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Dr. Michael Rich joined the Peace Corps after college and went to Cameroon



Dr. Michael Rich joined the Peace Corps after college and went to Cameroon

'Because We Can, We Do'

By Tracy Kidder
Parade magazine
April 3, 2005


Despite its abstract-sounding name, this program's mission is plain: to bring the best of modern Western medicine to sick people in some of the poorest parts of the world. Twenty doctors work with the Division. They treat patients and help to train local doctors in Peru, in Haiti, in Russia's prisons-and some of them work right next door in one of Boston's own poor neighborhoods.

"The Division was founded in response to the growing disparity in health between the rich and poor," explains Dr. Howard Hiatt, a former dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, now a professor of medicine at Harvard. Hiatt helped to launch the new program, which relies mainly on private donations. He was inspired, he says, by the example of two doctors whom he once mentored-Paul Farmer, 45, the head of the Division, and Jim Yong Kim, 45. Farmer and various friends opened a clinic in the desperately impoverished central plateau of Haiti, where they showed that the entire range of human ailments-including AIDS and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis-could be treated in some of the most difficult settings imaginable. Two years later, Dr. Farmer and others created a public charity called Partners In Health. (Dr. Kim later joined the team.) Building on their experience in Haiti, they have created projects elsewhere that seem to be changing the world's view of what is possible in medicine and public health.

While there are other programs at U.S. medical schools that deal with global health, what distinguishes the Division is its affiliation with Partners In Health, which allows its doctors to care for patients in Haiti, Russia and Peru.

[Excerpt]

Dr. Michael Rich, now 42, joined the Peace Corps after college and went to Cameroon. There he saw children dying of infectious diseases he knew could have been treated easily in a more prosperous place. He resolved to become a doctor and to work in impoverished locales. Lately, he has spent most of his time working in the prisons of Siberia, rife with drug-resistant TB, daily facing the sort of desperate situation at which the world is inclined to shrug. But, Dr. Rich points out, this has always been the case: "In 1762, Jean Jacques Rousseau wrote, 'Half of all children die by their eighth birthday. This is nature's law. Do not try to contradict it.' Well, we contradict it every day, and by contradicting it, we prove that the world is not fatalistic. I don't believe that there is nothing we can do about the 8000 people who die of AIDS every day. We can greatly reduce poverty, suffering and sickness."

When this story was posted in April 2005, this was on the front page of PCOL:


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April 17, 2005: This Week's Top Stories The Coyne Column: A Peace Corps Writer Discovery 17 Apr Chris Van Hollen supports Peace Corps budget 17 Apr Joseph Goldstein founded Forest Refuge 17 Apr Judge Flemming Norcott wins community service award 16 Apr Wangari Maathai meets with Kenya Country Director 15 Apr Simon James says corps' days numbered in Uzbekistan 15 Apr Peace Corps not heard anything about Uzbekistan 15 Apr Novak says Chris Dodd attacking anti-Castro officials 14 Apr Taylor Hackford not pleased with content editing 14 Apr Activist W. Retta Gilliam dies in DC 13 Apr Alberto Ibargüen studying newspaper options 13 Apr Christopher Hill says Korea nuclear talks can work 12 Apr DNA undercuts verdict against Jerry Marks 11 Apr Tom Bissell discusses recent events in Kyrgyzstan 11 Apr Chris Gobrecht named Basketball Coach at Yale 11 Apr Glenn Ivers does "Splash for Cash" in icy waters 11 Apr Chris Shays says Delay should step down 10 Apr

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April 17, 2005: Special RPCV Events RPCV Kent Island Family Weekend on May 6 - 8 Joseph Opala speaks in Rhode Island on April 19 South Carolina RPCVs to see off PCVs on April 18 Terry Deshler speaks in Wyoming on April 18 Cameroon RPCVs selling special Pagne Bush proclaims National Volunteer Week RPCVs: Post your stories or press releases here for inclusion next week.

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RPCVs and Friends remember Pope John Paul II Tony Hall found the pope to be courageous and capable of forgiving the man who shot him in 1981, Mark Gearan said the pope was as dynamic in person as he appears on television, Maria Shriver said he was a beacon of virtue, strength and goodness, and an RPCV who met the pope while serving in the Solomon Islands said he possessed the holiness of a man filled with a deep love and concern for humanity. Leave your thoughts here.

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Friends of the Peace Corps 170,000 strong 170,000 is a very special number for the RPCV community - it's the number of Volunteers who have served in the Peace Corps since 1961. It's also a number that is very special to us because March is the first month since our founding in January, 2001 that our readership has exceeded 170,000. And while we know that not everyone who comes to this site is an RPCV, they are all "Friends of the Peace Corps." Thanks everybody for making PCOL your source of news for the Returned Volunteer community.

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