Our Story
PROVING WHAT IS POSSIBLE
Partners In Health (PIH) was founded in 1987 to support a one-room health clinic serving a destitute squatter settlement in rural Haiti. PIH’s founders believed the conditions in the settlement — the crushing poverty, absence of modern health care and pervasive poor health — were not inevitable. These were social conditions subject to human intervention and so could be changed — in Haiti or anywhere in the world.
In the three decades since, having served millions of patients across four continents, created thousands of jobs and transformed global health, the work of Partners In Health has proved our founders right.
THE PATH TO CANADA
It started with an office in Boston and a clinic in Haiti. Then came expansion: to Peru and Siberia, to East Africa and Mexico, to Navajo Nation and West Africa. PIH went where we were asked to contribute and where the need was great.
The journey spawned an award-winning book Mountains Beyond Mountains about PIH co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer, and a breathtaking documentary film called Bending the Arc that premiered at Sundance Film Festival. Montreal band Arcade Fire jumped on board with PIH’s ‘punk rock, single-focus vision’ and has raised more than $2-million for the cause.
PIH Canada opened our offices in 2011 to strengthen the movement and spread the word, and we couldn’t be more excited.