Alum’s Priority: Public Health in Haiti

Malaria kills between one and three million people a year and was the fourth-leading cause of death in developing countries in 2002. An NMH alum is helping residents of a rural Haiti town prevent malaria, as well as other public health threats, using prize money he was awarded upon graduation from Brown University in May, and through fundraising on his blog, willinhaiti.blogspot.com.

Will Perez ’04 deferred his acceptance to Brown’s medical school to work for ten months in Les Cayes, Haiti, where he is the public health director and liaison at a clinic that serves an orphanage called Pwoje Espwa, or Project Hope. Perez recently developed a program for the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis, malaria, scabies, and ringworm.

Most recently, he entered a marathon that will raise money for the orphanage. One of its residents will join him in the race (see story).

“My work with public health spreads outside the orphanage and into the nearby villages,” Perez says. “It is impossible to draw boundaries around public health and for this reason; treating the children in the neighboring villages is just as important as treating the children in the orphanage.”

While a student at NMH, Perez founded Operation Happy Birthday, which throws birthday parties for children in homeless shelters. Perez was homeless for a time while he was a child. He was the winner of NMH’s highest honor, the Cambridge Award. At Brown, he registered OHB as a 501 c3 nonprofit organization, coordinating up to 200 volunteers at any given time, while working three jobs—about 40 hours per week—and taking a full load of courses. He hopes to bring OHB to several large cities. While a college student, he also participated in ballroom dancing competitions.

Upon graduating Brown, Perez was awarded the David J. Zucconi Fellowship, Brown’s largest and most prestigious award, which is accompanied by a $25,000 prize. He also won the Howard R. Swearer Service Fellowship. Both of these prizes helped fund his stay in Haiti. While his public health duties take up considerable time, he has written on his blog about holding English classes for Haitian people and learning Creole, and about giving lessons in ballroom dancing. Haiti is the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.

“My work in Haiti is playing a critical role in my inspiration for completing medical school and attaining my master’s in public health,” he says. “I want to be a doctor, but also an advocate for the poor, homeless, disease ridden, disadvantaged, and suffering.”