Walking Together Walking Far

June 2009

In mid-June, Indiana University Press will release Walking Together, Walking Far: How a U.S. and African Medical School Partnership is Winning the Fight Against HIV/AIDS, the first-ever book chronicling the historic partnership between Indiana University School of Medicine, Moi University School of Medicine and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital.

The partners created AMPATH, one of the world’s largest and most holistic responses to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the poverty and health crises of Africa. The book’s title derives from the African proverb, “If you want to walk fast, walk alone. If you want to walk far, walk together.”

The title reflects how the twenty-year academic medical partnership has thrived over the long haul in the face of many health and development challenges. “This Indiana-Moi partnership is a model for how to tackle the huge challenges of HIV/AIDS and poverty in general, and one of the most inspiring examples of humanitarian partnership I have ever seen,” wrote Jim Morris, former executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme, in a statement promoting the new book.

Walking Together includes the story of the partnership’s beginnings, biographical background of AMPATH leaders like Sylvester Kimaiyo, Joe Mamlin, Bob Einterz and Haroun Mengech, a day-in-the-life of AMPATH workers and patients, and behind-the-scenes accounts of the birth of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and AMPATH’s historic launch of home-based counseling and testing.

“This is a book that should be read by every student of public health, Partners in Health founder, Dr. Paul Farmer, wrote in the foreword to Walking Together. “The reason this book is such an important contribution is that it is about a group of people who questioned received wisdom about what is possible in treating the destitute sick,” By mid-June, Walking Together can be found in many Indiana area bookstores and is available for pre-order now through amazon.com.