Living in Peru : your everyday companion

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Curahuasi is the world capital of anise. Great! And? And nothing else. The farmers living in the Apurimac region, half way between Cusco and Abancay, have nothing but the poetry of their land sowed with white anise or purple flaxseeds; two plants that co-exist very well. To tell the truth, Curahuasinos also enjoy a good climate - not too cold, not too hot - and a spectacular landscape. But these esoteric aspects don’t bring home the bacon. Once you realize that the regions of Apurimac, Huancavelica and Madre de Dios form a trapezoid encompassing Peru's highest poverty and illiteracy rates, then you begin to understand why the majority of women in Curahuasi don’t give a damn about the beauty of the landscape. Their worries are painfully more practical: what are our kids going to eat today, how do I get them to school, and how do I avoid the beatings of my husband, whether he’s drunk or sober.
Then a German couple arrived in the middle of this pearl of a landscape with a fantastic idea: to build a hospital which would provide quality treatment, using modern equipment, to those in desperate need for next to nothing. Just to be on the safe side, Klaus John mentions that they do accept money for their efforts. Of course, those who don’t have anything pay (almost) nothing. In other words, the only condition for receiving excellent medical care at Diospi Suyana is that you need to be sick. No ID cards are required, nor proof of social security, nor recommendation letters. And you will not hear a “come back tomorrow”. You will not have to go through the hell of discrimination because you speak Quechua, because you cannot read, because you are a women without an income or even worse; because you are all three.

Their Faith

Klaus John is a surgeon, his wife Martina is a pediatrician, and their three kids are Curahuasinos at heart. After working and gaining experience in Ecuador’s rain forests for several years, about the time of their 40th birthday, they decided to fulfill their dream of building a hospital for the needy.
If they had thought about traveling around the world on a scooter, fine. But to hallucinate about good deeds  that require organized, long-term effort, without being a nephew of Bill Gates, creates a certain mistrust. Are they crazy or a modern version of Mother Theresa?

The John’s explain very subtly that Diospi Suyana is just a charity organization that wants to create and operate a mission hospital for the farmers and peasants in Peru’s Andean sierras. Diospi Suyana translates to “God is our hope”. If hope can move mountains, then in their case, it also joggled some people’s wallets, moved hearts, and authorities. Their faith helped to overcome a staggering bureaucracy and deep-founded skepticism of many who rejected their plan or refused to help. It found a way around roadblocks, dissected mathematical arguments, and succeeded in developing a project that both Catholic and Evangelist Christians have worked on together.

Their faith -which you cannot touch but is very real-, made it possible that in Curahuasi, the euphonious world capital of anise, the new Diospi Suyana hospital (www.diospi-suyana.org) is already 50% done.

Diospi Suyana Hospital

Green Valley - Construction work for the Diospi Suyana hospital in Curahuasi, Apurímac, is progressing. Inauguration is scheduled for April 2007.

According to the John's plan, the hospital's inauguration is scheduled for April 2007 with the possible presence of Peruvian President Alan Garcia and First Lady Pilar Nores, who is the “godmother” of the project. According to the Peruvian consul in Germany, Ernesto Pinto Bazurco Rittler, a visit by German President Horst Köhler is also not too far fetched. The fact is, John’s fellow German countrymen have not the faintest idea what exactly he is doing here in Peru, but nevertheless they help. “I would like to stress that 90 percent of our financial resources are donated by thousands of private individuals and not by companies. Diospi Suyana is a project of students, retirees, and other members of the German society for the benefit of Peru’s rural indigenous population,” the physician says. Recently people from the United States put up US $120,000 and Australians US $15,000.

To gather even more interest, Dr. John does not only give masterful performances of his persuasiveness (he has given 410 presentations worldwide so far: 316 in Europe, 55 in Peru, and 39 in the USA), he also inspires something that is far more important: trust and confidence. With a Don Quixote glimmer in his eye, he makes his heroic endeavor look as simple as the fried eggs and rice he cooked in a pan during our interview. Build trust.

The kids of Curahuasi and the whole Apurimac region are waiting for the completion of their "own" hospital

Not just words

Until now the John family’s efforts have led to contributions from the following Peruvian companies: Neptunia, Braun-Peru, Eternit, Miyasato, Celima and Impsat, the very first donor which has agreed to  provide US $20,000 per year, including a satellite dish. Additionally - after a proposal by ex-Peruvian Health Minister Pilar Mazzetti (now Interior Minister)- on July 25th the ministry signed its first cooperation contract ever with a private hospital: Diospi Suyana. On August 17, the new Health Minister, Dr. Carlos Vallejos, not only confirmed his visit to the hospital, but also promised to respect and support the agreement signed by his predecessor.


According to the latest updates (since the first days of June) the structural work of the 7000 square meter (75,000 sq. ft) complex will be completed within a month. As of August 28, the John family has collected US $2.8 million in donations. $1.75 million has been used for the actual construction work, $440k was spent on design, floor plans, and the land purchase; and $600k went to buy a variety of equipment and machineries.
After finishing this report we received a joyous email from Dr. John, currently in Wiesbaden, Germany. He wrote that a successful benefit golf tournament, in which 105 players participated, put another 10,000 Euros into the piggybank. And Tiger Woods wasn’t even there.

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Editor's note:
Many of our readers have asked us how they can help Peru's poorest. This is a wonderful opportunity for all of us! We hope you will support this superb project any way you can. Please visit the Diospi Suyana website at www.diospi-suyana.org, where you can find all the necessary information for your donation.

Much appreciated,
Wolfy Becker