We are a global health and social justice organization that responds to the moral imperative to provide high-quality health care globally to those who need it most.

We strive to ease suffering by placing patients at the center of all care, meeting not only their physical, but also their mental, emotional, and daily needs so that they can recover from illness and maintain good health.

We bring the benefits of modern medicine to those who have suffered from the overt and subtle injustices of the world, in the past and in the present.

We refuse to accept that any life is worth less than another.

Mission

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.

Our Core Beliefs

• 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.

Everyone should have access to quality health care. But for millions around the world, that’s not the reality.

We’re working together to change that. Last year, we provided:

Stories of Care

A collection of anecdotes made possible by the PIH community last year.

Our Focus

Partners In Health collaborates with national governments to provide care and strengthen public health systems in areas including cancer and chronic disease, child health, emergency response, HIV/AIDS, maternal health, mental health, and tuberculosis.

Our Programs

Countries

Partners In Health collaborates with national governments in 11 countries, across four continents, to ensure quality health care is available in some of the world’s most vulnerable communities. Our work focuses on strengthening public health systems to ensure patients receive the care they need–and deserve–in their homes, neighborhood clinics, and regional hospitals.

Research

PIH’s mission, to bring the benefits of modern medicine to the world’s most vulnerable communities, relies on our research. By leading, facilitating, and conducting rigorous research and sharing the results, we not only continually improve care delivery in the communities we serve, but also push governments and global powers toward more equitable health policies.

Our research spans the globe and is strengthened by the Global Health Delivery Partnership, our collaboration with Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital that allows us to leverage leading academic and clinical resources. With our partners, we test new models and approaches to care, find innovative solutions to age-old problems, then share that knowledge through publication in esteemed medical journals–all of which influences our global advocacy.

Impact and Influence

In 1998, PIH launched the HIV Equity Initiative, which provided antiretroviral therapy—then considered too expensive and complicated to use in poor communities—to a small group of HIV-positive patients in Haiti. All of the patients regained their health; those on their deathbeds survived. A 2001 research article published in the Lancet detailed these results and shared with the global health community what PIH had proven: High-quality HIV care could be delivered to people living in the world’s poorest regions.

Activists, government officials, and leaders of organizations like the Global Fund, PEPFAR, and the World Health Organization took note and directed extensive funding to global HIV care. So began the greatest HIV interventions in history. As a result, today more patients than ever before are accessing the lifesaving medication that, without PIH’s example and resulting research publication, would otherwise have remained out of reach.

We lead the endTB project, a multilateral partnership that is increasing access to modern multidrug-resistant tuberculosis treatments for patients around the world, while conducting international clinical trials to find shorter, simpler, less toxic drug regimens.

In Haiti, publication on our successful cholera vaccination campaigns inspired the World Health Organization to create a global stockpile of the oral vaccine.

In Mexico, our research on the impact of community health workers proves how these key staff improve adherence to medication among diabetes and hypertension patients.

In Peru, our cutting-edge laboratory provides a space for the study of how tuberculosis spreads.

And in Rwanda, our multi-year study of HIV patients received international attention for demonstrating how to improve treatment effectiveness.

Building Strong Health Systems

Partners In Health acts on the belief that the best way to guarantee high-quality, dignified care is to rely upon and invest in local health systems.

What does building a health system look like? It requires–among many things–well-trained staff; proper and ample medications and supplies; health facilities with reliable space, electricity, and running water; and universally shared best practices that ensure patients receive quality care. We work with government partners to reach these goals by accompanying them every step of the way, in solidarity through times of struggle and celebration.

PIH’s “Five S’s”

We look at health system strengthening as a mix of five fundamental ingredients: staff, stuff, space, systems, and social support. Removing any one item would result in a weaker health system overall.

Join the Movement: Health Care is a Human Right

Partners In Health brings health care to some of the world’s poorest communities. We believe that every single person—infants and adults, moms and grandmas, families and individuals—has a right to receive high-quality care.We’re seeking global health advocates like you to join our movement as we work to deliver health care across the globe—and defend health care for all.

Donate Now

Why PIH?

Your donation sustains our work as we partner with some of the world’s most vulnerable communities to provide high-quality health care as a human right.

Your donation is:

• Tax-deductiblebased on advanced blockchain technology.
• 100% Secure
• PIH has held Charity Navigator’s highest rating for 18 years, an affirmation of our commitment to transparency, efficiency, and integrity.
• Effective, as 100% of every gift goes straight to those in need.