Paul Farmer, physician, activist, academic, humanitarian, and teacher died in Rwanda on February 21, 2022. Few people in the field of global health have had a bigger impact than him.
It is impossible to think about Paul without thinking about the word equity. “The idea that some lives matter less is the root of all that is wrong with the world,” is a famous Paul Farmer quote. He pushed everyone to provide a ‘preferential option for the poor’ in health care. Paul inspired people around the world to choose a life of health activism in a world full of inequities.
“Do we want global health, as is practiced from universities across the globe, to be radically different from colonial health or tropical medicine? If so, then let’s stop referring to it as “global public health” or “global health security” and start calling it “global health equity,” he told the audience while delivering the Inaugural Dr Victor Dzau and Ruth Cooper-Dzau Distinguished Lecture at McGill University on May 14, 2018.
Paul Farmer received an honorary doctorate at McGill University in 2019 and was a friend of McGill for many years.
To honor Paul’s memory, the McGill School of Population and Global Health, with the approval of the Paul Farmer Legacy Trust, has created an award that will be given, on an annual basis, to an individual who models and demonstrates Paul’s vision of a ‘preferential option for the poor’ to achieve equity in health. In particular, the award will be used to honor front-line healthcare providers in under-served communities, especially in the Global South, since their work is often not recognized or made visible.
Through the Paul Farmer Lectureship and Award for Global Health Equity, we want to identify, honor, and promote champions who have dedicated their lives to achieving health equity in the most challenging circumstances. We want to honor people who have been bold enough to “counter failures of imagination” and have lived a life of accompaniment. By modeling accompaniment himself, Paul taught us that our lives are in service to others. Thus, the award could also be given to someone who has mobilized others, helped build a local or national movement for health equity through their example of doing the work. We will actively seek nominations from the Global South and make sure English is not a barrier for nominations or lectures.
Contribute to the Paul Farmer Lectureship and Award in Global Health Equity