World Ark Magazine - March/April 2009 - (Page 34) If his life’s mission is to bring quality health care to poor people worldwide, his life’s work is to care for them, one patient at a time. H paul farmer We’ve admired the work of physician Paul farmer for years and so have many others. He won a Macarthur Genius award in 1993 for his work fighting infectious disease and providing health care to people in developing nations. the doctor immortalized in the book Mountains Beyond Mountains continues his mission to help the poor in Haiti and around the world. By Lauren Wilcox t Paul Farmer performs a checkup on a young Haitian girl. 34 m a rch / ap r i l 2 00 9 | world ark www.he i f e r .o r g PHoto By Mark roSENBErG. DIStrIButED By PartNErS IN HEaltH. here’s a story that physician paul farmer tells about his work treating the poor in rural haiti. a woman had brought her sick child to the clinic, and afterward, farmer offered to carry her child home for her, to her village three hours away. in a 2003 interview with National public radio, farmer recalled that the child was a sickly 3-year-old, malnourished and underweight. But nonetheless, after an hour of carrying the child along the country road, farmer’s arms were aching. when they finally made it to the village, farmer handed the child to the mother and collapsed, fanning himself. “my arm hurts,” he told the mother, asking her how in the world she was able to make such a long walk herself. “if i go to your clinic with one of my children,” she answered, “my arm hurts for weeks afterward.” The incident, farmer says, was a critical insight into the difficulties of treating the illnesses of the very poor, because it impressed upon him the importance of listening to—and learning from—the poor themselves, whom he calls “de facto experts in poverty.” in a field where obstacles are endless and often overwhelming, and the tendency is often, he says, to blame the patients, his dedication to “thinking about what patients must be going through” has allowed him to make extraordinary strides. Born in massachusetts in 1959 to free-spirited parents who encouraged their children to follow their interests (one of farmer’s brothers is a professional wrestler), farmer first encountered the problems of the rural poor in the early 1980s, when he spent time working in health clinics in haiti. after graduating from duke University, he helped found a community clinic on haiti’s impoverished central plateau and completed degrees in medicine and medical anthropology at harvard. in 1987, together with two colleagues, he founded partners in health to expand the services of the clinic in haiti. Throughout the years, as farmer helped partners in health grow into an organization with a research and advocacy arm, specialized programs and studies in several countries worldwide, clinical practice remained a mainstay of his work. currently a professor of medical anthropology at harvard, he has developed pioneering, community-based treatments for aidS and tuberculosis, written several books, received numerous awards, and helped shape policy and perception of the treatment of the poor. Still, farmer continues to see patients in hospitals in Boston and haiti. if his life’s mission is to bring quality health care to poor people worldwide, his life’s work is to care for them, one patient at a time. for farmer, the two are inextricably linked. http://www.heifer.org
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