Dear friends,

Last year, PIH Co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer sent a Giving Tuesday message to this community laying out what he called his “strongest evidence that our hope is not misplaced.”

He wrote about the team I lead in Haiti, and how a decade of focus on medical training meant that, when an earthquake struck in the south of the country, the people leading the medical response had been trained by PIH. 

He then asked us to imagine if we hadn’t made those investments. Put like that, the choice is clear. Every day we get to choose whether we’re making investments in care we’ll be grateful for in the future. 

If you haven’t had a chance to contribute to our Giving Tuesday triple matching fund, please do now >> 

One year later, we’re living and working as Paul’s legacy instead of as his colleagues. One year later, the team he pointed to as his hope’s concrete backing has weathered remarkable political instability, supply shortages, and security threats while keeping every single hospital and clinic we serve open and caring for patients. 

Paul was right when he wrote to us last fall, and he’s right now. Every time we leap forward and invest in care, the future proves our investment wise. 

I’ve copied his email from last year below, and I hope you’ll take a moment to read it, then donate to this triple match campaign. 

In gratitude,

Marc Julmisse

Interim Executive Director of Zanmi Lasante

Partners In Health

Dear friends,

Late this summer, after a 7.2 magnitude earthquake devastated much of southern Haiti, I traveled there to assist my Haitian colleagues. The human impact was heartbreaking, but I also saw our decades of effort at work and the difference our partnership has made. 

I’m writing to share real evidence for hope and to invite you to help advance our lifesaving work even further.

All gifts triple matched

I often think of one boy, 13 years old, whose mother and younger brother died in the earthquake on August 14. He had a fractured pelvis, a fractured femur, and a ruptured bladder requiring emergency exploratory surgery. His uncle—a man with seven kids of his own—came with him and stayed by his nephew’s bedside the whole time. 

We know what would have happened without enough staff, stuff, space, systems, and social support. But this young boy, and so many other earthquake survivors did have the care they needed, in part thanks to our shared work.

Here is my strongest evidence that our hope is not misplaced:

Despite the shocks and blows our team endured just this summer in Haiti—a presidential assassination, gangs taking over the capital city of Port au Prince, then an earthquake and hurricane—we witnessed a bustling response full of resolve, teamwork, and coordination. 

The caregivers we trained over the last decade were leading the response.

After a decade of training emergency-medicine specialists and trauma nurses, and mental health teams in Haiti, seeing our own trainees responding to the earthquake was nothing short of inspiring. 

When we opened our teaching hospital in Haiti not long after the 2010 earthquake, there was no emergency-medicine training program in Haiti, and there never had been. 

Imagine if we had not responded to catastrophe with hope all those years ago. Imagine where we would be without decades of investment, training, and care delivery first and foremost on behalf of the poor. 

COVID-19 continues to cause devastation around the globe, exacerbated by uneven access to vaccines that has given wealthy nations an advantage over countries and communities already most marginalized. 

While we could respond to this catastrophe by giving up hope, we would be wrong to do so, as we have ample evidence of the power of partnership and pragmatic solidarity. 

As Partners In Health, we’re choosing to act with hope. Together we are providing health care as a human right, meeting COVID-19 with care, and building health systems that will save lives now and into the future. Thank you, as always, for your partnership.

https://www.pih.org/triplematch

With warmth and gratitude,

Dr. Paul Farmer

Co-Founder and Chief Strategist

Partners In Health

800 Boylston Street, Suite 300, Boston, MA 02199
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