Like many in the field of international relief and development, January 12, 2010 is a date I will not soon forget. That’s of course when that devastating earthquake struck Haiti.
The news from Haiti has been sobering these past two years, but good, dedicated people — Haitian and otherwise — continue to help Haiti build back better. It’s been a learning experience for a lot of us, and I know we’ll hold on to what we’ve learned for a long time.
One person who has much to teach us about Haiti is Dr. Paul Farmer, a medical doctor and anthropologist who has split his time over the past few decades between pioneering community health initiatives in rural Haiti and teaching at Harvard Medical School in Boston. He is also the founding director of Partners in Health and has written numerous books.
Because of all this, I’m grateful for Dr. Paul Farmer’s latest book, Haiti After The Earthquake (PublicAffairs). I read it last fall, and I’m pleased to say my review appears in the new issue of PRISM magazine.
As a little FYI, my next piece for PRISM is slated to be the May/June cover story, focusing on farmworkers here in the US and the work of the Coalition of Immokalee Workers.
[Photo credit: The Daily Beast]
