Bay Area Foundation Receives $400,000 AID Grant to Remodel, Improve Hospital in Guatemalan Jungle.

News Editors

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 18, 2000

The American International Development Agency (AID) has awarded a $400,000 grant to the Hospital de la Familia Foundation for improvements in the foundation's medical center at Nuevo Progreso, Guatemala.

Foundation President Emmet Purcell said, "This grant will permit us to improve and expand our surgical and recovery facilities, as well as modernize supporting equipment. We are extremely grateful to the American Schools and Hospitals Abroad Division (ASHA), a sub-agency of AID, for their continuing support of our effort in this area."

The new grant is the third the foundation has received from ASHA since the foundation established the Guatemalan medical center, Mr. Purcell pointed out. "This new AID grant applies to the hospital's remodeling and equipment only," he said, "and none of the cost of staffing and operating the hospital throughout the year which have rapidly escalated. For example, it now costs $40,000 to send our all-volunteer medical teams of doctors, nurses and technicians down to Guatemala and $150 a month to care for each child in our malnutrition clinic. To meet these rapidly rising costs we continue to seek the financial support of many people in the San Francisco Bay Area who are aware of our efforts and have provided generous contributions every year."

San Francisco business leaders and volunteer members of the medical community have provided primary funds and professional skills to build and operate the Hospital de la Familia medical center in Nuevo Progreso since 1976. This has brought medical care to thousands of poor Mayan Indian families in the isolated mountains of northwestern Guatemala and adjoining areas of Mexico and Honduras.

Year-round operation of the hospital is augmented by medical teams the foundation sends from the U.S. to perform surgeries and other specialized medical care generally unavailable in Central America. In addition to the hospital at the Nuevo Progreso, the foundation maintains a malnutrition clinic there to rehabilitate poorly nourished children, trains nurses and midwives, teaches first aid and supports a variety of educational programs in the community.