C atawba College first-year students will continue the journey they began last summer with the Common Summer Reading text, “Mountains Beyond Mountains,” when Edward Cardoza, development director of Partners in Health, visits campus March 17 -18.Cardoza’s visit is offered as part of a second semester Consilium seminar on globalization which focuses in part on the problem of infectious disease in the world and the political, social, and economic causes and effects of disease. Cardoza will speak at a plenary for first-year students and is also the scheduled speaker for Catawba’s Corriher Community Forum scheduled at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, March 18 in Hedrick Theatre on campus. The forum is free and open to the public.
Cardoza works for the non-profit organization co-founded by Dr. Paul Farmer, the man featured in Tracy Kidder’s book, “Mountains Beyond Mountains.” The theme of the text is how one man’s indefatigable energy and calling in life combine to change the lives of those who desperately need help. In it, the reader is introduced to a Harvard-trained physician, Farmer, a man who spends most of his time and money to address the problem of rampant infectious diseases in the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere, Haiti.
In 1987, Farmer, along with Ophelia Dahl, Jim Yong Kim, Thomas J. White and Todd McCormack, co-founded the Boston-based Partners in Health (PIH). PIH began in Cange in the Central Plateau of Haiti and has developed into a worldwide health organization. PIH provides direct health care services and undertakes research and advocacy activities on behalf of those who are sick and living in poverty. PIH operates on a model that focuses on training and employing local residents, which has been implemented in Haiti, Russia, and other countries in Latin America and Africa.
Members of Catawba’s first-year students (the class of 2011) are planning a themed charity dance marathon from 7 p.m. to 1 a.m. on Friday, March 14, in Peeler Crystal Lounge with the proceeds going to benefit Partners in Health. The theme of the dance is “Beauty and the Geek” and entry fees are $3.