Steve Reifenberg: “Remembering Paul Farmer”
Steve Reifenberg teaches at the Keough School of Global Affairs at the University of Notre Dame. He has collaborated with Partners In Health since 1996 and is a member of PIH’s Board of Trustees. He wrote this tribute to Paul in Commonweal Magazine, published on March 3, 2022. The following is an excerpt:
“His work in global health was transformative. He gave many of us working in the field a new vocabulary that overcomes “failures of imagination” by seeing what is possible if we work together in partnership. His life and work embraced proximity to the poor and pragmatic solidarity. “It isn’t just signing a petition or voicing one’s displeasure or anxiety,” he’d say, “but actually doing something with solidarity.” His catchphrases—“the failures of imagination are the biggest failures” and “persistence is the secret sauce”—are always dancing in my brain.”
