Posts tagged journalism

MSF was deeply saddened to learn of the tragic death of Dr. Richard Rockefeller, who was killed today in a plane crash. MSF extends its deepest sympathies and condolences to his family. Dr. Rockefeller was instrumental to the founding of MSF in the United States. He served as chair of the Board of Advisors of MSF-USA for 21 years, leveraging his credibility within the philanthropic community to garner the financial support that was so critical to ensuring MSF’s continued financial independence. While leading this advisory committee and visiting MSF programs abroad, including those in Cambodia, Malawi, Niger, Thailand, and Cambodia, Dr. Rockefeller also worked as a field doctor in Peru and in northern Nigeria while a massive meningitis outbreak struck the country in 2009. Read more: http://bit.ly/1scvvYb

Photo by Ton Koene

Join us Dec. 4 for “Disaster, Ignored”, a webcast on the current situation in Central African Republic (CAR). Violence in CAR has raged on over the last year, displacing some 400,000 people and further worsening their access to health care. MSF Director of Operations Marie-Noelle Rodrigue, and two US-based aid workers, nurse Michelle Mays and Dr. Yolaine Civil, will lead the discussion. Register here: http://disasterignored.eventbrite.com/

“Once we operated for 40 hours straight with only one 2-hour break. Then we slept for 3 hours, and operated for another 12 to 14 hours after that. We started Dec. 23 and finished Dec. 26. We didn’t realize it was Christmas until the day after.” —Dr. John de Csepel, MSF trauma surgeon in Syria.

If you’d like to send some words of encouragement to our medical and logistics staff working far from home over the holidays, we will include your note in our holiday packages. Visit our message board by Monday: http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/messages/  

An MSF nurse performs an ante-natal consultation for a pregnant woman in one of MSF’s makeshift hospitals in Syria. “Before this war people in Syria had good quality health care,” said MSF surgeon Steve Rubin. “Many Syrians really want that care again. But in this area, other than us, all the other medical facilities are doing war trauma. So they come here because this is their only option.”

Photo by Cathy Janssens/MSF

See the new documentary ‘Fire in the Blood’ at IFC Center in New York City through Thursday. An intricate tale of “medicine, monopoly, and malice,” it tells the story of how Western pharmaceutical companies and governments aggressively blocked access to affordable AIDS drugs in Africa and the global south, leading to ten million or more unnecessary deaths. It is also the inspiring story of the improbable group of people who decided to fight back. Get details

The U.S. and 11 other countries are negotiating the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade agreement (TPP) in secret. Provisions of the deal could keep affordable lifesaving medicines out of the hands of people in developing countries. We want negotiation texts made public. 

Two trucks crammed full of people collide at night in Haiti. There are scores of injured patients; the MSF team comes together to save everyone they can. Read more

Photo by Emilie Régnier

Photo by Yozo Kawabe

After 28 weeks, a widespread outbreak of measles in Katsina State, Nigeria, has ended. MSF had been regularly visiting 300 health facilities, and donated treatments for 14,290 people. Read more

“Today we’re on the verge of starting a vaccination campaign against pneumococcal disease in Yida refugee camp (in South Sudan). What we would like to do is actually vaccinate all the children under five against pneumococcal disease but we simply can’t afford to do that at the prices we’re being made to pay for the pneumococcal vaccine.” -Dr. Greg Elder, Deputy Director of MSF Operations

Fasting in solidarity: an MSF psychologist working with child TB patients in Tajikistan describes her first Ramadan fast. Read more

Photo by Terry Porsild/MSF

Fundraising match! Today only, any donation you make to Doctors Without Borders will be matched dollar for dollar up to a total of $55,000! Please share this with family and friends.
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/donate/onetime.cfm?source=ADS130701B03

Photo by Shannon Jensen

U.S. surgeon Steve Rubin is working in an inflatable operating theatre in northern Syria, where the health care system has been destroyed by war. See a video about treating patients in Syria here.