Partners in Health TB programming: Fighting Tuberculosis Globally

What is Partners In Health (PIH)?

Partners In Health Website

Partners In Health is the global health organization fighting to transform health into a universal human right. As a chapter of the engage network of PIH, we fundraise, educate and advocate for PIH and wider global health issues.

Check out our introductory slideshow here on PIH!

Goal of PIH:

"Our mission is to provide a preferential option for the poor in health care. By establishing long-term relationships with sister organizations based in settings of poverty, Partners In Health strives to achieve two overarching goals: to bring the benefits of modern medical science to those most in need of them and to serve as an antidote to despair.

We draw on the resources of the world’s leading medical and academic institutions and on the lived experience of the world’s poorest and sickest communities. At its root, our mission is both medical and moral. It is based on solidarity, rather than charity alone.

When our patients are ill and have no access to care, our team of health professionals, scholars, and activists will do whatever it takes to make them well—just as we would do if a member of our own families or we ourselves were ill."

PIH's Principles:

As a collective, Partners in Health governs its decisions on behalf of a well-outlined, universal set of beliefs, all echoing their continued and ever-fervid dedication to the principles of social justice and the means of acquiring fulfillment in all realms of one's life; or, in the now fabled and immortal words of one of the several people who stood before the UN to deliver a case for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), "...a complete state of physical, mental, and social well-being." Quoting directly from the source, these principles are as follows:

All human lives have the same value, and every human being has the inalienable right to be healthy to fulfill their potential.
The right to health is not the only right held by our patients. Other fundamental human rights are interrelated and just as inalienable.
All people need to stand in solidarity with those who find themselves at the margins of modern society.
The playing field needs to be leveled for those individuals who are born at a disadvantage (equity vs equality).
Injustice is not accidental but a direct result of structural violence and oppression. We can fight injustice by changing those dynamics.
It is our moral call to action to expose social injustice and to work toward correcting those systemic forces that create inequalities, no matter how impossible or challenging this task might look.

How Does PIH Operate?:

Although having well-trained staff, building hospitals that are capable of housing and providing care to entire communities, and maintaining a constant, reliable flow of medication and supplies are all necessities when creating a well-functioning and dependable healthcare system, it requires more than just that to properly serve the communities in which PIH operates. If we refrain from collaborating with the members of the communities themselves, who are best aware of their conditions and are far more equipped to lend a voice to their people, the products of these campaigns will amount to nothing and collapse, returning the communities to the exact same conditions which once bound them. This absence of communication with people can also lead to the emergence of hierarchies, which displace their own wants and needs with the judgements, principles, and financial interests of the organizations serving them, as well as their investors. To avoid this all together and to help people to the best of their abilities, Partners In Health does the following:

Adopts the idea of mutual aid, a form of management which breeds democratic structures of cooperation and allows for citizens to participate in the recreation of their infrastructure
Trains and enlists a group of community health workers, whose purpose is to bridge the gap separating communities from clinics, distinguishing the most frail and vulnerable amongst their neighbors and guiding them through the entire process of receiving care and amending their conditions

This two-pronged approach of PIH's accompaniment model, coalescing ourselves with governments, clinics, and communities, is the most pragmatic and viable route of achieving our goal of a universal right to health.

PIH's "Five S's":

The "Five S's" are the underlying necessities of care which guide PIH's model of accompaniment and collective governance, setting the precedent for all who involve themselves in PIH's on-the-ground missions and creating a universal standard for which all of them must adhere to, replicate, and preserve in order to benefit the communities we operate in to the greatest degree imaginable within our reach and abilities. If so much as one of these fundamentals were to be removed, it would yield a far less serviceable and productive health system overall. These principles are as follows, per PIH:

Staff: Well-trained, qualified staff in sufficient quantity to respond to need.
Stuff: Ensuring the tools and resources needed for care delivery and administration
Space: Safe, appropriate spaces with capacity to serve patients
Systems: Leadership and governance, information, financing
Social Support: Providing basic necessities and resources needed to ensure effective care

In the entire course of its operation, the impacts of Partners in Health have been centered around producing change in local healthcare distribution models, focusing more attention on the absence of healthcare and the destitution which comes from it, and familiarizing - as well as warming up - people to the idea of universalized healthcare. But, to be more specific, PIH has accomplished the following:

Mental Health

In Liberia, 30% increase in patients enrolled in mental health care
102 facilities providing mental health care in 10 countries
More than 9,500 people receiving mental health care, with more than 55,000 visits each year

Child Health

More than 70,000 kgs of nutrient-rich peanut paste produced each year to treat malnourished children in Haiti
More than 18,350 children treated for malnutrition each year at PIH-supported facilities

HIV/AIDS

92% of people living with HIV are on antiretroviral in Neno, Malawi
More than 12,000 patients living with HIV receive care at PIH-supported facilities in Haiti
99.9% monthly average rate of HIV patients returning for ongoing care in Sierra Leone

Maternal Health

58,000 safe, facility-based deliveries, including 10,000 lifesaving C-sections globally each year
More than 134,000 prenatal care visits provided annually
Supports more than 50,000 women in starting a family planning method each year
Built the Maternal Center of Excellence in Sierra Leone