James Orbinski
If you were living on less than $1 a day in one of the poorest countries in the world, and were suffering from a disease that cost $15,000US to treat, how could you afford it?! How would you survive? Wouldn’t you hope someone would help?
Fortunately, someone does care and is willing to make it his priority. Dr. James Orbinski is worth profiling here. He spoke just yesterday at the International Conflict Conference in Amsterdam promoting the need for UN reform and learning from mass atrocities. He’s also featured in the current issue of Readers Digest (yes, the same one that featured The Canadians You Trust. Gosh that is a good issue!). He’s been given a well-deserved feature all his own though, named as their leading “Influential Canadian – making the world a better place.”
James Orbinski is a Canadian based in Toronto, who ran Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) / Doctors Without Borders and accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on their behalf the year he was president. He’s travelled the world helping those in need – in Rwanda during the genocide, Somalia, Afghanistan and more. Orbinski’s passion is for the right of all people to have access to essential medicines and he’s been a major advocate for this. Canada has since become the first Member of the WTO to declare its intention to put the decision into action of providing generic drugs to developing countries that are unable to produce pharmaceuticals themselves.
James’ message for his children, and for the rest of us?
“I want to show them that the best way to live is to make conscious choices about the effect they want to have on the world.”
Definitely a powerful idea that we can use whether it’s choosing where to shop, how we spend our time, and how we interact with others. If we could all dedicate a fraction of the passion and effort of a James Orbinski, just think of what the world would be like.
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*Check out the full article “A Doctor Who Changed the World” by Susan McLelland, featured in the June issue of Readers Digest for more insights into the impact of James Orbinski and his work in launching the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) and Dignitas International, training healthcare workers abroad.
Tags: Afghanistan, Amsterdam, dignitas international, doctor, Doctors Without Borders, Drugs for neglected diseases initiative, genocide, healthcare, International Conflict Conference, James Orbinski, member, National Speakers Bureau, Nobel Peace Prize, NSB, President, Readers Digest, Rwanda, Somalia, The Canadians You Trust, Toronto, UN
