Elfenworks Foundation In Harmony With
Partners In Health

Founder, Dr. Paul Farmer, Receives 2007 Elfenworks In Harmony With Hope Award

Dr. Paul Farmer, recipient In Harmony With Hope Award: "Since I do not believe that there should be different recommendations for people living in the Bronx and people living in Manhattan, I am uncomfortable making different recommendations for my patients in Boston and in Haiti."

For more than 20 years, physician and medical anthropologist Paul Farmer has been proving that quality health care can be delivered successfully to millions of the world's poor. It began, in 1983, with a visit to Haiti. About to enter medical school, Farmer wanted to do something to help decrease the rates of high morbidity found in the mountainous region around Cange. In a way, he never left. Four years after that first visit (and before he'd even graduated from medical school), Farmer founded Partners in Health (PIH) in Boston to support his ongoing efforts in Haiti.

Today, Partners in Health fights tuberculosis, AIDS, malaria, and other infectious diseases in Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico, Peru, Russia, Rwanda, and - closer to home - in Boston's inner city. The model's success stems from training members of the community to deliver services such as housing, education, food and clean water. These essential services provide the support needed for Farmer's band of doctors, nurses and community health workers to effectively treat patients with drugs and surgeries.

As Partners in Health grew, so, too, did the AIDS epidemic. Farmer and his crew discovered cost-effective, efficient ways to deliver care and support to those AIDS patients. PIH also turned its attention to tuberculosis (particularly the drug-resistant variety), which has been ravaging the world's poor communities. The innovative drug protocols Farmer and his partners have developed have been so successful that the World Health Organization is now using PIH treatment models around the world.

The fact that PIH has programs in the United States speaks volumes of our own health-care delivery model. Farmer's own childhood - much of it spent living in a bus, tent or houseboat- awakened in him an understanding of the plight of the poor and the disenfranchised. And, unlike others who are overwhelmed into inactivity by the need, Farmer resolved to do something about it at a young age.

Farmer's worldwide efforts have garnered him significant praise and attention, including a MacArthur "genius" grant and considerable funding from numerous foundations. But it is largely for his work with inner-city AIDS patients living in Boston that we salute him. The Prevention and Access to Care and Treatment program is meeting with the same kind of success as PIH's international programs: hospitalization for AIDS patients enrolled in the program have decreased by 17%. PIH is currently evaluating the program's replication in a number of U.S. cities.

Despite his tremendous achievement, Farmer believes he can do more. He has said, "If I were truly influential, everyone in the world would have the right to health care, food, clean water, other basics. That's the goal." To find out more about how to support Partners In Health, visit their website at pih.org.