A Voice of One

Yvonne C. Parizo Prof. Patti Cooksey-Fisher Quest for Meaning Pledged November 15, 2011 In this day and age, cynics are incredibly abundant. However, cynics have been plentiful since humans came into being. After all, how many times have you heard a person say, “I didn’t vote because my one vote doesn’t matter”. Or how about, “nobody cares what I say, I’m just one person”. I’ve heard those lines so many times, that I just look at the ones speaking them and shake my head. It’s sad, to hear individuals say those words. The idea that they do not matter is depressing, not just for me, but to them as well. I guess, they never heard about“A voice of one calling in the desert, ‘Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him”. (Location 50482). Well, one voice, one person can make a difference. Take Sergeant Dakota Meyer who “took the exposed gunner's position in a gun-truck as they drove down the steeply terraced terrain in a daring attempt to disrupt the enemy attack and locate the trapped U.S. team. Disregarding intense enemy fire now concentrated on their lone vehicle, Corporal Meyer killed a number of enemy fighters with the mounted machine guns and his rifle, some at near point blank range, as he and his driver made three solo trips into the ambush area”.(cmoh.org) He made a difference for he was the only one with a weapon. Or how about the lone Chinese student during the uprising in 1989 who stopped an entire division of tanks, just by standing in front of them. If that doesn’t give an idea of what one person can do, just think about what Dr. Paul Farmer has done in Haiti, Peru, and Rwanda. When other people said helping areas of extreme poverty is wasteful, he proved they were wrong. Dr. Farmer showed how “one voice calling”(Location 50482) does make an impact on the world. In 2003, Tracy Kidder published a book entitled, Mountains Beyond Mountains. It is the true story of how one man, Dr. Paul Farmer, began and continues a quest to bring good health to all people. I say for all people, for he does research and works to cure diseases in places of extreme poverty which in turn will bring vaccines and better medication to the people in higher financial levels of the world. This is important for one of Farmer’s partners, Jim Kim said: “’Forgive me for saying this, but the great thing about TB is that it’s airborne.’ Tuberculosis was only predominantly a disease of the poor, Jim reasoned. Others got it, too, just from breathing. In the era of AIDS, the affluent world would have to pay attention to the threat of a TB so difficult to treat, and to the dire but real possibility that ‘superbugs,’ resistant to every known antibiotic, would spread across borders – between homeless shelters and Park Avenue in New York, between poor and wealthy nations”. (Kidder, 143) How true this statement is! And how quickly the wealthy forget that they too, can be devastated by a simple little germ or bacteria which have become resistant to the medication we have today. Although this is a major declaration, it is more to the middle of what this one man did. He brought and still brings health services, education, and respect to groups of people in the world which “experts in international TB control had deemed MDR too expensive to treat”. ( 141) Now back to the beginning, in 1983 Paul Farmer had just graduated from Duke University and with the winnings of an essay contest, he flew to Haiti in search of a region where he could concentrate on medicine and anthropology. He found it in the Cange, Haiti. A place which Farmer described as “amazingly, biblically, dry, and barren” (76) ; a place reminiscent of the one described in the quote: “a voice of one calling from the desert” (Location 50842). Furthermore, Farmer said: “the absence of tin in Cange, screamed ‘Misery’….the people who had built these miserable lean-tos weren’t convinced that they’d ever live in anything better….” (Kidder, 77) With these words, it is plain to see that Farmer had found one part of what he was looking for. It was a place to start at and begin his ultimate quest of “curing the world”. (Kidder, book cover) With finding Cange, Farmer used every resource available to him to help the people in this part of Haiti. As he moved forward in getting his medical degree at Harvard and an anthropology degree; he met others who heard his voice calling out: Ophelia Dahl, Jim Kim, Tom White, and Todd McCormack. They too, joined with him and became other voices of one who reached out to help Farmer with his vision. Zanmi Lasante, a community based health center became a reality and continues today, still growing and sharing in the need to help those who have the least in life and be given the dignity of being treated as human beings. All this came about due to Paul Farmer and his desire to help and cure the “others” of the world. The above mentioned people helped him create the Partners in Health organization which helped provide the funding, administrative issues, and educating of doctors, nurses, and many others in becoming a part of this venture. It didn’t stop in Haiti, Farmer and PIH built other facilities in Peru, Rwanda, and even Russia to help treat diseases and other health issues such as women’s health, birth control, and schools to help educate the people in the most depraved areas of the world. Farmer is indeed a “voice of one calling” and many people heeded his call; coming to donate, help, and stay in these regions. However, there are many who will say, “So what! Look at all the rich people he knew and got help from. Big deal”. It is true, Farmer did meet and came to know people in a higher economic class, but he was from a low economic class. He won a full scholarship to Duke and did meet many “rich” people there and at Harvard, but he spent most of his time in either Haiti or in the low income class area of Boston. That sure isn’t a place to meet the ones with the money, but somehow Farmer overcame all these barriers and kept on working to meet the goals he set out. This is a person who doesn’t believe in saying, ‘No’, he believes in ‘Yes’. And yes, he is just one man to do something, but there are others. “People for Haiti” is another organization which is non-profit. It was created after the earthquake in 2010 which left Port au Prince and most of the rest of Haiti devastated. You’re thinking: “Okay, that’s nice.” Yes, it is nice. What’s even nicer is that it is made up of “doctors, lawyers, journalists, homemakers, economists, contractors, students and artists who have joined to dedicate their talent and energy to helping people in Haiti rise again and prosper”. (PFH) Even of more significance, the one who began it is my physician. That is what makes it important to me. When I began reading Kidder’s book, I thought that my doctor was a part of Farmer’s organization, and then with talking to his nurse, I found out that Dr. Ferreira had created the People for Haiti organization. I knew that he had gone to Haiti many times. We had talked about it at mine and my daughter’s numerous office visits. One time I had asked him if they even had a portable x-ray machine. He looked at me for a long time and then just said, “They have nothing”. Wow! Talk about a reality check. Haiti is a country where even something as simplistic as a portable x-ray machine was non-existent and was hard to fathom. I remember looking at him and just saying, “You are really doing frontier medicine there”. He chuckled and said “That’s about right”. I guess you can tell, this conversation with my doctor left a huge impression on me. Further discussions with his nurse, Dina, left even more. You see it in their eyes that they want and wish to do more for the people of Haiti. The volunteers who go every two months to Haiti leave testimonials on their website. This one is from my doctor: “I look up and a little 7 year old girl is, literally, running and screaming out of one our clinics. I look at Dr. Mike bewildered. “she had a cut on her finger and when she asked my interpreter if I was going to cut it off, trying to be funny, he said ‘yes’.” The girl was terrified. I went outside the clinic to look for her; up and down the block, she was GONE. About an hour later, I see her again. She makes eye contact with Dr. Mike and begins to run and another patient, an older Haitian lady, grabs her and doesn’t let her leave. In the middle of seeing another family, I stop and start talking to her and even convince her to sit on my lap and start building rapport with her. In less than 10 minutes, I learn her name is Kimberly, we have the old, nasty dressing off (with lots of saline and, at her direction, I have to “blow on it”. LOL), have evaluated the wound (it has partially healed crooked and there is nothing corrective to do now), cleaned it and dressed it. I, then, proceed to explain to a seven year old how to perform proper wound care .While true, this story reflects so much of Haiti. Needing help is a fact of life in Haiti today. They desperately need help. They are a proud and desperate people whose only mistake was to be born on the wrong continent. Like, Kimberly, Haitians are a strong people. Imagine being seven, being told that a white doctor was going to cut your finger off, knowing you needed help, then mustering up the courage to go back….on your own….by yourself. I was not that strong at 7 and am not sure I am that strong today. Kimberly is that strong. Haiti is that strong and more. To see the absolute devastation, misery and daily strife these people have endured, and still they go on, is humbling to me. Like Kimberly, they need help, direction, guidance and instruction. And before any of that can happen, they need people to care. People who care enough to give. To give of their time, give of their expertise, give money or just give love. If you want to contribute to your brothers and sisters of this planet, join People For Haiti. Help us serve them. Robert J. Ferreira, MD Co-founder, People For Haitisite. This one is from my doctor who just returned from Haiti again: “ (PFH). I believe this is why people become that “voice of one”. These individuals are those who care. Like Dr. Ferreira commented above, “they give of their time, of their expertise, money, or just love”. (PFH) This to me is the true purpose of people like Dr Paul Farmer, Dr. Robert Ferreira, Jim Kim, Sergeant Dakota Meyer, and that lone Chinese student in 1989. They all cared and they all gave and still give. Thus, Dr. Farmer is the “voice of one calling in the desert” and so are all these people who do more than talk about helping. They actually do something and they prove that just one person can make changes which affect the whole world. Work Cited Congressional Medal of Honor. http://www.cmohs.org/recipient-detail/3480/meyer-dakota.php 2011. Kidder, Tracy. Mountains Beyond Mountains. New York. Random House. 2004. People for Haiti.org. http://www.peopleforhaiti.com/testimonials/dr-roberts-testimonial- november-team/#more-407 Zondervan; Ten Elshof, Phyllis (2010-05-28). Quest Study Bible: The Question and Answer Study Bible (Kindle Locations 50482-50483). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.2011.