Henry Perry

Henry Perry has been instrumental in the founding, growth, and continuing success of Curamericas Global, originally known as Andean Rural Health Care. He has donated his award to this organization.

Henry’s early work in Bolivia as a solo medical missionary planted the seeds for Curamericas Global, as he envisioned making a larger impact on the devastating child survival rate among the Aymara people on the northern Altiplano beyond what he could do working alone. He organized the Andean Rural Health Care upon his return to the United States, and over the next 10 years returned to Bolivia frequently to set up the approach now used in similar projects in developing countries: the Census-Based, Impact Oriented (CBIO) methodology.

His approach, which uses local assistance and strives for self-sustaining, measurable results, has proved successful: in Bolivia, child survival rates improved an astonishing average of 62% in areas where the approach had operated for more than five years.

The remarkable success of Henry’s work enabled Andean Rural Health Care to expand to Guatemala, which suffers from similar dismal child and maternal survival rates, and later into Africa. Now marking its 30th year, Curamericas Global has reached more than 1 million people in Bolivia, Guatemala, Haiti, and Liberia. Henry has continued to work actively with Curamericas as he has expanded his work to other organizations and locations.

From 1995-1999, Henry worked with the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh: Centre for Health and Population Research and with BASICS, where he supported efforts to strengthen maternal and child health programs throughout Bangladesh. From 1999-2003, he provided support and leadership to the Hôpital Albert Schweitzer in Haiti, an integrated system of hospital, primary health care, and community development activities that serves 300,000 people in the Artibonite Valley.

Henry joined Future Generations in 2004 as the Carl Taylor Endowed Professor for Equity and Empowerment. He had responsibilities for teaching in its new master’s degree program, for promoting equity and empowerment, and applied research. He is currently heavily engaged in completing a systematic review of the effectiveness of community-based primary health care in improving child health in collaboration with the American Public Health Association, UNICEF, the World Health Organization, CORE Group, USAID, and the World Bank.