Letter: A Response to George Grunner
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| Published on Monday, August 4, 2008 |
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Dear Sir:
I’d like to thank George Grunner for his letter of August 2, Haiti’s ‘Partners in Health’ are big winners. His accusations against George Soros and Partners in Health were so outlandish, I felt compelled to visit the PIH website to judge for myself whether his statements were true.
I am not Haitian nor do I consider myself deeply political. Like many who read Caribbean Net News, I care more for the fate of Haiti’s poor than who runs its financial affairs. Since meeting Dr Paul Farmer at Zanmi Lasante in Canje in 2003, I’ve made some tiny, financial contributions to PIH because its mission is “both medical and moral.” If I could afford to, I’d gladly give more.
Mr Grunner claims that “PIH is owned by George Soros and they have made it clear they plan to handle all foreign aid entering Haiti.” According to the website, the only connection between PIH and George Soros and his Open Society Institute is the “funding of treatment programs for patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis and HIV/Aids in poor countries” such as Haiti. Since its inception more than 20 years ago, PIH co-founder and most generous donor is - and has always been - Thomas J. White. PIH works in close collaboration with the Harvard Medical School, the Harvard School of Public Health, and the Brigham and Women’s Hospital for purposes of patient care, research, and dissemination of knowledge in the realm of global, public health; hardly a trio left wing causes. Donors are allowed to restrict, or direct, individual contributions to benefit programs of patient care, professional training, medical research, community infrastructure, and advocacy.
Mr Grunner also claims, “PIH is the group that moved into Rwanda in 2005 and by 2007 a full 47 percent of their multi-million dollar budget was paid in salaries.”
As a matter of public record, the PIH 2007 financial statement is available on its website. Out the entire organization’s total expenditures of $18,087,443.00, only $226,418.00 (1.25 per cent) was spent on payroll, payroll taxes, and employee benefits. For the six-month period ending on June 30, 2007, PIH provided Zanmi Lasante with $8,525,901.00 of which a mere $130,618.00 (1.53 per cent) was used for payroll expenses.
So let’s give credit where credit is due. People like George Grunner should be taken seriously. Right or wrong, he inspires inquisitive people like me to expand our spheres of knowledge in order to insulate ourselves against his paranoid delusions.
Kite Ayiti Viv.
Elliot Kriegsman
New York City | | | | Reads : 348 | | | |
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