“They are playing now, they smile and befriend each other, they seem like any other young people,” says Julie Melichar, humanitarian affairs officer on board MSF’s search and rescue vessel Geo Barents. “But they are no longer just children or teenagers – not after what they have been through.” Melichar is talking about the youngest survivors rescued … Read more
MSF doctors and nurses are often seen treating physical ailments. But for people who have lived through terrible events and difficult health conditions, the psychological consequences can be severe. Today, mental healthcare is considered as an integral part of most of our medical activities. For more than 20 years, we have been providing care for patients’ … Read more
MSF rescued 60 people, including six minors and 24 women, during two operations on board the Geo Barents ship on Monday 20 September. Once safely on board, some of the survivors decided to share the stories of their horrific journeys across the desert, in transit countries, the challenges related to multiple border crossings and of the horrific abuses … Read more
For International Safe Abortion Day, 15 women share their experiences Abortion is a common experience—people of all ages, ethnicities, nationalities, and religions decide to end their pregnancies for various reasons. Yet in many places across the globe, people who have abortions face harmful stereotypes, blame, and social stigma. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provides safe … Read more
Fighting in the city of Kunduz in north-eastern Afghanistan ended on 8 August. During the clashes, we transformed our office space into a temporary trauma unit to treat the people wounded. That unit is now closed and on 16 August all patients were transferred to the nearly-finished Kunduz Trauma Centre that our teams have been building since … Read more
After months of fighting on the outskirts of Herat in Afghanistan, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, also known as the Taliban, took control of the city on August 12. We are running an inpatient therapeutic feeding centre (IFTC), a clinic for displaced people, and a COVID-19 treatment centre in Herat. An Afghan MSF medic working in the city … Read more
After the rapid transfer of power in Afghanistan there has been a big shift in the health context. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) continues to run medical activities in five provinces. Below two medical staff working in Lashkar Gah and Khost provinces describe the recent changes they have witnessed, and how they affect both patients and … Read more
The fighting between the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups, principally Hamas, broke out once again after weeks of tensions in occupied East Jerusalem, which has been illegally annexed by Israel. Aymen Al-Djaroucha is a Palestinian who has lived in Gaza for 20 years. He is currently the project coordinator for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières … Read more
By Santosh Choure, Health Promotion Manager, Mumbai Mumbai is still seeing more than 3,000 new cases of COVID-19 every day. People are scared and many of them don’t prefer to get tested even though they have symptoms, as they’re afraid of being quarantined or hospitalized and separated from their family members. MSF is working in … Read more
By Mabel Morales, MSF Medical Coordinator The situation in India and in Mumbai is very bad and critical. We’re providing medical support to one of the COVID-19 treatment centres here in Mumbai with 1,000 beds. There are many, many cases and the last week of April has seen a real increase. The health workers are … Read more