CHARTER OF VALUES

The Fundamental Rule

Reverence For Life
"I am life that wills to live in the midst of life that wills to live." – A.S.

Albert Schweitzer started caring for patients in Lambaréné in 1913. Today, we at the Albert Schweitzer Hospital continue to enjoy serving the population of the Moyen-Ogooué Province of Gabon, and of bordering countries. We are inspired by the "Reverence for Life" initiative.

Humanity
"We must all become more human if the world is to become better.” – A.S.

"Reverence for Life" combines a sense of awe and responsibility not only for others but of each person toward all things living. This principle, which Dr. Schweitzer called his motivation and life’s message, is the foundation for all that occurs at the Schweitzer Hospital, where life and individuals develop physically, spiritually, and morally.

The Schweitzer Hospital in Lambaréné

Purpose
"Lambaréné, whatever it has been or is in my life, is a moral experience that must be considered as such." – A.S.

As a site significant to the historical and cultural inheritance of Gabon, the hospital looks towards the future as a living symbol of the nation’s unity.  With its international identity, the hospital stands as a symbol of solidarity, of brotherhood throughout the world. It aspires to serve as a medical and humanitarian example in Africa with its multiple collaborators and affiliates. The hospital will remain an organization built on Albert Schweitzer’s message of "Reverence for Life" by continuing to care for and respect each patient and his or her human dignity.

Objectives
"Man is only moral when life to him - that of plants and animals as much as that of humans - is sacred to him and he tries his very best to help all life in distress." – A.S.

•Translate the Charter of Values into action in the hospital.

•Involve the Albert Schweitzer Hospital in the health policy of Gabon and surrounding countries.

•Identify the medical and socio-medical needs on preventive and curative bases; formulate solutions in a flexible community health framework in an effort to become a model for health care in Africa.

•Become a site of clinical research.

•Become a site of training
   For Gabonese medical and non-medical personnel
   For foreign medical and non-medical personnel

•To promote health education for the population, encouraging the community’s own local health education initiatives

•Manage and organize the site and all the work of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital by ensuring the protection of ecosystems as Schweitzer did.

•Create a venue for international interaction, dialogue and mutual enrichment, combining thought and action in medical, ethical, philosophical, artistic, cultural and pedagogical arenas.