RR6: Dokte Paul travels…

I think the biggest strengths that Paul Farmer and his team have to offer is their compassion, knowledge, and willingness to dedicate their lives to helping other people. Paul Farmer struggled to sleep at night when thinking about the Haitian people suffering from illnesses in need of his help. The fact that he and his team took in patients without any charge is truly an act of compassion. They figure that they obtain much knowledge about health and might as well put it to good use. I did notice that Paul Farmer and his team had the challenge of providing a sufficient supply of resources or finding enough help at times. For example, during the short time span Paul Farmer headed back home, there was a Haitian patient who came in looking help but there was none to be found. As a result, she passed away. Paul Farmer was notified that he would have been able to easily save her life if he had been there.

I think Paul Farmer’s biggest strength him and his team has is passion and perseverance. It takes a great deal of it to enter a community abroad like of Haiti and perform the work he does. I think passion in general, more than anything, is incredibly powerful and serves as the driving force behind a person’s decisions and actions, and for Paul Farmer, it is his passion to aid others, and establish for them a culture of health equality. Given the amount of difficulties he and his team has faced, they manage to persevere and move on because their ultimate goal is larger than that of any obstacles they can encounter.

Many of the challenges him and his team faces are due to financial reasons. Without sufficient funds, it is becomes difficult for him and his team to carry out their mission. With a shortage in funding, they will lack in resources, which him and his team will have to make up for with their time and effort. Despite his efforts to train others to carry out the tasks he does, it always seem as though what he is doing is a one man job, where the entire country is relying on the assistance of this one man, and I think its incredible. Unlike other larger organizations who have multitude of resources, Paul Farmer’s resources are often times limited, yet his accomplishments are massive.

Dr. Farmer and his team have many strengths that help them in working with their patients, but at the same time they do also face challenges such as a lack of resources to accommodate all their patients. The biggest strength that Dr. Farmer has is commitment and love for what he does. Dr. Farmer passionately loves helping other people, even if that means he himself is at ill health. Farmer never turns away a patient, and when resources are not enough he always finds a way to work around by working harder. Besides Dr. Farmer’s passion for his job, his ability to integrate himself into the Haitian community tremendously helps him connect to the people. Dr. Farmer puts himself into the culture of the Haitian people, in many ways like an anthropologist would. He shows respect for the people’s beliefs and curiosity to learn more about their culture. This deep connection between Dr. Farmer and the Haitian people make Farmer’s job much easier.

Some challenges that Dr. Farmer and his team face are a lack of resources to accommodate all their patients. With the many patients that Dr. Farmer and his team have to treat on a limited amount of resources, at times it gets difficult for them to help everyone; however Dr. Farmer always finds a way around it by giving up some of his resources such as time. If Farmer and his team could get more donors they would also be able to get more advanced technology to help people, which would make it much easier and faster to help people. Another challenge that Dr. Farmer and his team face is that many of his patients believe that illnesses are caused by curses by others members of their community. However Dr. Farmer respects the people’s beliefs and continues to treat them. Even though Dr. Farmer faces challenges like this, he always goes the extra mile to help his patients, his willingness and passion for what he does is what makes him such a good doctor and role model.

Success comes about in a lot of different ways. Actually, depending on what you define success as, it can come about in any way. I believe that Paul Farmer’s definition of success revolves around bringing health care into the Haitian communities he considers his home. I also believe that many of his and his team’s characteristics helps this success come about. His way of being compassionate, and consistent, and persistent has allowed for many successes. His challenges have prevented a lot of those successes too. Because his idea of success includes health care, challenges involve lack of resources and spread of knowledge. There is not enough money, or medicine, or advocacy for his cause. However, I think their strengths help to counter the challenges (moreso than the challenges counter their strengths). Compassion allows for their interactions with patients to be sincere and caring beyond the shallow sense of the word. Consistency builds trust that spreads a hope throughout Cange. And persistence provides a standing ground on which the team stands and won’t back down upon. This allows them to find pathways to success, despite the challenges in their way. An additional challenge may be a lowering of hope in themselves, as more and more challenges are brought about. But I believe their compassionate and consistent persistence helps to alleviate any discouragement their line of work inevitably offers.

Through the reading, I believe that Dr. Paul’s biggest strength is the deep compassion and care he has for his patients, regardless of their race, gender, or socioeconomic status. He is selfless and passionate about the people of Haiti. I think that a lot of people who go to developing nations to do service there always regard the people they serve as lesser than them. However, Dr. Paul takes the time and understanding to truly serve these people and give them better lives through healthcare.
I think that a challenge Dr. Paul and his team face are gaining donors and financial sponsorships. Though Dr. Paul is dedicated and extremely intelligent, he requires much money to keep his clinic running and advancing equipment. I think it’s important for Dr. Paul to teach others about the healthcare plight in Haiti in order to gain donors.

Paul Farmer and his team are truly an inspiration. To me, the most obvious strength amongst them is their persistence. One of my favorite quotes is short yet too the point “Actions express priorities”. This quote exemplifies the work of Farmer and his team. They push through all financial, social and personal hardships to focus on their goal. Farmer sacrifices for the well-being of these underprivileged individual in Haiti. His fight for TB within these affected communities pervade through all difficulties. Dr Farmer could not just sit around and hope someone would make a positive change; he had to be proactive in his work. For example, his relationship with Tom White -a major donor for Partners in Health-catalyzed the possibility for cure within Haiti. We can see through Dr Farmer’s actions that his priority was the well-being of these affected individuals. He had a burning fire inside that had one goal to help. This is something we can all aspire to become: persistent.
The biggest challenge, for obvious it may seem, is the financial aspect. To fund medical care, living costs and travel expenses, is not an easy task. Farmer saw dilapidated homes, impoverished communities and sick people all combined to be a huge task for one person with a small team. But it did not stop them. It will require hundreds of thousands of dollars to realistically support Farmer’s passion. I know personally I have had a difficulty with that. For example, I aspire to fund a friend from central Bangkok to the United States so she can experience travel, American culture, and positive relationships. Unfortunately it is not as easy as I expected. It requires the cost of airfare, food, living expenses, health insurance etc….So seeing how Farmer made his medicinal aspiration come alive shows how even our biggest challenges can come alive.

Throughout Dr. Farmers’ travels motivation for civic and community engagement is what drives the team to continue on. Some of the team’s biggest strengths include knowledge, passion, and commitment. Farmers’ small group traveled to risky areas to provide medical attention to those who would never get it otherwise. Education is a privilege and those who have been granted it should utilize it for the greater good. Anyone can have passion but when your passion is to help others and you have to privilege of education you have to power to do so much. With committed individuals that have the same passion you do you can accomplish so much. Dr. Farmer and his team have all these qualities and push forward for public health in developing.
There are big challenges that come with having big dreams. Wanting to help communities at the level at which Farmer and his team is requires a lot of financial support and that challenge will continue to be present during their journey. Access to the type of medical equipment and supplies for large communities will also be a continuing challenge because of the areas the team travels to. Farmer is confident that with the strong qualities already existing in his team money is not a big issue because somehow they will get it.

Dr. Farmer contains genuine compassion and passion for his work. One thing I truly admire about him is his ability to stay focused on his goal and his passion. He truly knows where his heart lies and he dedicates his time into pursuing more knowledge through helping others. I believe this is the epitome of becoming engaged because in helping others and becoming more aware, he was able to learn more about the culture and himself. These qualities are all which make a great doctor, and it is truly inspirational. The biggest strength that I have seen in the team is their ability to compromise, because they are all willingly to sacrifice time or effort in the name of helping others. However, even the most passionate team will come across challenges. A few challenges I see that are prevalent in the novel include money and working through cultural differences. It’s extremely difficult. especially if foreigners are telling natives what to do. Money, as always, remains a problem in every practice. In order to help others a great deal of funds need to be raised, and this is a continuing challenge that Dr. Farmer’s team must face.

The biggest strength he and his team is sharing strong belief. They believe people who suffer MDR should be treated even though it’s very expensive and they don’t have money to pay. Thanks to the belief, they could handle many difficulties.
Their biggest challenge is money. Main tools for cure have to be imported in poor countries they work. The cost per person is very expensive. One especially difficult case costs $250,000. And in average, it costs $1000-2000. In order to get money from big donors, they have to pass cost-effective analysis. They achieved that by reducing dramatically medicine cost. They reduced about 90% by showing a lot of TB projects using the drags. It affects the way to treat TB all over the world. Because they believe what they do is right, they can do things that seem to be impossible. Their passion for cure of patients made them do such a wonderful job.

The biggest strength Farmer brings to his work is the ability to understand Haitian culture and their religion. Instead of calling the Haitians out for believing in something that has no scientific basis, he sympathized with them. In this way, he can relate to his patients more. He and his team are also very persistent in helping the Haitians and Carabayllonas. The TB treatments were expensive but they still managed to get the money to for them. Farmer also wrote a lot of articles about the conditions in those countries, which incited some people who wanted to help. Jim was able to lower the prices of drugs for MDR, which made treating the disease much more cost-effective.
I think the biggest challenge they faced was convincing the Peruvian government that they should treat MDR patients. Reading about how the authorities did not want to admit that their TB program had a flaw was frustrating. So many people were dying from this disease, but they thought it was too expensive to treat; that it would die out from Dots treatment; and it was less contagious than regular TB. All of these were myths that they believed. Fortunately, Farmer’s team were eventually able to treat and cure patients with the disease. After so much adversity, I am glad that they were able to accomplish such an amazing feat.

The biggest strength Farmer and his team have is their passion for the Haitian people. Farmer in particular was too committed to the poor, leaving little room for others. His immense passion specifically alienated Ophelia Dahl, Pa former love interest whom Farmer wanted to marry. Farmer contracted dysentery and if he became any sicker he would have had to been transported back to the US. Farmer sacrificed his own health in order to stay and travel to other parts of Haiti. Another strength of Farmer and his team is their respect of the Haitian people. This establishes a relationship that benefits Farmer and the Haitians because Farmer teaches and trains the natives to care for themselves, as well as others.
Although Farmer and his team have an immense passion, they still lack monetary funds, resources, and support. You can have all the passion in the world, but it still won’t be able to buy you some of the simple necessities that the people of Haiti need. But although these are problems that Farmer faces, he still finds a way to help these people, like when he wrote back home to his friends and family asking for donations to help the Haitian people.

I think the biggest strength Paul Farmer and his team brings to their work is their understanding and dedication to this world. Farmer understands how these people are dealing with their living environment because he has gone through it as a child. His medical background and love for medicine allows him to reach out and provide assistance to those that live in these dangerous environments. His dedication to spend all his time in a poor country shows that he is a kind man with a good heart, who has a huge commitment in helping others live a better life.

One of the challenges that Farmer faces is the lack of financial assistance. During one trip to Haiti, he noticed the “roofs of these tiny hovels, roofs made of banana bark thatch, patched with rags, clearly leaky (77).” Because of the difficult living situations, he expected that a majority of them were ill, and that there was no medicine provided there. It is always hard to find funding for a small country because many of the resources are being used in America. It seems that money is always an issue when it comes to providing aid to another world, especially healthcare. For example, when an TB outbreak occurred, it was realized that ” various American agencies had spent about a billion dollars stanching the outbreak, and other countries are in debt when it came to owning back the Americans (141).” This prime example shows how even though Farmer wants to give it his all to providing the help that these people need, money is something that will always set him back.

I think the biggest strengths that Paul and his team bring to their work is their philosophies on how they view the world and their specialties in various areas. Tom White, one of the main donors for Partners in Health was an extremely generous Republican that contributed millions to the organization. He was one who had much experience in helping the poor and has already been giving money away for years. Jim Kim, a student of medicine and anthropology was also another member of Partners in Health. He had a similar mindset as Farmer, that medicine addresses only the symptoms of poverty. In order for there to be change, there must be something done with the “political economies.” Ophelia was Paul’s previous lover. After going through thick and thin with him, they finally became friends. She took on the finances and began scheming about creating an endowment. Yearly, she contributed about three times her salary ($15,000) to the organization. Through action and support, this small team in the Partners in Health organization are able to make a difference in Haiti.

A huge challenge they come across are the patients’ idea of Western medicine. In their culture, they use Voodoo as an explanation for their sickness. It is often said that another person put a curse on them, making them contract diseases like tuberculosis and AIDS. Farmer explains Voodoo as something to blame, because these patients have never received any help in their lives. They need some sort of excuse for why there is so much suffering. This mentality that a neighbor has put a curse on them could potentially make them not want to take the medicine that is given to them, given that they think it will do nothing for them. It is a challenge for Paul and his team to be able to change the attitude toward Western medicine in such a poverty-stricken area.

Paul Farmer and his team exhibit courage, enthusiasm, cleverness, and intelligence that keep the fight for TB treatment alive. During the revolt in Haiti, Paul Farmer did not give up trying to get back into Haiti when his name was blacklisted to the country; nor did he fear helping anyone in dangerous areas for medical assistance. When Jim was incorporated into the group during the Peru outbreak, Jim believed that “‘a small group of committed individuals’” could bring about change for the better (Kidder 169). This positive attitude helped the efforts of Farmer and the other Peruvian doctors during the MRD containment in Peru. To help further the treatment along in Peru, Paul and Jim would “sweet talk” workers at the Brigham pharmacy to obtain the medicine needed for the men’s trip to Peru (Kidder 149). Practically playing “Robin Hood” and sneaking drugs over to another country takes a lot of bravery to accomplish. Paul Farmer’s use of bringing awareness to the injustice of health care in Peru during a speech for the organization, “International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease” was a smart use of marking the issue and spreading the word. Ophelia, who had been in charge of the budget ever since contributions were being made to the PIH, created an endowment for the organization that helps Paul Farmer and the organization have a decent amount of money in case of emergencies. All of these qualities have contributed to the success Paul Farmer and his team have brought to the awareness, prevention, and treatment of TB.

The challenges Paul Farmer and his team face were international, genetic, and medical issues about TB prevention and treatment. MDR treatment was declared “largely ineffective, but not on the basis of any substantial trails” by the World Health Organization (Kidder 166). By declaring this ineffectiveness, the WHO brought less hope for the exact cause Paul Farmer and his team was trying to bring awareness to, clearly creating an international setback in TB prevention and treatment efforts. Also, “…experts in international TB control had deemed MDR too expensive to treat” creating another problem for the funding of Farmer and his teams efforts of TB (Kidder 141). Even though “Farmer was a TB expert”, patients in Carabayllo could not be identified with the exact type of TB strain contracted, influencing one of the main problems throughout the story of rapidly changing TB strains of the virus (Kidder 138). One of the main causes of these multiple strains of TB was inadequate care of people with TB (Kidder 142). Therefore the lack of resources and knowledge on TB prevention and treatments influenced the increase outbreaks of TB, equaling more money and time costs for Farmer and his team and his patients.

Dr. Farmer is certainly a personality on his own right. I think his strengths are basically his conscious attitute about what is right and wrong in the world he lives. So, based on that Dr. Farmer utilizes his abilities as a doctor but more than that his humanity translate into an immense body of work helping others. He himself suffers from asthma and high blood pressure but he managed to travel constantly in service to others, not to mentioned a bad left leg. I also think that Dr. Farmer’s overall efforts of helping others are not by any means lessened by the real constrains of lack of resources, facilities, money and competent medical help in the field but these are certainly challenges he faces.