Paul Farmer truly did inspire the people of Haiti and the people that worked around him with his spirit and hope. But the foundation that he built through his health centers and interaction with the natives had the most profound effect on Haiti in my eyes.
“I can’t sleep. There is always somebody not getting treatment”(24), Paul said. It was this type of persistence to aid others that made Paul so successful in his time at Haiti. He was constantly making trips to the most desolate and poverty stricken areas of Haiti, communicating with the people. This process allowed him to access the issues through individual needs, instead of creating a basic procedure to cure the general population. The attention the locals received from Paul was astounding for them to begin with. The commitment Paul showed must have built trust between the Haitians and himself. A very small, elderly lady suffering from severe tuberculosis of the spine once said to him as she’s bent over, “A son always cares for his mother”(26). The patients loved Dokte Paul, and his connection with them inspired a revolution to end the misery.
Not only was his interaction beneficial, but Paul Farmer put every dime he had into Zamni Lasante in Haiti. Zamni Lasante was responsible for building schools, houses, communal sanitation, and water systems in his catchment area. The houses alone may have had the largest effect. Any shelter that wasn’t ridden with mud and infection was better than what the people had before. The physical foundation Farmer created was essentially the building blocks of a Haitian revolution for a better way of life.
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