People
Honoring the memory of Paul Farmer
In Rwanda, he was muganga mwiza—good doctor. In Haiti, he was Doktè Paul. The biography Mountains Beyond Mountains dubbed him the “man who would cure the world.” Everywhere, Farmer inspired people to reimagine public health. He was a Harvard University professor, author of a dozen books, and co-founder of Partners in Health, which has engaged in 12 countries. Farmer was in one of them, Rwanda, at the time of his death, seeing patients and teaching at the University of Global Health Equity, which he founded to advance public health and medical equity.
“What I learnt from Professor Paul is to never lose your will to serve even when it does not seem worthy in the eyes of the world.”
—LARA TESI, student at the University of Global Health Equity. The New Times (Rwanda) April 2, 2022
Paul Farmer in the early 1990s, leaning, against an ambulance for Clinique Bon Saveur, which he founded in Haiti in 1985.
Photo courtesy of Partners In Health
Paul Farmer on rounds at Butaro District Hospital in Kigali, Rwanda.
Photo by Ferdinand Dukundimana / Butaro
“Paul would not stand for spaces that dehumanize us; not in resource-rich or resource-poor settings.”
—MICHAEL MURPHY, founding principal and CEO of MASS Design Group, architects for the Butaro District Hospital in Rwanda. Boston Globe, February 24, 2022
“For 20 years, I watched him make everything he touched better with his hardheaded evaluation of each and every problem at hand, and his ardent conviction that even in the poorest places, even in the face of dysfunctional politics and violence, he could make things better.”
—BILL CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, Time, March 2, 2022
Paul Farmer conducts rounds with the medical team at Bayalpata Hospital in Achham, Nepal, July 2012.
Photo by Rebecca Rollins / Partners In Health
The Butaro District Hospital in Rwanda was designed according to Farmer’s belief that all patients deserve to be treated with dignity. Natural light for patients is maximized. High ceilings and fans help limit airborne disease.
Photo by Iwan Baan
“He was a revolutionary who spent his entire life fighting social, political, and economic inequalities and their impact on health and well-being.”
—JACKLIN SAINT FLEUR, chief of operations at Hôpital Universitaire de Mirebalais, established in Haiti by Partners in Health. Partners In Health, pih.org/reflections
“He showed us that the moral high ground can win.”
—JOIA MUKHERJEE, medical director, Partners in Health. The Harvard Gazette, February 22, 2022
From Dean Williams: A life of purpose
Paul Farmer never accepted the status quo. Inequality is status quo. Racism is status quo. The notion that the poor will live in misery and die from diseases that are eminently treatable—that’s status quo, too.
And Paul would have none of it.
From his student days onward, he insisted that all people—all people—deserve access to high-quality medical care. Then he made that happen. In Haiti, in Rwanda, in Sierra Leone, in Mexico, in Kazakhstan, and on Navajo Nation lands, he proved again and again that it was possible to deliver lifesaving, dignity-affirming, culturally competent care even in the most remote and impoverished communities.
He opened hearts and minds—and wallets. He changed the way we thought about global health. I see Paul’s spirit reflected not only on these tribute pages but throughout this issue of Harvard Public Health magazine.
Our cover package on the new agenda for strengthening public health in Africa starts with the vision that every individual deserves a public health system capable of protecting, preserving, and promoting health and well-being. The incredible leaders profiled in this package are making that happen, one step at a time, across the continent. Our story on the emerging wave of public health entrepreneurs would resonate with Paul as well; his whole career was about inventing new approaches to seemingly intractable problems. I love what Paul once told the Boston Globe: “I go to bed worried about all the promises we’ve made. And I get up each morning thinking we haven’t made enough promises.”
He’s right. We haven’t made enough promises. The status quo still condemns far too many to breathe polluted air, drink contaminated water, go without the medical care they need. The huge wealth gaps and huge health gaps in the United States and worldwide are status quo. At this point, so is the rapid warming of our planet. The destruction of precious habitat. The inevitability of pandemics.
The status quo is still not acceptable. Paul Farmer showed us we have the power to change it.
Let’s redouble our efforts, starting now.
—Michelle A. Williams, ScD ’91
Dean of the Faculty, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Angelopoulos Professor in Public Health and International Development, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Kennedy School
Top photo by John Ra / Partners In Health.
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