Gerdi Gutperle Foundation

{ Current information 2011

Interview Gerdi Gutperle

1. To set oneself a goal in life is important. Even better is to have a dream and to realise it makes happy. Since when did you know that it is your biggest lifetime dream to build a health centre for children in India?

Maybe you know what Laotse said: „The way is the goal“. On my way, the goal is connected to the dream, I could say: the dream is the goal. This occured already at an early age. As you know, I do have three healthy children and four healthy grandchildren myself, the fifth is on the way. Already as thankfulness for this, the wish in me did grow. While my travels to Nepal and India I was confronted with the poverty and the big sorrow of this people, especially the children, which touched my heart deeply. I personally wanted to espouse for a part of these children, to help them to grow up healthy and vital. With my artistic ambitions, my way in art was from the beginning connected with the thought of a health centre in South India. To build this, for the childrens good, was always my dream, closely linked with the success in art. I wanted to give something back from my luck and in the same time to reviet on the children, whose future is not safe, not least because in a third world country like India there is no equal opportunity and the poorest of the poor are always miss out. Therefore out of my inner wish, which was in the beginning a dream and then a real imagination, came true.

2. India is a country in which about half of the children are undernourished and about 3.000 children daily die of the consequences of the undernourishment. Could you report us something about your commitment on site?

India is an own continent with the second largest density of population of the earth. Without the support of the industrial nations, big organisations or also people, who do espouse with own projects, the number you mentioned would be far higher. Especially in Tamil Nadu, the most southerly federal state, you find more „malnourishment“ on children than undernourishment. This coheres out of the fact, that the fertile country South India has enough rice as basic food. Among other things we did organise that there are no additions of nutritional supplements in our health centre. Due to the poverty everywhere a lot of chronic diseases and deformities occur. The hygienic circumstances contribute to this, so that more diseases occur which raise the infant deaths. Our part is to ensure the primary health care for babys and small children. Daily approximately 180 children in the age of a few months up to 15 years are coming. We espouse and help in the medical part with medication, therapies in the rehab part as well as prevention. We do have an own department for dental medicine and do realise operations which are mainly in the orthopaedic part.

3. Marianne Werefkin once said about your work: My biggest pleasure is, to invent life new, to give it shapes, colours and works, it does not have. What does motivate you as artist and benefactress?

If you extent your conciousness you are able to see shapes and colours in new coherences. You can only see, what you know. Maybe this was what Marianne Werefkin meant. In each art lies an own enchantment and leads the artist to himself and so the visual is created out of his own centre, which is or stays for some people in general invisible. In the way a painter thinks, so he paints. An artist expresses himself, gives his inner feeling into his work and therefore reveals himself to the people, who can enjoy

4. A lot of benefactors follow in their commitments abroad the policy: to provide help for self-help. Is this also your guidline as benefactress?

Yes, this was also realised in some parts. A good example for this is the rehab department. The children who are coming to us shall also do their practises at home steadily. Here the „training“ for the parents beginns. Also we did use the time while the stay of the parents to do further training and learn more knowledge in the parts of hygiene and nourishment.
For us, it is a concern in the part of prevention, to reflect the conciousness for the own strength. A lot of treasures according to natural medicine can be found in India. Those lie in the parts of Ayurveda and the Siddha-medicine, which are also offered in our hospital. Through training and passing on informations in this area, parents are able to improve a lot themselves in dealing with the disease and in their own sourrounding.

5. It is your big concern that in the childcare health centre Sahaya Nagar Vellamadam conventional medicine and natural medicine work hand in hand. Can you give us an example?

As I already mentioned, it is my great concern, that the alternative medicine is used. The conventional medicine does have its strong points when it comes to acute medicine and gets a strong support in the prevention and several other therapies through alternative healing methods. Especially to mention would be homeopathy, which enjoys in general great popularity in India and is also used in our health centre. Basically I assume that „The one who heals is right“, so that we do concentrate on this and not on the discussion which we do have in Europe, where the effectiveness is always questioned.
Since many thousand years natural healing methods are used in India successfully. Therefore we did open up to this segment as well. On the one hand especially children shall not expierience such strong burdens of their immune system, which is not already stable. On the other hand India is not able from an economic point of view to have a 1:1 realisation in the health system, as we do have it here. It is not affordable for India and therefore the different medical systems cooperate in harmony side by side.

6. Your work of art is often vividly coloured, appear surreal, you are fascinating the viewers and in the same time you give them the freedom to interpret. However, which message do you have?

I want to create my own world of paintings and touch peoples hearts, entchant, delight them and let them forget all unpleasent things for a moment, to expierience the positive and the hope for a worth living world. The contents of my paintings grow and win in the same time depth through the eyes of the viewer. Fascinating is the variety of the statements of the people, the interpretations are manifold, so manifold as the people and their imaginations allow and often it is completely different as I saw it myself. This is amazing and makes me happy.

7. In Germany there are lots of foundations with most different purposes in their constitutions. Please tell us three reasons to decide or comitt for yours, the Gerdi Gutperle Foundation?

  • The donations go 100% into the foundation, also all returns from sales out of my art works are liable to this
  • There is a lived „transparency“. Everytime you are able to see through reports or visits, that the offer for the people on site is of high quality and improved or extended steadily
  • My heart and my commitment flows into this project. My whole love belongs to the children. The commitment pays off. If you look in these childrens eyes, into the soul of those people, who do have also a right of future, of a better world or a chance through help to self-help. I would like to inspire the people to join and to pass on, what they found in themselves. I am happy about each donation and would like to thank for the comittment already as well as for the trust in my foundation. Thank you!

The Gerdi Gutperle Foundation
Industriestraße 25
68519 Viernheim

Telephone:
+49 (0)6204 / 9191 - 0
Fax:
+49 (0)6204 / 9191 - 50
Email:
info@gerdi-gutperle-stiftung.de
Internet:
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