Book Review: Mountains Beyond Mountains
by Pulitzer Prize winning author Tracy Kidder.
(Kidder won his Pulitzer for Soul of a New Machine)
About Mountains Beyond Mountains, in 1987, with the
help of friends—including a quiet, Boston philanthropist—Dr. Paul Farmer
co-founded Partners In Health, a non profit organization which has addressed the
medical needs of hundreds of thousands of patients in Haiti, Peru, Russia and
Boston, Massachusetts, as well as changed the way the medical world approaches
the treatment of diseases such as multidrug-resistant tuberculosis and AIDS. The
philosophy that permeates all of Farmer's work is that "the only real nation
is humanity," a belief also embodied in Partners In Health.
Mountains Beyond Mountains follows Farmer from the United States to
Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia. At the heart of Kidder's book is the story of a
life based on hope and the understanding of the Haitian proverb "Beyond
mountains there are mountains"; in other words as you solve one problem, another
problem appears, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.
Dr. Paul Farmer is one of those rare and gifted doctors who eschew a safe and lucrative practice in the US for a place where both the need and the medical challenges are far greater. Farmer began working in Haiti as a first-year medical student in 1983. He helped establish the Clinique Bon Sauveur in 1985 and two years later co-founded Partners in Health, an organization created to provide medical care and compassionate relief for the world's poor. Farmer is a remarkable man, a deeply caring man who always has time to listen to his patients, who knows them by name, knows their families, their medical histories, knows the health challenges they face and the difficulties of scratching out a life in Haiti. He is a zealot when it comes to finding medical aid for the poor, a tireless champion of the forgotten and neglected peoples of the world.
Haitians battle AIDS, hepatitis, and drug-resistant strains of tuberculosis, along with more common infectious diseases. Couple that with poor nutrition and sanitation, and life in Haiti can be hell—the average life expectancy is 51 years; the infant mortality rate is 11 times higher than in the US.
Mountains Beyond Mountains is a book that will open your eyes a bit wider to the effects of extreme poverty, and I hope it prompts you to ask yourself, "What can I do to make a difference?"
We suggest that you start by supporting our Diocese’s Companion Diocese Ministry with your prayers, your willingness to grow in understanding and with your money. Much of our ministry is done through the Society of the Sisters of St. Margaret, Food for the Poor and Episcopal Relief and Development. These organizations have a solid track record in Haiti, with people and facilities in place, already serving, and with the critical knowledge about how best to meet the current and future needs of these needy people.
Pray for Haiti. Pray that just and moral leaders would rise to power there. Pray for economic revitalization. Pray that the world community would reach out to Haiti with compassion and generosity. And pray that God would relieve the suffering of the poor, and give his children hope.
Jan Dunnavant, Chair, Companion Diocese Committee