Book 30: Mountains Beyond Mountains

I almost didn't pick this to listen to. It was a second choice, after my first choice couldn't be put on an Apple device. I'm so glad that that's how it worked out, because this was amazing.



Dr. Paul Farmer is the founder of Partners in Health (called Zanmi Lasante in Haiti), an organization that provides medical care to the poor. Zanmi Lasante has built a comprehensive health system on the Haitian central plateau. Farmer is an advocate of social justice and liberation theology. He seeks to offer a preferential option to the poor--they receive no less care than those who can pay for treatment.

Kidder recounts that Dr. Farmer often carried two photos with him when he traveled: one of his own toddler daughter, and another of a young child with kwashiorkor. He would show one or the other of those photos to people he met. The message is that one's own child is not more valuable than a poor child; no child is worth more than another.