| Person of Faith: Dr. Paul Farmer |
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| Image from http://www.amesty.org |
| Dr. Paul Farmer was born into a very rough childhood. Raised by an adventure-seeking father, Farmer and his family were forced to move numerous times and lived in an assortment of homes, one time even living in a bus and a houseboat. When Farmer was a student at Duke University, he studied anthropology and medicine. He got his Ph. D and M.D. both at Duke. He is now the professor of medical anthropology at Harvard Medical School. While he studied at Duke Farmer became intereseted in the poor nation of Haiti. He learned that many people died in Haiti from diseases that were almost completely curable in other countries because Haiti lacked the necessary funds to hire doctors and buy medicine. Farmer was moved by a love for the people and a hatred for the suffereing that they dealt with on a daily basis. He then vowed to dedicate his life to helping the needy of Haiti. Farmer first came to Haiti in 1983 as a student at Duke University. Currently he lives and practices in Cange, Haiti. In Haiti, Farmer specializes in the treatment of Tuberculosis and HIV. Farmer also founded the organization Partners in Health, which is an organization that solicites help and medical equipment from first world societies. In the past 20 years the Partners in Health active in Haiti has grown enormously. The growth of PIH helped Haiti quality for elligibility for reception of money toward fighting diseases from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and Malaria. In addition to his work in Haiti, Dr. Paul Farmer has evaluated Tuberculosis programs in such countries as Russia, Peru, Azerbaijan, Latvia, Kazakhstan, and among prison populations. By his selfless work Farmer helped to raise the stand of healthcare in third world countries. He has never abandoned his belief that quality healthcare is possible to deliver in poor areas. Farmer wrote numerous works about health and human rights and the role of social inequalities in distributions and outcomes of readily treatable diseases. Among the many awards he has received in his lifetime, he considers the most important the 2003 Heinz Award for the Human Condition. Farmer continues to use his gifts faithfully to inspire generations to pursue careers in medicine and in his goal to improve medical situations in poor countries. |
| Sources http://ww.brighamandwomens.org/socialmedicine/aboutfarmer.asp Bendis, Debra. "Dokte Paul." The Christian Century. November 2, 2004, pp. 31-32. Kidder, Tracy. "Every Child Matters." Parade. April 3, 2005, pp. 4-6. |