Albert Schweitzer Hospital
| Hôpital Albert Schweitzer | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Location | Gabon |
| History | |
| Founded | 1913 |
| Hôpital Albert Schweitzer | |
|---|---|
| Geography | |
| Location | Haiti |
| History | |
| Founded | 1956 |
| Links | |
| Website | Official website |
| Lists | Hospitals in Haiti |
The Hôpital Albert Schweitzer was established in 1913 by Albert Schweitzer and Helene Bresslau Schweitzer in Lambaréné, Gabon.
The hospital in Lambaréné, as well as the life and philosophy of Albert Schweitzer, inspired Larry Mellon of the Mellon family fortune to establish a Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti, in 1956.
Albert Schweitzer opened a hospital in 1913 in Lambaréné in what what was then French Equatorial Africa that became Gabon, where he ran it until his death in 1965. He won the Nobel Prize in 1952 for his work there. For most of its history, the hospital was operated, staffed, and funded by Europeans. Schweitzer worked with "fellowships" in many countries to fund his work (including the US Albert Schweitzer Fellowship, which was founded in 1940) and the fellowships were coordinated by the "Association Internationale de l'oeuvre du docteur Albert Schweitzer de Lambaréné" (AISL), which also oversaw the hospital. In 1974 the "Fondation internationale de l'Hôpital du docteur Albert Schweizer à Lambaréné" (FISL) was established and took over the duties of overseeing the hospital.
Since its founding, the hospital was rebuilt twice; the second in 1981. At the time of the 1981 construction, a research facility was included at the request of the Gabon government, which eventually became a separate non-profit organization called "Centre de Recherches Médicale de Lambaréné" (CERMEL), but was still governed by the board of the FISL.
Schweitzer himself had a racist and colonialistic view of Africans, and the staff and management of the hospital remained in European hands until around 2011, when for the first time an African, Antoine Nziengui, was appointed to lead the hospital.
In 1947, Larry Mellon, inspired by Schweitzer and his work in Africa, went to medical school at Tulane University with the intention of following in Schweitzer's footsteps. He went to Haiti in 1952 on a research trip as part of his medical studies, and during that visit decided to locate the clinic in the Artibonite Valley; he was granted land that was formerly a banana plantation by then president of Haiti, Paul Magloire. He and his wife Gwen opened a Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles, Haiti in 1956. When it opened, the facility had two operating rooms, a laboratory, X-ray facilities, a pharmacy, and had its own water system, electric power, machine and vehicle shops, laundry and food services.
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Wikipedia