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Partners in Health: A Photo Exhibition

 

Partners in Health: A Photo Exhibition

Partners In Health is the Boston-based aid organization renowned for its pioneering work to bring high-quality medical care to destitute communities around the world.

“On the Same Map: A Photo Exhibition Celebrating Partners In Health's 20 Years of Health and Social Justice,” depicts clinics and communities—in Haiti, Peru, Rwanda, and beyond—where PIH has forged partnerships with patients and local health workers to combat epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, hunger and poverty.

The exhibit includes recent images from ongoing work in Haiti since the January 2010 earthquake.

Portland State University shares Partners in Health's commitment to equity and social justice through education and partnerships. Here are a few of the ways:

International Capstones

Students in PSU's award-winning Senior Capstone program work with community partners throughout the region—and the hemisphere. New collaborations now take PSU seniors to Mexico, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Argentina and beyond on topics as varied as eco-tourism, sustainable development, health care and more.

Capstone students remaining in Portland can still gain international exposure through partner agencies working with immigrant and refugee communities, bilingual education, and other focus areas—just some of the more than 200 Capstone projects offered each year.

Aging Matters, Locally and Globally

The “Aging Matters, Locally and Globally” initiative is addressing the needs of low-income and aging populations. Globally, this program of PSU's Institute on Aging focuses on Nicaragua, which (like many developing nations) has little elder care available. Faculty and students work with village leaders and health providers, discussing aging issues and discovering how to best serve growing elderly populations. Locally, the Aging Matters program works to help low-income elderly persons attain affordable housing and other services necessary to maintaining independence.

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Workshops

Master of Urban and Regional Planning students engage in in-depth planning projects with community partners. Working with the Farmworker Housing Development Corporation, one student group spent six months this winter and spring creating strategies to address stagnant incomes, limited opportunities and a shortage of affordable, quality housing for Washington County farmworkers. A detailed report identified strategies and potential solutions for industry, local government, service providers, and laborers.

Solutions Seminar Series

The Solutions Seminar Series explores visionary and desirable solutions to the environmental, economic, and social challenges of our time. Hosted at PSU by the Institute for Sustainable Solutions and streamed online, the series presents perspectives by some of the nation's leading experts on issues such as reducing carbon emissions, improving environmental literacy, and creating a future that works for rich and poor alike.

Social Innovation Incubator

The Social Innovation Incubator (SII) is helping a new generation of entrepreneurs use business as an avenue for social change. The School of Business Administration program provides consulting and networking services. For SII members like Sustainable Harvest, a Portland-based coffee importer, those services are catalyzing efforts to build a training center and roasted coffee business in Oaxaca, Mexico, that will benefit disadvantaged youth, low-income farming communities and the environment.

Social Sustainability Network

The Social Sustainability Network draws on faculty from across campus and leaders from community organizations to explore social equity aspects of sustainability. Through weekly discussions and outreach, the network is helping expand sustainability concepts through community projects, research, and teaching. One result has been a growing integration of sustainability in disciplines such as social work that have not traditionally been associated with more environmentally oriented approaches to sustainability.

Center for Interdisciplinary Mentoring Research

Though mentoring is generally perceived as an effective method for passing along knowledge and support, the Center for Interdisciplinary Mentoring Research digs deeper to discern what works and what doesn't in the broad range of mentoring placements—whether in the workplace, at universities, or as a youth development tool. Through partnerships with Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Oregon Mentors, and others, PSU is helping to better align good intentions with positive outcomes.

Additional Resources

For more information, and to support Partners in Health's work in Haiti and elsewhere, visit Partners in Health or Stand with Haiti.

For an interactive look at PSU's community partnership map around the world, visit the interactive map.

For an inside look at Partners in Health, check out Tracy Kidder's bestselling book, Mountains Beyond Mountains: The Quest of Dr. Paul Farmer, a Man Who Would Cure the World (Random House, 2003).