The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

CHAPTER XVI
THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES OF PERU

STREET SCENE ON THE FEAST DAY OF LA MERCED, LIMA.

Charity and kindness of heart are qualities that radiate from moral worth as truly as learning and refinement reflect intellectual superiority, and the benevolent institutions of a country deserve to be as great a source of pride as its schools and colleges. The establishment of hospitals, asylums, and other charitable organizations in Peru dates from the time of the Conquest; for, whatever may have been the evils of colonial rule, they did not include negligence of the duties of Christian charity. During the period of the viceroyalty, asylums for the gratuitous care of the sick and destitute were founded in Lima and other cities of Peru, the funds for their maintenance being derived partly from donations, and partly from the rents of property set aside to furnish a permanent and independent revenue for their use.

At the time of the Independence, Lima had many hospitals under the management of religious brotherhoods. Belem and San Juan de Dios received inmates at a fixed price of one dollar a day; and an English traveller, who was a patient in the San Juan de Dios hospital a century ago, has written a very favorable description of its cleanliness, good ventilation, excellent diet, and the kind attention given to patients. The hospital of San Andrés had accommodation for six hundred invalids and capacity for twice that number, and was beautified by a magnificent garden of rare botanical value. Santa Ana hospital, founded by an Indian princess, the Caciqua Catalina Huanca, was consecrated to the needs of her own people. Two hospitals, San Pedro de Alcantara and La Caridad, were for women exclusively; and the sick and suffering among the negro population were cared for in the hospital of San Bartolomé. By a law passed in 1825, all the establishments organized by public charity, and at that time in charge of the convents, were placed under the administration of a Junta de Beneficencia, or Board of Benevolence, which was later replaced by the Benevolent Societies, under whose control are all the charitable institutions of the republic. There are about fifty of these societies, each of which maintains and governs one or more charitable establishments, the annual expenditure for this purpose being two hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling. Lima spends more than half of this amount in the support of its hospitals and asylums. The revenues are derived from grants of the national government and the departmental boards, from the rents of the societies’ various properties, from the profits of the public lotteries,—established during the viceroyalty, and, by the decree of the republic, devoted to charitable purposes,—and from the income derived from cemeteries, which are under the administration of the Benevolent Society. In Lima the lotteries provide a large fund for the purposes of charity, the annual income from this source amounting to from thirty thousand to forty thousand pounds sterling.

The Lima Benevolent Society is composed of a hundred members, from whose number a board of directors is elected annually, with authority to appoint two inspectors for each establishment of importance; one inspector is appointed for each minor organization and for the religious brotherhoods, whose incomes are administered by the society, the surplus of their rents, after deducting expenses, being applied to its purposes. The president of the board of directors is the general manager of the society, who bears the title of Director of Benevolence. The gentle heart of the Limeña is quickly moved to pity by the sight of suffering and distress, and generous contributions are made to many charitable institutions not included among those of the society, though the latter extends its benign protection over all the city, performing its noble task with great efficiency, through the aid of the pious Sisters of Charity, who form a devoted corps of nurses and guardians in its hospitals, asylums, and poorhouses. In Callao, Arequipa, Puno, Trujillo, and Cajamarca, as well as in the capital, the visitor to the institutions of charity meets these sweet-faced gentle ministers of mercy.

The most important hospital of Lima was constructed soon after the glorious victory of Callao in 1866, when the Spaniards were driven from the Pacific Coast, and it was named, in honor of that event, the Hospital Dos de Mayo. The Director of Benevolence at that time was Don Manuel Pardo, who planned the edifice in 1868 and presided at the inauguration of the hospital during his presidency, in 1875. It is a spacious and handsome building, and the wards of invalids are separated from the various departments of hospital service by beautiful gardens. A thousand patients can be accommodated in the institution, though the daily average is about six hundred men. The principal hospital for women, the Santa Ana, is the oldest in Peru, having been founded by the first Archbishop of Lima, in 1549. A new edifice has recently been constructed for the use of the hospital, having the latest modern conveniences. The maternity ward occupies a separate site, and serves as a practical school for obstetricians. The hospital of Santa Ana has a children’s clinic, and a clinic of ophthalmology. The new building is fitted up with twelve separate wards, having forty beds in each, and a special section for children.

OFFICES OF THE BENEVOLENT SOCIETY, LIMA.

The old hospital of San Bartolomé was converted into a military hospital after the establishment of the republic; it affords accommodation for three hundred patients, and its expenses are paid by the state, only the administration of its affairs being in charge of the Benevolent Society. There is a special ward in the military hospital for prisoners awaiting trial. The only conditions required of an applicant for admission to the hospitals of the Benevolent Society are that the illness shall be of a common nature, and that the poverty of the applicant must be proved. The question of nationality or religion is not considered. The society maintains an asylum for incurable invalids, to which are sent those cases declared chronic or incurable by the attending physicians.