Skip to main content

Partners in Health

I started a book today called Mountains Beyond Mountains. It details the life of Paul Farmer, a doctor who spends much of his life and energy treating the sick in central Haiti. His complex, called Zanmi Lasante-- "Partners in Health"-- rests in a desolate, remote village called Cange, its seven doctors serving about 100,000 people from the surrounding area.

One way that Haitians have explained sickness has been through the idea of maji, or sorcery. While not all Haitians practice Voodoo, even many Catholics and Protestants believe in maji, which many believe is used by enemies to cause illnesses. I suppose this means that there are pidgin religions, just as much as there are pidgin languages. Cultures meet and mix, and you get blended ideas. Geographers call it "acculturation."

I don't know yet why the book is called Mountains Beyond Mountains. Maybe it has to do with the challenges that Farmer faced as a doctor here. Anyway, this man lived a unique life, and his character is as compelling as his stories. If you're interested in learning more, visit http://www.pih.org/pages/haiti. The video on the main page shows the building of a new hospital in Mirebalais, part of which will be devoted to medical education. The second story of one of the buildings will allow medical students to access medical training through high-speed Internet, and the facility itself will provide services not available anywhere else on the island.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Nice Guy Fallacy

I read part of a poem recently by one of my favorite poets. It reads: I envy not in any moods The captive void of noble rage The linnet born within the cage That never knew the summer woods. I envy not the beast that takes His license in the field of time Unfetter'd by the sense of crime To whom a conscience never wakes. Nor what may call itself as bles't The heart that never plighted troth But stagnates in the weeds of sloth Nor any want-begotten rest. I hold it true, whate'er befall I feel it, when I sorrow most 'Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. At base, Tennyson contrasted a life of risk, and consequent pain, with one of security. He sides conclusively with the life of risk, and says he fails to envy those who have faced no hardship. I agree with him; and, for good or ill, his words are just as relevant today as they were in the nineteenth century. Like then, there are those today who choose to live their lives with as little risk as...
2 comments
Read more

Heroes

Although we have several examples of heroes in our day, one of the best known is of a woman named Agnes Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (“Gonja Bojaju”), who devoted her life to sustaining the “poor, sick, orphaned, and dying.” Her venue was Calcutta, India, where she served as a teacher until she began to take notice of the poverty there. Seeking to do something about it, she began an organization that consisted of just thirteen members at its inception. Called the “Missionaries of Charity,” the organization would eventually burgeon into well over 5,000 members worldwide, running approximately 600 missions, schools and shelters in 120 countries; and caring for the orphaned, blind, aged, disabled, and poor. As her personal work expanded, she traveled to countries like Lebanon, where she rescued 37 children from a hospital by pressing for peace between Israel and Palestine; to Ethiopia, where she traveled to help the hungry; to Chernobyl, Russia, to assist victims of the nuclear meltdown there; and to ...
2 comments
Read more

End of an Era

It was over two years ago that I joined an experiment that would last until last July, an experiment that would significantly change me and the eleven others involved. That experiment was the creation of a new church comprised of twelve members whose purpose was to serve the people of downtown Stockton. Most attractive to me about it was that half of our income would be used in some way outside the church, to benefit the local community or to aid in international assistance. In that span of time, we did in fact serve in ways we'd envisioned. One of our first events was a pizza and school supplies giveaway (coupled with games for the kids who came) toward the end of our first summer. Many of those who came seemed genuinely happy at this. Through that year, we also hosted an event called a "card me house party," wherein each person's ticket to the event was a gift card. Once inside, chips could be purchased to play card and other games, with the resulting collection g...
1 comment
Read more