Posts tagged humanitarian

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.

Some came from far away, having traveled up to 150 kilometers [about 93 miles] to reach us. A good number arrived long after the initial injury had occurred rather than in the acute or semi-acute phase, [with] some arriving simply too late to be saved. Among them were patients who had not been able to have any post-operative care after their surgery, patients who received inadequate care and others who hadn’t received any medical care at all.
Kelly Dilworth, an MSF anesthetist who has worked for MSF for nine years, spent one month on mission in Syria. She recalls the pain of the wounded people she was treating and the severity of their injuries in a context where it’s difficult to get appropriate care in time.
Medical Needs Increasing Among Syrian Refugees in LebanonOn July 20 and July 21, there was a new surge as thousands of Syrians entered Lebanon. MSF teams were dispatched to the areas along the border and to the Bekaa valley, where many refugees are seeking sanctuary. As the crisis in Syria continues to intensify, the humanitarian needs—both in Syria and in surrounding countries—are increasing significantly. Many people have been killed and wounded and tens of thousands have fled their homes, leaving behind everything they own. Medical and humanitarian assistance within Syria is extremely limited, and aid from international organizations, including MSF, has been severely restricted. In neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, MSF has therefore augmented its work with the growing numbers of Syrian refugees flowing across the borders.Photo:An MSF nurse gives a vaccine to a young Syrian boy in northern Lebanon. Lebanon 2012 © Nagham Awada/MSF

Medical Needs Increasing Among Syrian Refugees in Lebanon

On July 20 and July 21, there was a new surge as thousands of Syrians entered Lebanon. MSF teams were dispatched to the areas along the border and to the Bekaa valley, where many refugees are seeking sanctuary.

As the crisis in Syria continues to intensify, the humanitarian needs—both in Syria and in surrounding countries—are increasing significantly. Many people have been killed and wounded and tens of thousands have fled their homes, leaving behind everything they own. Medical and humanitarian assistance within Syria is extremely limited, and aid from international organizations, including MSF, has been severely restricted. In neighboring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq, MSF has therefore augmented its work with the growing numbers of Syrian refugees flowing across the borders.

Photo:An MSF nurse gives a vaccine to a young Syrian boy in northern Lebanon.
Lebanon 2012 © Nagham Awada/MSF

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan Women and children wait in line to gather water at an MSF-run tap point in Doro camp. Supplying refugees with safe water has been a challenge since they started arriving. Heavy rains have further jeopardizing the supply of clean water and caused widespread flooding in the camps. 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: South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan

Women and children wait in line to gather water at an MSF-run tap point in Doro camp. Supplying refugees with safe water has been a challenge since they started arriving. Heavy rains have further jeopardizing the supply of clean water and caused widespread flooding in the camps.

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: South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan MSF nurse Ghandi Bant escorts a patient with a possible case of appendicitis to a waiting ambulance in Doro camp. Violence forced many of the refugees in the camps to leave their homes in Sudan suddenly, and the difficult journey across the border exacerbated many pre-existing illnesses. 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: South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

An Escalating Health Crisis in South Sudan

MSF nurse Ghandi Bant escorts a patient with a possible case of appendicitis to a waiting ambulance in Doro camp. Violence forced many of the refugees in the camps to leave their homes in Sudan suddenly, and the difficult journey across the border exacerbated many pre-existing illnesses.

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: South Sudan 2012 © Nichole Sobecki

CNN Video: Shelling Haunts Syrian Family See how our teams are providing crucial care to refugees from Syria through the story of one family struggling to survive after a shell slammed into their home.

CNN Video: Shelling Haunts Syrian Family

See how our teams are providing crucial care to refugees from Syria through the story of one family struggling to survive after a shell slammed into their home.