Career
After receiving his medical degree in 1973, Dr. Beat Richner specialized in pediatric care at the Zurich Children's Hospital. Following this, Richner, working for the Swiss Red Cross, was sent to Cambodia where he worked at the Kantha Bopha Children's Hospital in Phnom Penh in 1974 and 1975. The hospital is named in memory of HRH Samdach Preah Ang Mechas Norodom Kantha Bopha (1948–1952), who was the daughter of King Norodom Sihanouk and died at a very young age. When the Khmer Rouge overran Cambodia, he was forced to return to Switzerland where he continued his work at the Zurich Children's Hospital. In the process of pursuing his medical career and an interest in music and entertainment, Dr. Richner developed the character of "Beatocello", an artistic and comedic clown who played the cello. Along with this persona, Richner also published many children's books based on "Beatocello".
In December 1991, Richner returned to Cambodia and saw the devastation that had taken place following the ensuing conflicts with the Khmer Rouge and Vietnam. He was asked to re-open and re-build Kantha Bopha by the Cambodian government. Creating the Kantha Bopha Foundation in March 1992, Richner officially returned to Cambodia to begin reconstruction and Kantha Bopha was reopened in November 1992. Since then, the foundation has funded the expansion of Kantha Bopha Children's Hospitals to include five hospitals in total.
As "Beatocello", Richner performs free concerts at the Jayavarman VII hospital in Siem Reap on Thursday and Saturday nights, during the high season. 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 also been the subject of five 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). In 2006, the documentary "Dr Beat and The Passive Genocide of Children" by Australian film maker Janine Hosking was produced.
Currently, of the 2400 Kantha Bopha staff members, Dr. Richner alongside the head pathologist Dr. Denis Laurent, are the only expatriate staff members employed at the hospitals.
Richner has waged war on the large AID agencies claiming that their policies of poor health care for poor people in poor countries is not only immoral but illogical.
Richner was named "Swiss of the Year" in 2003.
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