Dr. Paul Farmer! :)

Last week - THE Dr. PAUL FARMER came to lecture at Penn State. Who is Paul Farmer, you ask? He is THE current face of global health.

Tracy Kidder wrote a book about his life, "Mountain Beyond Mountains."

Dr. Farmer is a medical anthropologist. His life started out living in a bus and a trailer park. His intelligence landed him a spot at a Harvard Medical School. While going to med school Dr. Farmer made frequent trips to Haiti and was working with the poor there. He started his own clinic there and from this eventually grew his current organization, Partners in Health. This organization has done amazing work in the past couple of decades. Dr. Farmer has pioneered new community-based ways to treat multi-drug resistant TB in Peru and the Russian prison system. He has also founded community-based programs for AIDS treatment in these 3rd world countries. His work has expanded and includes his passion Haiti along with Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, and Malawi. Dr. Farmer has also written books about health, human rights, and the role of social inequalities. He believes in health care equality for all. He truly is an amazing person.
There are many physicians who participate in global health by volunteering their time for a few weeks to month, occasionally even a year. (I too hope to someday participate in global health). Paul Farmer on the other hand LIVES and BREATHES global health. He is outside of his home country more often than in it.

Paul Farmer believes in self-sustaining organizations. The clinics and hospitals he sets up in these countries are run by local people. Training and jobs are provided for helping not only to make people healthier, but also the community as a whole.

A brief overview of Partners in Health (PIH) quoted from their brochure
"PIH is a nonprofit corporation based in Boston, Massachusetts. Established in 1987, PIH is committed to working with partner organizations to improve the health and well-being of people living in poor communities. PIH believes that health care is a fundamental right, not a privilege. To this end PIH provides technical and financial assistance, medical supplies, and administrative support to partner projects in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, Lesotho, Malawi, Burundi, Mexico, Guatemala, and Boston. The goal of these partnerships is neither charity nor development but rather "pragmatic solidarity" - a commitment to struggle alongside the destitute sick against the economic and political structures that cause and perpetuate poverty and illness."

It was an inspiration to hear him speak and have faith that one person really can change the world.