After the announcement on December 11 of an appeal for $2.2 billion to fund a campaign to eradicate cholera from the island of Hispaniola https://www.haitilibre.com/en/news-7388-haiti-health-ban-ki-moon-tuesday-launched-an-appeal-for-$22-billion.html the Secretary General of the UN, Ban Ki-moon has appointed the American, Dr Paul Farmer, special advisor for community based medecine and lessons from Haiti

As Special Advisor, Dr. Farmer will work closely with all key partners to help galvanise support for the elimination of cholera in Haiti. He will also use the data gathered from the Office of the Special Envoy for Haiti to advise on lessons learned and how those can be applied in Haiti and other settings.

Dr. Farmer brings a wealth of experience to the new appointment, including from his work at Harvard University where he is the Chair of the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, and Chief of the Division of Global Health Equity at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. In 2010, Dr. Farmer was awarded Harvard’s highest distinction for his pioneering humanitarianism and scholarship.

He is a founding director of Partners In Health, an international non-profit organization that provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. He has pioneered novel community-based treatment strategies that successfully show that quality health care can be delivered in resource-poor settings.

HL/ HaitiLibre