Nasir Hospital, Guatemala

 

Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih V^aa, inaugurated, on Tuesday, 23 October 2018 in the Sacatepéquez city of Guatemala, Nasir Hospital.

After the formal inauguration, a reception was held to mark this historic opening of a hospital by the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jamaat. A large number of dignitaries – ranging from the local authority officials to state officials and also the deputy head of the US embassy in Guatemala – were in attendance. 

The speeches of guests and dignitaries were followed by the highlight of the event – a keynote address by Hazrat Khalifatul Masih V^aa. Huzoor said, “You may well be wondering why we have built this hospital. The answer is very simple. It has been built with purely one intention and that is quite simply to serve humanity by providing high quality healthcare to the people of this nation.”

Huzoor^aa further said, “Having built this insitutue, this will not be the end of our services to this country; rather it is my prayer that it proves to be first of the many humanitarian projects by Humanity First in this region.”

Below is a background and introduction to the concept of this hospital written by Dr Mansoor Qureshi Sahib and provided to us by Humanity First:

Guatemala is a beautiful country of 16 million in Central America just south of Mexico. It is considered to be the cradle of Mayan civilisation. 

Humanity First was established in Guatemala in 2010. At this time, Humanity First had a Masroor School established in 2015 serving the community of Alotenango. 

Guatemala is a developing country and has huge needs in medical care. The ratio of physicians to the general population is only 0.9 per 1,000 people. It has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in Central and South America.  Humanity First was aware of this first hand through assessments done by various medical camps.

Over three years ago, a delegation of Humanity First Guatemala along with certain dignitaries from the country met Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad^aa and expressed the need for having a hospital in Guatemala. That request was accepted, and Humanity First USA was assigned to complete the project. Majid Khan Sahib was appointed as the project director. The hospital was named by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad^aa in memory of Hazrat Mirza Nasir Ahmad, Khalifatul Masih III^rh, who was a champion for human service and set up hundreds of schools and many hospitals in Africa. 

Nasir Hospital has been established on three acres of land in Sacatepéquez. The building is 28,000 square feet and is located on a major high way in Central America. It is projected to help a population of 2.2 million. The cost of the project has been around 3 million US dollars. It has 22 beds with two high-technology operation theatres and a four-bed maternity obstetrics unit. The hospital has modern radiology, sonogram and laboratory units.

Outpatient services include pediatrics, general medicine, general surgery, obstetrics and gynecology and dentistry. 

The hospital will also be a resource to improve the health of the surrounding communities by education and community-based preventive health initiatives. 

The hospital is being supported by a large faculty of physicians from the United States that includes members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Medical Association of USA (AMMA). The team has already started consulting the Guatemalan physicians who will be working at Nasir Hospital in setting up policies and procedures to establish quality of care.

Nasir Hospital was inaugurated on 23 October 2018 by Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad. Over 400 local dignitaries were invited for the event. The event was held on a farm adjacent to Nasir Hospital. Arrangement were made for welcoming the international guests at Guatemala airport and guests stayed at hotels in the historic town of Antigua not far from the hospital.

After the inauguration, the staff of Nasir hospital are looking forward to starting their work in serving the people of Guatemala.