Mountains Beyond Mountains Summary

Dr. Paul Farmer was recently in the news for winning the 2016 Bronislaw Malinowski Award for his work in medical anthropology. I had previously read Mountains Beyond Mountains a biography about his life and work by Tracy Kidder. Dr. Farmer is the founder of the charity Partners in Health, which brings healthcare to the poorest people around the world. He has opened many health centers in Haiti, primarily treating HIV, tuberculosis, and cholera. He is also well known for combating multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Chile and in the Russian prison system. As a representative of WPI’s Global Projects Program, I intend to learn the customs and traditions of local people, cooperate with them, and help to create a long lasting positive impact.

Dr.

Farmer’s charity is like none before it, because its goal is to work with local people to bring a high quality of healthcare to everyone. Dr. Farmer does this by becoming a trusted member of the community in each of his sites, and working with these people to find the underlying causes for their illnesses. For example, in Haiti he spent months talking to and helping the locals. In the end he was even married to one. He discovered that the local people were often superstitious and that he needed to make sure his patients were actually taking their medicine. He found that the local people believed that illness was caused by evil spirits. Another important discovery was that malnutrition was the indirect cause of many conditions such as deaths in child birth. As Dr. Farmer leaned the ways of the people of Haiti, I will learn the customs of the locals at a global project center. If applicable to my project site, I will try to learn the language of those around me. I feel that even knowing the basics of someone’s language helps to form a trust as it shows effort on my part to understand them. There are many places where it is important to learn the customs of locals, such as when dining. For example, tipping is customary in the US, a few other American countries, and some European countries, like Albania, but in East Asia and European countries such as Italy leaving tips is not customary and is sometimes even insulting. Therefore, it is important to learn the customs of the locals, so that one does not offend

anyone.
Dr. Farmer knew the importance of working with local people. Dr. Farmer tries to staff his health centers with as many locals as possible. This makes patients more willing to trust the staff, and will allow the centers to function long after he is gone. Another important lesson I have learned from Dr. Farmer is the importance of working with local people. There is an important distinction to be made between working for people and with them. Many organizations try to work for other people around the world, but it is only by cooperation that any meaningful connection or permanent changes can occur. I hope to interact and talk to local people about how they view my project topic and how they feel would be the best course of action.
Finally I will make a great change for the better with my project. Dr. Farmer has made a huge impact on the world with his work. He started by running some short classes on basic health care for people in the medical clinic. Now Partners in Health operates a university hospital that trains hundreds of medical professionals in Haiti, to be the future of Haitian health care. I hope to create something that will help people for years to come. Perhaps, I will help to create some program, device, or plan that will help people or their businesses. My project may create employment opportunities, preserve and catalog pieces of history, or save local ecosystems. The opportunities are endless! No matter the project, I will strive to make long lasting change.