Posts tagged humanitarian

We would like to highlight the humanitarian situation in this remote territory, and to see more aid organizations coming or returning as the needs are high and the situation is unlikely to calm down in the near future. Masisi territory has nearly as many people as the city of Goma and the humanitarian needs there are at least as significant. However, there are many fewer organizations working there. After the last few weeks’ fighting, the MSF teams find themselves alone. The violence in Masisi is receiving less media attention, but it is just as critical.
MSF program manager, Amaury Grégoire, calls upon the international aid community for help in DRC.

MSF has supported the General Hospital in Masisi since 2007 and provides free primary and secondary care there. Between January and September 2012, MSF hospitalized more than 5,800 patients, performed 1,320 surgeries and admitted 462 malnourished children and 653 pregnant women. 
Photo: The Domeez refugee camp in Iraq, where MSF has been treating Syrian refugees since this past May. Iraq 2012 © Fayçal Touiz/MSF Humanitarian Response Still Insufficient For Syrians In and Out of the Country The humanitarian situation in Syria continues to worsen as the war escalates and attacks against health facilities continue. Access to large parts of the country remains extremely difficult due to insecurity and heavy fighting, and more than two million people have been displaced. The number of Syrians seeking refuge in neighboring countries is increasing, but the humanitarian response in Lebanon and Iraq has so far been unable to meet their needs. The arrival of winter is exacerbating the difficult living conditions of Syrian refugees and the population remaining in the country Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) currently works in three field hospitals in the north of Syria. Since June, 10,000 patients have received medical attention for reasons including violence-related injuries such as gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds, open fractures, and injuries due to explosions. More than 900 surgical procedures have been carried out. Admissions are irregular, depending on shifting frontlines and whether it is possible to refer the wounded. MSF is also providing training in mass casualty management, triage, and emergency care to Syrian health personnel who need support in the management of war-wounded patients. Specific assistance is also being provided to medical facilities, such as helping set up an emergency room and a blood bank in Aleppo area. Several other health facilities have been set up by Syrian doctors and other medical organizations to treat the wounded in the northern region. However, general access to health services remains limited for the population, particularly for people suffering from chronic illnesses. A significant number of MSF’s patients need treatment for chronic disease or accidental trauma, or assistance during childbirth. Further support needs to be developed to meet these needs.

Photo: The Domeez refugee camp in Iraq, where MSF has been treating Syrian refugees since this past May. Iraq 2012 © Fayçal Touiz/MSF

Humanitarian Response Still Insufficient For Syrians In and Out of the Country

The humanitarian situation in Syria continues to worsen as the war escalates and attacks against health facilities continue. Access to large parts of the country remains extremely difficult due to insecurity and heavy fighting, and more than two million people have been displaced. The number of Syrians seeking refuge in neighboring countries is increasing, but the humanitarian response in Lebanon and Iraq has so far been unable to meet their needs. The arrival of winter is exacerbating the difficult living conditions of Syrian refugees and the population remaining in the country

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) currently works in three field hospitals in the north of Syria. Since June, 10,000 patients have received medical attention for reasons including violence-related injuries such as gunshot wounds, shrapnel wounds, open fractures, and injuries due to explosions. More than 900 surgical procedures have been carried out. Admissions are irregular, depending on shifting frontlines and whether it is possible to refer the wounded. MSF is also providing training in mass casualty management, triage, and emergency care to Syrian health personnel who need support in the management of war-wounded patients. Specific assistance is also being provided to medical facilities, such as helping set up an emergency room and a blood bank in Aleppo area.

Several other health facilities have been set up by Syrian doctors and other medical organizations to treat the wounded in the northern region. However, general access to health services remains limited for the population, particularly for people suffering from chronic illnesses. A significant number of MSF’s patients need treatment for chronic disease or accidental trauma, or assistance during childbirth. Further support needs to be developed to meet these needs.

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Doctors Without Borders: Life-Saving Aid, Tough Compromises

Listen to this KQED interview with Sophie Delaunay, MSF USA executive director, on how we navigate on-the-ground realities while maintaining our humanitarian principles.For international humanitarian aid groups, saving lives inevitably involves compromise — such as negotiating with despots, putting employees in harm’s way and sometimes even promoting military intervention. 

FINAL WEEK OF MSF.TV October is coming to an end, and so is our live news channel of MSF behind the scenes work. Download this week’s TV Guide so you don’t miss out on the LAST WEEK of MSF.TV! Highlights of the week: Tuesday (10/23): Violence in Papua New Guinea Wednesday (10/24): A Photographer’s Experience Thursday (10/25): Mission in Somalia Friday (10//26): Humanitarian Crisis of Today

FINAL WEEK OF MSF.TV

October is coming to an end, and so is our live news channel of MSF behind the scenes work. Download this week’s TV Guide so you don’t miss out on the LAST WEEK of MSF.TV!

Highlights of the week:

  • Tuesday (10/23): Violence in Papua New Guinea
  • Wednesday (10/24): A Photographer’s Experience
  • Thursday (10/25): Mission in Somalia
  • Friday (10//26): Humanitarian Crisis of Today

Art and culture transcend many barriers, and bring relief in times of hardship. Here’s a glimpse into the lives of people we provide humanitarian aid in. See more photo finalists from our international MSF.TV Cultural Photography Competition

Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Living in Fear and Uncertainty While Lebanon has absorbed tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in neighboring Syria in recent months, many people are living in overcrowded conditions, suffering psychological distress, are fearful for their safety, and are unable to afford medical care, said the international medical humanitarian organization MSF in a report released today. The MSF report, Fleeing the violence in Syria: Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, details the living conditions and health of the refugees and the major challenges facing them, including access to housing, food, water, sanitation, health care, and security. Most refugees are settling in economically disadvantaged regions of Lebanon, placing an additional burden on already overstretched resources. Gaps are appearing in refugees’ access to medical care, particularly hospital care and treatment for chronic diseases.Photo: An MSF family doctor examines a young Syrian patient. Lebanon 2012 © Nagham Awada/MSF

Syrian Refugees in Lebanon Living in Fear and Uncertainty

While Lebanon has absorbed tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the conflict in neighboring Syria in recent months, many people are living in overcrowded conditions, suffering psychological distress, are fearful for their safety, and are unable to afford medical care, said the international medical humanitarian organization MSF in a report released today.

The MSF report, Fleeing the violence in Syria: Syrian Refugees in Lebanon, details the living conditions and health of the refugees and the major challenges facing them, including access to housing, food, water, sanitation, health care, and security. Most refugees are settling in economically disadvantaged regions of Lebanon, placing an additional burden on already overstretched resources. Gaps are appearing in refugees’ access to medical care, particularly hospital care and treatment for chronic diseases.

Photo: An MSF family doctor examines a young Syrian patient. Lebanon 2012 © Nagham Awada/MSF

The Photographer is a graphic novel documenting our clandestine cross-border operation in Afghanistan to assist those stranded without medical care in areas hardest-hit after the Soviet invasion in 1979. Find this and more books about our work here.

The Photographer is a graphic novel documenting our clandestine cross-border operation in Afghanistan to assist those stranded without medical care in areas hardest-hit after the Soviet invasion in 1979.


Find this and more books about our work here.

Please SHARE this call for entry with any film-makers and photographers you know who have produced work celebrating the cultures of people in any of the 60+ countries Médecins Sans Frontières have worked in since 1971.Visit http://www.msf.org.au/filmfest for entry details. Thanks for your support!

Please SHARE this call for entry with any film-makers and photographers you know who have produced work celebrating the cultures of people in any of the 60+ countries Médecins Sans Frontières have worked in since 1971.

Visit http://www.msf.org.au/filmfest for entry details.

Thanks for your support!

Sleeping on the ground in day-old, fishy, muddy, sweaty clothes isn’t my idea of a great night out, but still it gave me time and reason to reflect and understand the people I’m working with better. Not the staff, though yes them too somewhat, but the patients. The oldies that come with general body pains that we send away with no medication, telling them its normal to have body pains after working in the fields cultivating, carrying 20kg drums of water for miles on their heads, cutting and carrying wood for miles just in order to live.

Kate Chapman is a nurse working with MSF in Matter, Ethiopia. Kate and her team have an unexpected camping adventure and gain further understanding of how local people live when they get stuck in the middle of nowhere.

Click here to read the rest of Kate’s blog.

Click here to learn more about Doctors Without Borders projects in Ethiopia.

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan Since November 2011, MSF has been operating emergency programs in South Sudan for tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. MSF has field hospitals in five refugee camps in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan (Batil, Doro, Jamam, Yida, and Gendrassa). However, resources in the camps are stretched extremely thin, and the humanitarian crisis is only worsening as more refugees arrive. Heavy rains have exacerbated the situation, flooding camps and leaving refugees—many of whom have already endured the journey from Sudan on foot—vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, malaria, and cholera.Photo: An MSF clinical officer speaks with a woman on her way to MSF’s outpatient department in Batil camp. South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan

Since November 2011, MSF has been operating emergency programs in South Sudan for tens of thousands of refugees who fled violence in Sudan’s South Kordofan and Blue Nile States. MSF has field hospitals in five refugee camps in Unity and Upper Nile states in South Sudan (Batil, Doro, Jamam, Yida, and Gendrassa). However, resources in the camps are stretched extremely thin, and the humanitarian crisis is only worsening as more refugees arrive. Heavy rains have exacerbated the situation, flooding camps and leaving refugees—many of whom have already endured the journey from Sudan on foot—vulnerable to diseases like diarrhea, malaria, and cholera.

Photo: An MSF clinical officer speaks with a woman on her way to MSF’s outpatient department in Batil camp.
South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

This is…what we’re here for: responding to the most urgent and immediate medical needs. It is incredible what we have been able to achieve, but it’s not enough. There is always something more that can be done, and we have to fight to make sure these people have what they need, not just to survive, but to give them dignity, give them quality of life, make sure that they can maintain the spirit that they have.

Helen Ottens-Patterson, from the United Kingdom, is a nurse and Doctors Without Borders medical coordinator in Upper Nile State’s Maban County, South Sudan.

Here she speaks about the overwhelming situation of refugees in South Sudan.

Interview with Doctors Without Borders surgeon Kathrine Holte, who spent a month operating in a secret field hospital in Syria.

It’s unjust that children are still dying of measles, but how do we vaccinate them when it’s impossible to reach certain areas? There are no easy answers, but I still find this appalling. The same for malnutrition. The soil is so fertile there that you can drop anything on the ground and it’ll grow. There shouldn’t be any malnutrition.

Anna Halford, returning from a four-month mission as a project coordinator in DRC, reflects on the work MSF does to help people enduring daily violence.

At the end of 2011, MSF was the target of a violent attack in Masisi, North Kivu, in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). This incident forced the organization to reduce its teams between that November and April of this year. Activities have resumed, but the security situation remains tense.

Read this interview with Anna Halford from her time working with MSF in DRC.

Reblog to help us raise awareness of the plight of Sudanese refugees living in appalling conditions in camps in South Sudan. They are falling ill and dying at rates alarmingly above accepted international standards for emergencies. Join us next week for a live webcast discussion on the refugee crisis in South Sudan, featuring recently returned emergency field staff. Wednesday, August 29, 8p ET. Register here.

Reblog to help us raise awareness of the plight of Sudanese refugees living in appalling conditions in camps in South Sudan. They are falling ill and dying at rates alarmingly above accepted international standards for emergencies.

Join us next week for a live webcast discussion on the refugee crisis in South Sudan, featuring recently returned emergency field staff. Wednesday, August 29, 8p ET. Register here.