More than 100 health leaders, policymakers, researchers and students are gathering in Butaro today for the inaugural Paul Farmer Butaro Dialogues on Health Equity and Innovation. Hosted by the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE), the dialogue will focus on how healthcare solutions can reach the communities that need them most. It will also honour Dr. Paul Farmer, the American physician whose work in Rwanda helped expand access to healthcare in rural communities and influenced global discussions on health equity. Farmer arrived in Rwanda in 2005 when Partners In Health, known locally as Inshuti Mu Buzima, partnered with the government to support the rebuilding of the country’s health system after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi. ALSO READ: Dr. Paul Farmer eulogised as “a champion of global health” “Today, we ask the global health community to measure the distance between what we say we value, and what we actually deliver, and to close it,” said Prof. Philip Cotton, UGHE Vice Chancellor. Farmer worked with health authorities to promote a model of care that brought quality healthcare closer to rural communities, focusing on hospitals, healthcare workers, medical supplies and community-based services. At a time when advanced medical treatment was considered difficult to provide in low-income countries, Farmer’s work demonstrated that quality healthcare could be delivered in resource-limited areas when health systems invested in the people and structures needed to provide care. His work in Rwanda focused on expanding healthcare capacity and bringing specialised services closer to communities outside major urban areas. Through Partners In Health, he supported efforts to improve access to treatment for conditions that had often been difficult to manage in rural communities. One of the examples of that approach is Butaro District Hospital in Burera District, which opened in 2011 through a partnership between the government, Partners In Health and other partners. The facility later developed into a specialised referral centre, including the Butaro Cancer Center of Excellence, helping patients access cancer services closer to home. Farmer also helped establish the University of Global Health Equity (UGHE) in 2015, a medical school created to train health professionals with an understanding of the challenges that affect access to healthcare. He served as the university’s first chancellor until his death. Born in North Carolina in the United States, Farmer trained as a physician and medical anthropologist. While studying at Harvard University, he co-founded Partners In Health in 1987, an organisation that worked to provide healthcare to communities affected by poverty and limited access to medical services. Through his work in Haiti, Rwanda and other countries, Farmer challenged the idea that diseases such as HIV/AIDS and multidrug-resistant tuberculosis could not be treated effectively in low-income countries. He promoted community-based healthcare, where patients received medical treatment alongside social support to help them complete care. Farmer died in 2022 at the age of 62 while at the UGHE campus in Butaro, where he had continued teaching students and supporting patients.
