In Guatemala we work at Obras Sociales del Hermano Pedro Hospital. The Hospital and Church take up an entire city block close to the centre of Antigua. As with most buildings in Antigua it is mostly on one level and built around several courtyards, where residents and families are able to sit outside. This old colonial building has a history that goes back almost four hundred years.

History

St. Pedro de San Jose Betancur (Hermano Pedro) was born in the Canary Islands and arrived in Central America as a young man, convinced that his calling was to spread the Gospel in the New World. A man of deep prayer, he came to Guatemala in 1651 and began working among the most disadvantaged of the capital, the poor, the imprisoned, the slaves and the sick. A lay member of the Franciscans, he was known as the “St. Francis of the Americas” by the time he died of pneumonia at age 41. He founded Antigua’s first hospital in a small thatched hut a few doors away from the Quinta de las Flores where our surgical teams stay.

Known simply as “Hermano Pedro” to Guatemalans he lived in extreme poverty and wore tattered clothing. Biographers say he used to walk the rich neighborhoods of Antigua ringing a bell and begging food for the poor. Hermano Pedro’s bell was preserved and was rung during the reading of the saint’s biography at the canonization ceremony in 2002, attended by an estimated 500,000 Guatemalans, when Pope John Paul II proclaimed him the first Central American saint. In his address the Pope said Hermano pedro’s work with the poor and the sick make him an “outstanding example of Christian mercy”. The new saint represents “an urgent appeal to practice mercy in modern society, especially when so many are hoping for a helping hand,” the pope said. “Let us think of the children and young people who are homeless or deprived of an education; of abandoned women with their many needs; of the hordes of social outcasts who live in the cities; of the victims of organized crime, of prostitution or of drugs; of the sick who are neglected and the elderly who live in loneliness,” he said.

The present hospital was built in 1663 for the clergy, and was managed by the brothers who ran San Juan de Dios, the public hospital in Antigua. With the destruction of San Juan de Dios in the 1773 earthquakes, the clerical hospital became the public hospital, assumed the name of San Juan de Dios, and took over caring for both clergy and all other male patients. When the Captain General ordered Antigua to be abandoned following the earthquakes in 1773, the public hospital was relocated to the new capital of Guatemala City. From 1774 until 1865 the old building was no longer used as a hospital, though the brothers continued to maintain it. In 1865 the Capuchin nuns took over the complex, and four years later the Sisters of Charity of the Congregation of Saint Vincent de Paul superseded them. At this time the Hospital del Hermano Pedro became Antigua’s public hospital once again. The building was damaged during the 1976 earthquakes and the public hospital moved to a new location out of town.

The Obras Today

In 1980, Guillermo Bonilla, another Franciscan who wanted to work in the tradition of Hermano Pedro, formed the Obras Sociales del Hermano Pedro, and began renting small homes in Antigua to house abandoned elderly and orphaned children. He turned to the people of Guatemala for help, and in 1985 the Obras Sociales del Hermano Pedro was given permission to take over the abandoned Hospital del Hermano Pedro. Fray Guillermo began the rebuilding the complex and over the years it has evolved into the present day facility. The Franciscan order still operates the obras and continues in the tradition of taking in those who need care and help. The current director Padre Jose Contran always meets with our team, leads a tour of the facilities and presents a certificate of thanks to each volunteer.

Although Health for Humanity and other volunteer surgical teams use the OR facilities of the Obras, it is a multi-service facility and provides long term care for the orphaned, mentally challenged and chronically ill. Two hundred and fifty people, ranging from a few days old to over ninety, live at the hospital permanently. The Obras also has a school for handicapped children, a nutrition centre where malnourished infants and children are treated, and a small shop selling used clothing at minimal cost.

In addition it offers medical and dental clinics, a medical laboratory, a pharmacy and a physical therapy department. As with so many healthcare facilities in Guatemala government funding is limited, not even covering the salaries of the two hundred and fifty employees. Consequently, the hospital relies heavily on donations, most of which come from abroad. The operating facility built in 1992, the laundry built ten years ago, and many other improvements were all paid for by donations. In addition, foreign volunteers perform the majority of the surgeries. Currently the operating room area is being renovated thanks to a major fund raising effort by our partner NGO Faith in Practice. Health for Humanity will be contributing funds to this major project over the next 4 years.