“A Movement Needs People”
MLK Day speaker Paul Farmer on making health care a human right
Click on the slide show above to hear Paul Farmer talk about why health care should be a right, not a commodity. See it on facebook.
To honor Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS’55, Hon.’59), the Boston University community on Monday will examine inequality, injustice, and human rights violations in the 21st century by bringing renowned aid worker Paul Farmer to speak at the University’s annual celebration of the slain civil rights leader.
The theme of this year’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Day celebration is The Drum Major Instinct, based on King’s sermon of the same name. In it, he called on his congregation to find the instinct that makes us “all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade” and use it to be a leader in love, in moral excellence, and in generosity.
Farmer, a medical anthropologist and physician, is the founder of Partners in Health, a Boston-based international organization that provides health care and advocacy services to people living in poverty around the world. The organization works in Haiti, Peru, Russia, Malawi, Rwanda, Lesotho, and Boston to combat HIV infection and tuberculosis, as well as to meet food, water, and housing needs in poverty-stricken areas.
In the slide show above, Farmer talks about his first trip to Haiti, as a medical student in 1983, and the experiences that shaped his conviction that health care is a fundamental human right. He also talks about King’s idea of the drum major instinct and how it can be used to power movements for social justice and change.
The University’s Martin Luther King, Jr., Day celebration will take place on Monday, January 19, at 1 p.m. in the George Sherman Union’s Metcalf Hall. The event is free and open to the public.
Jessica Ullian can be reached at jullian@bu.edu.
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