Thank you to peacemakersguide.org for the image

Dr. Paul Farmer: A Man Living Faith Through Actions

Dr. Paul Farmer is a world-renound anthropologist and doctor, and one of the greatest living advocates of social equality. He was born in 1959 in Massachusetts and grew up with six siblings in Florida in a converted passenger bus with no running water. Farmer attended Duke University and graduated from there with his Bachelor's degree in Anthropology in 1982. In 1990, he received both his Master's and Doctorate's degrees from Harvard University.

It was during Farmer's time as a student at Duke that he became involved in what is known as social medicine. He spent time in Haiti's Central Plateau in 1983 working with the sick there. In 1985, with the help of a local priest, Dr. Farmer founded Zanmi Lastane, which is Creole for "Partners In Health". Farmer has served as the medical director for this organization since 1991 and has been instrumental in its global expansion.

Currently, Partners in Health operates in Haiti, Russia, South and Central America, Boston, and parts of Africa. Their Mission is to "...provide a preferential option for the poor in health care" and to achieve two goals: "to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those in most need of them and to serve as an antidote to despare." It operates as a Four Star Charity and recently received the Hilton Humanitarian Prize for its "extraordinary contributions toward alleviating human suffering anywhere in the world."


Thanks to bwh.partners.org for the image.

Dr. Farmer and his associates treat infectious diseases from ear infections to multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis to AIDS at their clinics worldwide. Their work has taken them to prisons, remote villages, and downtown Beantown. Each day they attempt to "contradict nature's law" by curing what was said to be fatal. They have worked to bring the same medical treatment to the poor in third world countries that people receive here in the United States, but Farmer knows that this will never happen. "It would be expensive and it would also force us to face major problems of societal inequality," says Farmer, but also added, "But the fact that it's unrealistic doesn't mean that should not be our goal anyway." Farmer believes in Liberation Theology, which teaches preference for the poor. He lives this out by going to some of the poorest places in the wolrd and treating the sick. He believes that the poor should receive better care than the rich and attempts to bring them this care.

Dr. Paul Farmer has been recognized for his work with several awards. Among them are the Duke University Humanitarian Award, the Margaret Mead Award, and the Heinz Award for the Human Condition. Currently, Dr. Farmer is a professor at Harvard and also trains young doctors interested in his work. His home is in Paris, but he spends most of his time in Haiti, where he feels he belongs. He is married with one daughter.




SOURCES
Caleb Hellerman, Interview with Paul Farmer. www.inequaltiy.org
Partners in Health, pih.org
americanswhotellthetruth.org
brighamandwomens.org
Kidder, Tracy, "Every Child Matters." Parade Magazine 3 April 2005.


For additional reading, check out Tracy Kidder's book Mountains Beyond Mountains about the life of Dr. Paul Farmer.





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