Loune Viaud

Loune Viaud (born c. 1966^[1]) is a Haitian health care worker who serves as Director of Strategic Planning for Zanmi Lasante, a sister organization to Partners in Health. She won the 2002 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for her work with the group to provide health care in Haiti,^[2] and in 2003 was named one of Ms. magazine's "Women of the Year".^[1]

Viaud was born in Port-Salut in southern Haiti.^[1] In the 1980s, she organized programs for street children in poor areas of Port-au-Prince alongside future president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. In 1988, she was present for the St Jean Bosco massacre, an attack on Aristide's church which left at least 13 dead; following the attack, she left the country, resettling in Boston. There she became active with Partners in Health, founding programs for the Haitian immigrant community including "Haitian Teens Confront AIDS".^[3]

In 1990, following a democratic election that brought Aristide the presidency, she returned to Haiti.^[3] That year, she helped found Proje Sante Fanm, Haiti's first women's health clinic. She has also begun a gender-awareness training program for health care workers as well as women's literacy projects and scholarship programs.^[1] She also implemented numerous projects for AIDS education and prevention.^[3] Partners in Health co-founder Paul Farmer said of her work, "It’s no exaggeration to claim that Loune’s pragmatic solidarity has reached hundreds of thousands of Haitian women living in poverty."^[1]

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