Partners in Health
 |
|
| Founded | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Founders | Paul Farmer; Jim Yong Kim; Ophelia Dahl Thomas J. White; Todd McCormack |
| Focus | Humanitarian |
| Location | |
|
Area served
|
Worldwide |
|
Key people
|
Gary Gottlieb, CEO |
|
Employees
|
18,000 |
| Website | http://www.pih.org |
Partners In Health (PIH) is a Boston, Massachusetts-based non-profit health care organization founded by Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, Thomas J. White, Todd McCormack, and Jim Yong Kim in 1987.
The goals of the organization are "to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and to serve as an antidote to despair." As such, it provides topnotch healthcare in the poorest areas of developing countries. It builds hospitals and other medical facilities, hires and trains local staff, and delivers a range of healthcare, from in-home consultations to cancer treatments. It also strives to remove barriers to maintaining good health, such as dirty water or a lack of food, and to strengthen the rights of the poor. The approach trades simple charity for “accompaniment,” which is described as a “dogged commitment to doing whatever it takes to give the poor a fair shake.” While many of its principles are rooted in Liberation theology, the organization is secular. It forms long-term partnerships with, and works on behalf of, local ministries of health.
The organization is widely known from Tracy Kidder's The New York Times bestselling book Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World. The book details Farmer's life and work with the organization. The title comes from a simplified translation of the Haitian phrase, deye mon, gen mon.
Partners In Health began in 1987, after Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl helped set up a community-based health project in Cange, Haiti, known as Zanmi Lasante ("Partners in Health"). The organization initially focused on treating people with HIV/AIDS in rural Haiti. PIH now embraces a holistic approach to tackling disease, poverty, and human rights in a variety of countries.
In 1993, Farmer used the proceeds from his John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Award to create a new arm of Partners In Health, the Institute for Health and Social Justice. Its mission is to analyze the impact of poverty and inequality on health, and to use these findings to educate academics, donors, policy makers, and the general public. Dr. Joia Mukherjee, PIH's Chief Medical Officer, directs the Institute.
...
Wikipedia