Documentary Analysis: Bending The Arc

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Recommended by Jennifer, I went to go see the documentary, Bending the Arc, presented by UGA division of Partners in Health. Before the movie started, we the audience got an honor to talk (via SKype) to Dr. Joia Mukherjee about her field of work, her passion, her membership with Partners in Health, and just her life in general. The incredible yet heartbreaking story of Dr. Paul Farmer, Ophelia Dahl, and Jim Yong Kim and their journey with Partners in Health begins with the snap shots of Haiti in ruins and the terrible conditions the natives were facing due to lack of basic healthcare. It all begin with the Alma-Ata Declaration of 1978 where the world leaders came together and decided to have health care for all, starting with the poorest. Of course, that agenda was never accomplished with rich, powerful nations and their corrupt government having the upper hand. With most of the healthcare going to the wealthy nations, there was simply no way for citizens of underdeveloped countries like Haiti to receive proper healthcare. When development projects from Haitian government …show more content…

Farmer and his team’s work reached further out and into South America. Specifically, Lima, Peru. They were in relatively better situation than Haiti. They even had Tuberculosis treatment programs in major hospitals. However, casualty from TB was inevitable despite having such program because some of the patients had drug-resistance TB, meaning that the drugs and treatments they had been using were useless. What was more depressing was that World Health Organization recognized the drug-resistance TB as luxury, therefore, it should not be treated as one of the basic healthcare rights in underdeveloped countries. According to the documentary, Peruvian government actually imposed the law forbidding drug-resistance TB to be treated at all, almost causing Dr. Farmer and his team to get kicked out of the country. But they were able to make it through giving decent medical care to the

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