NPR’s Michel Martin on Rebuilding Haiti:
Amy Wilentz: “Well, Megan Coffee, she’s an excellent American doctor, and she came to Port-au-Prince and she ended up in the University Hospital, which is the big hospital in Port-au-Prince. And her expertise is infectious diseases, so Haiti is a perfect place. Haiti has the largest burden of tuberculosis in Latin America. And she, kind of, built up an ad hoc ward. Unbelievably, there was no TB ward in the hospital, it was just an outpatient service. So Dr. Coffee had a tent and she had her TB patients. And over time, she eventually just by, sort of, being a rogue operation under their noses, the hospital decided they would build a TB ward. And she’s a completely independent operator. But I think the reason she’s been successful – as opposed to the much, much larger projects that have millions and, indeed, billions of dollars to give – is that she doesn’t have millions and billions of dollars to give. So no one sees her as a bank account.”