Posts tagged Natural Disasters
Haiti: A New Hospital
This past month, patients from MSF’s Saint-Louis tent hospital, which was erected shortly after the January 2010 earthquake, were transferred to Drouillard hospital, a permanent structure with 167 beds where MSF teams will provide the same medical services.
2008
Cyclone Hits Myanmar
MSF staff already working in the country provides assistance to thousands of people displaced by the cyclone while the government stalls on allowing additional staff to enter the country.
Learn more about MSF’s history at our website.
Photo: Myanmar 2008 © Eyal Warshawski
2005
Devastating Earthquake Hits Southeast Asia
MSF runs mobile clinics to reach people trapped in remote villages and sets up inflatable surgical tents to treat thousands of people injured in the massive earthquake that hit the Kashmir region of Pakistan and India.
Learn more about MSF’s history at our website.
Photo: Pakistan 2005 © Bruno Stevens / Cosmos
On Tuesday, members of the 11-person Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team in earthquake-battered northeast Japan worked in evacuation centers with local medical staff in a small, isolated community in Miyagi prefecture.
“There were two local doctors in Minamisanriku who have been working in around 20 evacuation centers since the earthquake and tsunami, so team members today assisted them in their consultations,” said Emmanuel Goue, the emergency coordinator of the MSF team.
From Tuesday, MSF staff plan to start a small clinic in another town near Minamisanriku using drugs donated on Monday. Once additional medical resources from the massive Japanese relief effort arrive, MSF will try to find other pockets of communities that may need medical assistance.
Photo: Japan 2011 © JIJI PRESS
Pakistan: Q and A on MSF's Flood Response
In many hard-hit areas, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was the first international emergency organization to respond to the devastating floods that swept through Pakistan in late July 2010. Along with local organizations, MSF teams were able to react immediately to meet the needs of people affected by the floods. Six months on, the needs of people have changed. Follow the link to see how MSF has adapted and is continuing to provide support to Pakistanis.
Foreign Aid | The 'Useful Victims' of Pakistan's Flood
“When aid is used for political objectives, or is perceived as such, it can no longer be considered humanitarian….The rhetoric of political justification of aid must be rejected as it sacrifices the needs of those who are not seen as politically “useful.” And, as humanitarians, we must do our utmost to remain independent from political or military agendas in order to maintain the ability to reach those most in need, be they “useful victims” or not.”
A powerful article on the politicization of humanitarian aid by Christopher Stokes, MSF General Director.
(Source: ichaseelephants)
Unfortunately, during the floods, many organizations that say they are impartial and independent humanitarian actors were not resilient enough in maintaining their independence from the military and government. Some used military flights to deliver aid; many accepted armed escorts in places MSF managed to work without them; and others succumbed to ‘guidance’ from the authorities on where aid should be distributed. As a result, hard-won trust in humanitarian organizations like MSF, who are trying to work impartially and independently in the most unstable areas of Pakistan, may now be endangered. This loss of trust may ultimately jeopardize our ability to provide assistance to populations trapped in one of the most volatile and neglected regions in the world.
(Source: afpak.foreignpolicy.com)
Although regrettable, it may not be surprising (nor is it new) that politicians would find aiding victims of a disaster ‘useful’ for winning ‘hearts and minds’ in a strategic region. But aid organizations professing to be humanitarian, should categorically reject this.
(Source: afpak.foreignpolicy.com)
When aid is used for political objectives, or is perceived as such, it can no longer be considered humanitarian.
(Source: afpak.foreignpolicy.com)
Winning the trust of all parties in a conflict and gaining access to the affected population depends on being understood as purely humanitarian — that is, not taking sides but delivering aid based on need alone regardless of political or other influences.
(Source: afpak.foreignpolicy.com)
The rhetoric of political justification of aid must be rejected as it sacrifices the needs of those who are not seen as politically ‘useful.’ And, as humanitarians, we must do our utmost to remain independent from political or military agendas in order to maintain the ability to reach those most in need, be they ‘useful victims’ or not.
Christopher Stokes, MSF General Director, writes in Foreign Policy Magazine’s AfPak Channel blog about how the politicization of aid during the response to Pakistan’s floods threatens the ability of independent humanitarian aid workers to assist populations in the most volatile areas of the country.
Pakistan: Summary of MSF's Flood Response
In Sindh and Balochistan provinces, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams continue to assist displaced people with not only immediate needs such as health care and clean water but also transitional shelters until their situation is stabilized.
How MSF is Using Your Donations in Pakistan
Since the beginning of the floods, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has:
- Conducted 56,991 consultations through 5 hospitals, 7 mobile clinics and 6 Diarrhea Treatment Centers
- Treated more than 3,634 malnourished children
- Distributed 1,250,400 liters of clean water per day and built 714 latrines
- Distributed a total of 58,270 relief item kits and 14,538 tents
Read the Article.
The water took away everything we had. Now we do not have a house, land to farm or any of our cattle. We do not know what to do and where to go.
Nabila Adwani, a Pakistani woman being treated at an MSF mobile clinic.
Pakistan: Still Displaced by the Floods
Children wait to receive rehydration salts at the Civil Hospital. MSF teams are providing hygiene education services to the community, and distributing soap to displaced people in camps. “We are still very worried about potential epidemic outbreaks,” said Sylvain Groulx. “All of the elements conducive for this to happen are present – poor sanitation and water supplies, and people living in cramped conditions in open camp settings.”
Pakistan 2010 © Andrew McConnell
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Doctors Without Borders/ Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization working in more than 60 countries to assist people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
