Lessons from Dan Fountain’s Struggle the Care of the Whole Person in Mobutu’s Congo

In 1961, eighteen months after the violent expulsion of the Belgian colonial powers, Dan Fountain entered a fractured Congolese landscape. Over the next 35 years amidst the dictatorial regime of Mobutu’s kleptocracy with inflation rates of 24,000% (IMF price level increases by a factor of 4.25 billion) and the outbreak of the HIV epidemic, Fountain helped construct a primary care infrastructure that would extend through the entire country. His story, though little known to many of us now, was so ground-breaking at the time that it made its way to the director general of the WHO and formed the basis of the now-famous Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978, the slogan of which was “Health Care for All.” We provide you the key lectures that he developed with Sherry O’Donnell on his return to the U.S., which outline his tested principles of how to provide comprehensive medical care to the most vulnerable populations of our world.

We will give only one introductory quote that comes from Fountain’s correspondence with then noted psychologist, William Backus. Fountain writes regarding the escalation of HIV within their health system,

Medical science is vigorously attacking the virus, assuming that victory over the virus will solve the problem…[this will not, of course, even touch the multitude of problems involved in the complex etiology of HIV infection. We…are working on the other side of the problem, with the immune system, trying through psycho-social-spiritual means to strengthen the immune system so it can better cope with the infection. Can it ever be sufficiently strengthened to eliminate the infection?
As Paul wrote to the Colossians, “Christ is the key that opens all the hidden treasures of God’s Wisdom and Knowledge” (Col. 2:3).

-From the Preface to God, Medicine & Miracles

Of each of the videos below, we have in-depth notes of the content, carrying Fountain’s seminal talks forward into our 21st c. context.

Email us at holosanthropos@gmail.com for access. Enjoy!

 

Introduction to Whole Person Care

Lesson 1: The Problem of Modern Medicine

Lesson 2: How Have We Gotten Into This Mess

Lesson 3: Jesus As Our Model

Lesson 4: The Biblical Perspective on Wholeness

Lesson 5: The Heart/Body Relationship

Lesson 6: The Architecture of the Heart

Lesson 7: Heart Problems That Affect Health

Lesson 9: Do Christians Need Inner Healing?

Lesson 10: What Did Jesus Christ Accomplish for Our Healing?

Lesson 12: Personal and Spiritual Assessment

Lesson 13: Taking a Spiritual History

Lesson 14: Praying with Sick Persons

Lesson 15: Doing a Life Review

Lesson 16: The Problem of Self-Identity

Lesson 17: Anger, the Immune System and Forgiveness

Lesson 18: Helping People Cope With Stress

Lesson 19: Helping Persons Cope With Cancer

Lesson 20: The Grieving Person

 
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