[5] The Catholic leper colony 'Saint Gerardus Majella', founded in 1895 as successor of Batavia, was located nearby.

In 1902, Henry Weiss left for the United States with some pictures of the colony taken by the German deaconess Martha Stern in order to raise funds.

Nevertheless, in 1935 there were 6 Hindu and 3 Catholic patients at Bethesda, possibly under the condition of conversion to the Moravian denomination.

Lionarons, a doctor in Paramaribo, left his entire fortune to the foundation which as of 2002 was worth over a million euros.

[16] The Bethesda Foundation is still active, and since 2007 has broadened its target audience to people with a severe handicap in Suriname,[17] because the rate of leprosy has declined.