Partners in Health a Nonprofit Corporation

Ophelia Dahl has worked to improve the health of the Haitian poor since she first traveled to central Haiti in early 1983. In 1985, she worked with community health workers (from what was later to become Zanmi Lasante) to expand the reach of "Proje Veye Sante" from three villages to nine; the project now serves over 100,000 people living in 60 villages. Although Ophelia has worked to raise funds for the establishment of primary schools in central Haiti, her primary concern has been the growth and support of the clinical facility based in Cange. Ophelia was a founding trustee of Partners In Health and has served as chair of its board from 1993 to the present. Ophelia has overseen the growth of the Boston office and its establishment as the first major public charity based within the campus of Harvard Medical School. She has traveled to and supported the establishment of PIH sister organizations in Peru, Mexico, Guatemala, and the urban United States. In 2001, Ophelia became executive director of PIH and is now spearheading the drive to ensure its future by establishing an endowment. In her spare time, Ophelia is a writer and engages in philanthropic works in the United States and in her native England. Ophelia graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in English literature.

Partners In Health began more than 20 years ago in a squatter settlement in rural Haiti. We were young, had few resources, and were surrounded by great need. Our vision was spun from a simple idea – to bring medicine and health care to people who had none; to ensure that the fruits of science be used to serve all the world’s people, not just the wealthy few.

As we approach the end of 2010, our work now spans a dozen countries and employs over 13,000 in an effort to serve millions living in poverty. Partners In Health has deployed long-term solutions to achieve measurable results: increased life expectancies, improved quality of life for many of the world’s destitute sick, and fundamentally changed the dialogue in global health circles about what’s possible and what works in resource-poor settings.

The earthquake that flattened Port-au-Prince on January 12 ranks among the worst disasters in modern history. In the days following the quake, my dear friend and fellow PIH co-founder Paul Farmer diagnosed the catastrophe as a case of what doctors call “acute-on-chronic” - an already bad problem rendered immeasurably worse. Haiti’s chronic conditions - extreme poverty, food and water insecurity, lack of economic opportunities, crumbling public health and education systems - left the country ever more vulnerable to this acute disaster.

We do not consider ourselves experts in disaster relief at PIH, but we do know quite a lot about dealing with acute-on-chronic. Whether in Haiti, Malawi, Rwanda or Peru, we have made it our mission to mobilize the same sense of urgency that is triggered by tidal waves and hurricanes, to overcoming chronic, slow-motion disasters: maternal death in childbirth, children without access to food, whole communities without any medical care. Most people and organizations rarely talk about maternal mortality, or hunger, or lack of access to health care and education as disasters. We do.

Ophelia Dahl

Executive Director