20 MB - University of Toronto Magazine

PHOTOGRAPHY: STEVE SIMONthe other, and so the possibility of humanitarianism simplydoes not exist in that circumstance.”“MSF insisted that there be a right political response to thegenocide, and the international criminal court was created inresponse to that debate…. However apparently dispiritingand apparently futile the world may seem, it’s anything but ifwe assume our responsibilities as citizens and as humanbeings, if we speak. [Politicalphilosopher] Hannah Arendtsaid that the first political act is tospeak and I think that she wasabsolutely right.”2004, Orbinski and JamesIN Fraser, another doctorwith MSF, travelled to the ZombaCentral Hospital in Malawi,Africa. Ninety per cent of thepatients were HIV-positive, andhundreds of critically ill men,women and children crowded thebuilding: three to four patientswere packed to a bed; others laysuffering on the floor and underthe beds; and more still were gathered under trees on thehospital grounds. The medical staff consisted of one nurse.The hospital reflected the reality of the health-care systemand the AIDS epidemic across much of Malawi and thedeveloping world. (In Malawi, there are 12 million people –roughly the population of Ontario – but only 100 doctors.Fourteen per cent of the population is HIV-positive. In theZomba region, 20 per cent are HIV-positive.) “It was justoverwhelming. Overwhelming for me, but also, even moreobviously, for that nurse,” says Orbinski. “And for bothJames Fraser and myself, it was just clear we had to do somethingabout this.”What Orbinski and Fraser did was leave MSF to createDignitas International, an organization that develops community-basedcare and treatment programs for people whoare HIV-positive and have AIDS. While the group does traindoctors, it focuses mainly on training nurses, lab techniciansand other health-care workers. “One of the big issues inMalawi and much of the developing world is the level of educationin the general population and illiteracy, and so thereare not a large number of people who are highly educated.But just because you’re not educated doesn’t mean you’re notsmart,” says Orbinski, who doesn’t get paid for his role as cofounderand chair of Dignitas. “If you can develop a set oftools that are scientifically valid and allow for a person with aGrade 8 or Grade 9 education to actually deliver treatment,to do proper assessment and management, then you canempower those people and communities appropriately toactually control and contain an epidemic.”Dr. James Orbinski and Dr.Tamir examine a patientwith a gunshot wound at Baidoa Hospital, SomaliaDignitas now has about 10,000 HIV-positive peopleunder its medical care, almost 5,000 of whom are receivingAIDS treatment. The organization works with Malawi’sMinistry of Health officials and community groups and, in afew years, has trained hundreds of health-care workers, deliveredAIDS education to more than 100,000 people in theZomba district, built a lab and other medical facilities andprovided social support to AIDSorphans and women’s groups.The organization is now establishinga network of researchinstitutions – with the Universityof Toronto, University ofMalawi, the BC Centre forExcellence in HIV/AIDS andothers – so they can share theirknowledge and let others take upthe model. Orbinski focuses,through Dignitas, on community-basedcare and HIV/AIDS inhis role as a research scientist atSt. Michael’s Hospital. As a professorof political science at theUniversity of Toronto, Orbinskiis also working with U of T professors at the Department ofPublic Health Sciences to create a collaborative PhD programin global health. The program is slated to begin in September,and he will be teaching the core course.Orbinski also has more personal productions underway.He and his wife, Rolie Srivastava – an environmental-sciencesresearcher whom he met after returning from a journey toRwanda in 1996 – are expecting their third child in mid-April. The baby will join brothers Rohin, age four, andTaidgh, age three. And this afternoon, a very excited Orbinskiis taking a very excited Rohin to his first skating lesson.Orbinski and Srivastava made up a cheer for him last night,and sang it to him again this morning. Orbinski breaks intosong. “Rohin Orbinski, faster than a Jet Ski/If he was anytaller, you’d think he was Wayne Gretzky.”Did Orbinski always envision himself doing humanitarianwork? He answers thoughtfully. “The question is this idea offate, and of a kind of a determined future…. I don’t have thatexperience. I think if anything, one of the core ideas that I amtrying to express through this writing and also through thefilm, is that it’s a choice. Every moment in your life is achoice, and we have a choice as to how we will see the worldand how we will see ourselves in it, and therefore what we willdo,” he says. He later adds, “What I do know is that I havetried to live my question, to really understand my questionand struggled in the answers that emerged – however imperfectthey may be.”Stacey Gibson is managing editor of U of T Magazine.22 UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO MAGAZINE / SPRING 2008