Solidarity in Action: A Preferential Option for the Poor

* Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl, cofounders, Partners In Health * Loune Viaud, Partners In Health, Haiti

This is a public address on the occasion of the Notre Dame Award for International Human Development and Solidarity. Partners In Health will receive the 2011 Notre Dame Award for International Human Development and Solidarity. Partners In Health (PIH), founded more than 25 years ago in a squatter settlement in rural Haiti, has gained a worldwide reputation for its work to bring excellent healthcare to the very poor through service, training, advocacy, and research. PIH partners with poor communities in a dozen countries to combat the “twin epidemics” of disease and poverty. Bringing the best of modern science to bear, the PIH model of care is comprehensive and community-based. Its success has helped prove that “untreatable” health problems can be addressed effectively, even in poor settings. PIH cofounders Paul Farmer and Ophelia Dahl as well as Loune Viaud, director of strategic planning and operations for PIH, Haiti, will accept the award and speak on campus. Farmer, Kolokotrones University Professor at Harvard University and chair of the Harvard Medical School’s Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, is currently United Nations deputy special envoy to Haiti. Dahl serves as the PIH executive director. This is a free, but ticketed, event. Tickets will be available beginning April 11, 2011, at the "LaFortune Ticket Office":http://lafortune.nd.edu/infodesk/.