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!