Posts tagged field worker
On any given day, more than 27,000 committed individuals representing dozens of nationalities can be found providing assistance to people caught in crises around the world. They are doctors, nurses, logistics experts, administrators, epidemiologists, laboratory technicians, mental health professionals, and others who work together in accordance with MSF’s guiding principles of humanitarian action and medical ethics.
MSF field staff are supported by their colleagues in 19 offices around the world, including one in New York City. The vast majority of MSF’s aid workers are from the communities where the crises are occurring, with ten percent of teams made up of international staff. Read more about MSF.
Photo: Somalia 2009 © MSF
This week, we’re making our Google+ page into a hub of information about working in the field with Doctors Without Borders. Go here to post your questions.
Photo: Following floods that displaced a great many people in Pakistan’s Sindh Province, MSF ran mobile clinics to provide care in affected areas. Pakistan © P.K. Lee/MSF
“I’m heading for Lulimba, a small, remote town in eastern DRC. It’s about 186 miles (300 kilometers) from Bukavu but the journey takes two days in a four-wheel drive vehicle. You can’t fly in as the dirt airstrip, originally cleared by a long abandoned church mission, is reported as uneven and potholed. The jolts along the red-dirt tracks, river crossings full of children splashing about (I wonder how many of them carry the worms of schistosomiasis), and short exchanges with armed men en route make it impossible to study the French grammar book open on my lap.”
- Chris Bird, MSF doctor in the Democratic Repulic of Congo. Read more from his blog about his first assignment with MSF in the hospital in Kimbi Lulenge health zone in Lulimba, a small town in South Kivu, in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Photo: DRC 2012 © Stella Evangelidou
MSF Condemns Attacks On Aid Workers And Calls For Release Of Abducted Colleagues in Somalia
One week ago, a gunman killed Phillipe Havet and Andrias Karel Keiluhuo, two Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) aid workers, while they were implementing emergency assistance projects in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu. Three months ago, MSF staff members Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut were abducted in the Dadaab refugee camp in northern Kenya while providing emergency assistance for the Somali population there.
These attacks on aid workers must be condemned in the strongest terms, MSF said today. They jeopardize life-saving medical projects that are already far from adequate in addressing the vast medical needs of the Somali population.
MSF is confronting the difficult dilemma of working in a context like Somalia, where the needs are not only extremely great, but the risks are exceptionally high for the safety and security of all staff. As we consider this dilemma, MSF is requesting that all people—especially the authorities in control of areas in Somalia where our kidnapped colleagues are being detained—do everything possible to facilitate the safe release of Blanca and Montserrat.
An MSF staff member attends to a patient at a hospital in Pibor County in South Sudan, which was looted and damaged during intercommunal violence this week.
Photo: South Sudan 2011 © Liang Zi
“When we arrive, our truck carrying about a tonne of precious medications is lurched over at a 45-degree angle, stuck in the mud on the main street. There is no electricity for the squat homes made of mud brick and reed thatch. When the MSF team arrive at the town’s hospital – two single-storey buildings of mud brick roofed with iron – we tell the staff about our plans for free healthcare. That evening, the staff enthusiastically remove the handwritten posters listing the prices for treatment.
Overnight, word gets around. The next day a large crowd of women wearing brightly printed cotton wraps clutching coughing, feverish children, assemble outside the dilapidated outpatient building for a free consultation. Georges, one of the hospital nursing staff, looked a little forlorn in his white coat. “Treatment is free, so now everyone will come!” he says.
Before MSF’s arrival, the hospital saw 231 patients in the month of September. We’ve seen more than 300 in our first week.”
- Chris Bird, blog post in The Guardian about the beginning of his stay in the Democratic Republic of Congo as an MSF doctor.
Photo: Ben Milpas/MSF
MSF Shocked And Deeply Saddened By The Killing Of Two Staff Members In Mogadishu, Somalia
It is with great sadness that the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) confirms that two of its staff members were killed Thursday morning as a result of a shooting at the MSF compound in Mogadishu, Somalia.
While one of the aid workers died during the shooting, the other was transferred to a hospital and died following surgery Thursday evening. The victims are Belgian and Indonesian nationals.
The exact circumstances of the shooting are not yet clear. MSF’s immediate priority is to take care of those most affected by this tragedy, in particular the families and colleagues of the victims.
MSF will be relocating some staff from Somalia for security reasons but remains committed to continuing its humanitarian work in Mogadishu and elsewhere in Somalia.
“On the top of Kirumba we take our first rest. The porters sit down and start eating their favourite bugali. I can already see Masango, where we have a health centre. It looks so close, almost touchable. I squint my eyes in an attempt to distinguish the MSF flag. Another 3 hours to get there.”
Photo: © Ferry Schippers
“Paradise. I call it paradise for different reasons. First of all because it resembles most people’s image of how paradise should look: serene, peaceful. Peaceful, however, is far from the truth. Here, high up in my mountains, is the hideout of multiple military factions in disharmony with the Congolese authorities and each other. There are frequently armed encounters between them and the Congolese army, resulting in whole villages fleeing to look for a safe haven, leaving everything behind that they have learned to cherish and to protect.”
Photo: © Ferry Schippers
Every year we send a package of food, games, music and other gifts to aid workers who will be in the field during the holidays. Last year we also included messages from donors and they told us how touched they were by the words of encouragement.
Please take a moment to add your message to our Aid Worker Message Board.
Whether you want to wish our aid workers happy holidays, let them know why you support Doctors Without Borders, or simply tell them thanks for their commitment to saving lives, please add your message to the Board by November 19 so we can include it in our holiday packages. It will mean a lot to our teams.
Stay Informed on MSF Projects
As you went about your day today, thank you for taking the time to follow one of our field workers throughout her typical day. Our field workers provide assistance everyday to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe. And this account is just one of many experiences that people have as MSF field workers.
Interested in learning more about MSF projects in the field? Sign up for our e-newsletter to get monthly news and updates!
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.
