After decades of civil unrest, Guatemala is in the process of restoring its crumbled social structure. The most populous nation in Central America, Guatemala is also ranked the lowest in terms of Human Development, spending an average of only 1% of the GDP on health care. In fact, over 20% of the total population has no access to adequate health care at all.

Over 40% of Guatemala’s population is indigenous, and many of these people continue to be refused medical service because of their inability to pay or because of their ethnic Mayan background. The poor of Guatemala are the very people that Westmont Bethel Hospital seeks to serve through medicine – and it does so without discriminating according to socio-economic status or ethnicity, taking seriously Jesus’ call to love their neighbor in need.

The vision to establish Westmont Bethel Hospital began over twenty-seven years ago amidst work with the indigenous populations of Guatemala in Uspantan, the South Coast, and Guatemala City. Over the years, small clinics were established, providing the most impoverished persons with access to basic, yet essential, medical care. While the clinics were able to address immediate needs for those living in the surrounding communities, the goal was to construct a hospital that would be able to provide comprehensive medical care – including surgery – for those in need. Finished in 2007, Westmont Bethel Hospital provides complete personal care in the context of what in Spanish is known as salud integral – caring for the health of the body and the soul.

Salud Integral encompasses all primary services that one would expect from a local hospital, in addition to services designed to address the level of need indicative of people living in poverty. This includes training and services for preventative healthcare, like immunizations, nutrition, water safety, etc. At the heart if salud integral, Westmont Bethel Hospital strives to care for the soul. The staff shares the love of Jesus, believing that the hands at the hospital are His, and they minister to all who enter through prayer, service, and words.