Issue date: 10/28/08 Section: News

Dr. Joia Mukherjee, medical director for Partners in Health and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, speaks Monday night about her travels and experiences including helping people suffering from HIV and AIDS in places like Peru, Haiti and Africa. Mukherjee explained how on one trip to Uganda, multiple groups of children identified poverty as the number one risk factor for AIDS and cites such experiences as what makes her so involved in her work with Partners in Health. (Erin Matheny | Daily Eastern News)

Dr. Joia Mukherjee said when she was 8 years old, she went to Calcutta, India, with her family.

"It was shocking," she said. "It was things that I saw there that I'll never forget."

Mukherjee said a woman whose hands seemed to be infected and seemed to be bloody with pus approached her.

Mukherjee asked her mother what it was the woman had.

"It was leprosy," she said.

Mukerjee said she asked her mom if she could catch it.

"She told, 'No Joia. Only poor people get leprosy,'" she said.

Mukherjee said that experience was seared into her mind for the rest of her life.

Mukherjee spoke on Monday night in the Grand Ballroom of the Martin Luther King Jr. University Union. The EIU Reads Committee invited Mukherjee, a medical doctor for Partners in Health, to speak to students about her work with the non-profit organization and about students finding their passion in life.

Partners in Health is a non-profit organization co-founded by Dr. Paul Farmer, who was the main character in the book, "Mountains Beyond Mountains" by Tracy Kidder.

This program assists poor countries such as Haiti, Rwanda, Peru, Mexico, Lesotho, Malawi and also assists inner-city Boston with clinical healthcare.

Mukherjee said it is solidarity to imagine that human rights are a right for everyone.

"Everyone is a person," she said.

Mukherjee she was shocked when a classroom full of children told her what they thought was a top risk factor for HIV/AIDS.

"Poverty," she said. "To me that was something that led to my formulation as a human being, and what I do today."

Mukherjee has given treatment for those in poor countries who have HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis and oversaw the clinical work in 10 countries the program works in.

Mukherjee said she spends 75 percent of her time out of the country helping others, and has declared this her life passion.

Mukherjee said students should also start their journey on finding their passions in life and how to put it to good use.

"It is not all about medicine," she said. "It is really how we all can be informed about the world and find our passion towards something that makes the world more just."

Mukherjee said she believes everyone can be responsible for making the world just.

"We can do that by creating a global community of concern, whether it is health insurance in the U.S. or AIDS in Haiti or education in Chicago," she said.

During the presentation, Mukherjee sang a song in Creole, "We Shall Overcome," which represented her three months stay in Haiti in a two-room cement house shared by five women.

Mukherjee said while she was in Haiti, she and the women sang that song constantly.

"We sang 'We Shall Overcome' over and over and over again," she said. "They told me, 'We need that song in Creole Joia.'"

Kimberlie Moock, director of new programs said the EIU Reads program, will start fundraising efforts for Partners in Health.

"We want to join the cause of Partners in Health," she said.

Moock said Mukherjee has made students realize they all need to pay attention to what is going on outside the states.

"We need to ask ourselves how can we make a difference in those places," she said.

Mukherjee told students their life passions can make a difference."Your life's passion can transform your life and lives of others and indeed the whole world," Mukherjee said.


Jessica Leggin can be reached at 581-7942 or at jmleggin@eiu.edu.

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