countries. The program's concept of helping people on their own terms has proved its worth for decades.
Halfdan Mahler, Director General Emeritus of the World Health Organization wrote the following about Carroll Behrhorst for the book "A NEW DAWN IN GUATEMALA: TOWARD A WORLDWIDE HEALTH VISION", edited by Richard Luecke, "Carroll Behrhorst was a healer of many extreme schisms: between the science of medicine and the art of medicine; between medicine and health; between professionals and people; between people's dependency and people's self-reliance; between passive community participation and active community involvement; between science and faith; between sympathy and empathy, and many others." This book is now out of print with no plans to republish. Click here to read a few chapters.
Carroll Behrhorst died in Chimaltenango in May 1990 and was carried on the shoulders of the Kaqchikel to a long-chosen burial site in Chimazat, the birthplace of his wife, Alicia Nicolas de Behrhorst. The customary words were spoken and many more words were added in both Spanish and Mayan tongues. For the people present this was also a familiar deed--like holding a grain of corn in one's hand and then laying it in the ground to wait for the sun. Nine days later and again a year later they were back to celebrate new life coming from the old. Members of the Guatemalan board have continued this tradition. Every year in May, a "Fundacion Behrhorst Day" is celebrated by members of the board, employees, former employees, and friends. The Behrhorst Clinic and Hospital continues to this day, now as a self-sustaining, Guatemalan-led non-profit entity. Each year, it extends primary health care and community support to thousands of local people. 2005 marked the 25th anniversary of the legal incorporation of the Behrhorst Foundation in Guatemala. |
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(photo by Ulli Steltzer)
"Health has many facets--economic, social, political and cultural--which differ from community to community. Any of these may surface when an understanding of a health problem is being considered."
"It is less than adequate to depend on outreach programs and service schemes if their guiding policy is not an empowering process. This means making use of physical, economic, social, political and cultural capacities in addressing problems."
"Great allotments of time, paper, food and jet fuel have been expended in development efforts, often with little lasting effect. Clean water and malaria control may help diminish disease but do not in themselves furnish the tools and procedures for building a health promoting society. Genuine development requires creative, participatory processes that encourage self-reliance and a balanced sharing of available resources. Again, the fundamental goal is empowering the poor."
"Progress takes time. Programs formulated by those seeking quick, measurable results seldom live up to expectations. Real change requires patience and commitment."
Click here to read an account by William Kovarik, Ph.D who visited the Behrhorst Clinic in 1977.
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