Meet Paul Farmer

© Epic, 2010

Prized for Co-Founding Partners in Health

"This could be very simple: the well should take care of the sick."

Between his undergraduate studies and medical school, Paul Farmer decided to spend one year in Haiti learning about the local people and their health care systems.  During his his time at Duke, he had met many Haitian farmers as he visited tobacco plantations and migrant labor camps not far from the university.  After seeing their awful living conditions in the US, reading all he could about Haiti, and writing papers on Haitian topics, Paul was ready to see the country for himself.

Paul remembers a poignant moment while volunteering at a hospital in Haiti.  He was speaking with a doctor who was about to return to the US.  The doctor was a good man who loved the Haitian people, but he couldn't wait to get out of Haiti and back to his home.  "I realized, hearing him talk, that something had happened to me already," Paul later reflected.  "He was leaving Haiti, really leaving in body and mind, and I realized I was going to have trouble with that."  Later that same day, Paul frantically gathered money to pay for a blood transfusion to treat a pregnant woman with a severe case of malaria.  Despite his efforts, the money was too little too late.  The woman died.  Paul determined then to build his own hospital in Haiti, one that cared for Haiti's poor without regard to payment.

In 1984, Paul returned to the Harvard University to begin joint degrees in anthropology and medicine.  But he couldn't stay away from Haiti, even while working on two doctorate degrees.  Somehow he managed to start the Clinique Bon Sauveur in 1985 in Haiti, while still securing impressive grades at Harvard.  

In 1987, as he continued working towards his degrees, Paul co-founded Partners in Health or PIH, an initiative originally created to support health-related activities in Cange, Haiti.  PIH built clinics and schools, provided training for health care workers, organized mobile screening units, and  researched health issues in rural Haiti.  The organization's mission is both medical and moral: whatever it takes, meaning that when a person is sick, PIH is committed to use any and all means at their disposal to make the person well.  "Just as we would do if a member of our own family--or we ourselves--were ill," explains PIH's website.   

Today PIH has expanded to become a global health care system for the poor.   As of 2009, the organization boasts 49 health centers and hospitals in 11 countries with 11,000 employees committed to doing whatever it takes.

Sources
Mountains Beyond Mountains by Tracy Kidder
Partners in Health Website

Check Out This Video
Paul Farmer's This I Believe Video