Beat Richner

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Dr. Beat Richner (born March 13, 1947) is a Swiss pediatrician, cellist (Beatocello), and founder of children's hospitals in Cambodia.

Richner worked at the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital in Phnom Penh in 1974 and 1975. When the Khmer Rouge overran Cambodia, he was forced to return to Switzerland.

In 1991, Richner returned to Cambodia and saw the devastation that had taken place during his absence. He was asked to re-open the children's hospital.

He has opened three children's hospitals in Cambodia, Kantha Bopha I and II in Phnom Penh and Jayavarman VII in Siem Reap.

Beatocello performs free concerts at the Jayavarman VII hospital in Siem Reap on Friday and Saturday nights. The evenings include songs, played on his cello, and talks on the health crisis in Cambodia. He asks the young tourists for blood, the older tourists for money, and the ones in between for both.

Richner and his work in Cambodia have been the subject of four documentary films by Georges Gachot: Bach at the Pagoda (1997), And the Beat Goes On (1999), Depardieu goes for Beatocello (2002), and Money or Blood (2004).

Richner was named "Swiss of the Year" in 2003.

[edit] Works

Kantha Bopha. Als Schweizer Arzt in Kambodscha ("Kantha Bopha: A children's doctor in Cambodia"), 1995, ISBN 3-85823-570-9 (How the re-opening of Kantha Bopha was made possible and why it is successful)
Hoffnung für die Kinder von Kantha Bopha, NZZ 2004, ISBN 3-03823-047-2
Hope for the children of Kantha Bopha : our third hospital, maternity ward, training and conference centre, translated from German, NZZ 2004, ISBN 3-03823-098-7

[edit] References

Dr. Beat "Beatocello" Richner. Official Website. Retrieved on March 11, 2005.
Georges Gachot. Films About Dr. Beat Richner. Retrieved on March 11, 2005.
swissinfo. Paediatrician becomes Swiss of the Year. Retrieved on March 11, 2005.