Despite the relative simplicity of our mission - to provide impartial medical- humanitarian assistance to those in need and prevent loss of life - our ability obtain access to patients can rarely be assumed. Many of the people we help are trapped within highly charged and complex social and political contexts that create significant barriers to the provision of aid.
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The challenge of an emergency in a world in flux
As the world has changed, so has our response to emergencies. In the past, a typical MSF emergency intervention saw us responding to refugees within defined camps bordering war zones, to malnourished children located in geographic pockets, to communities suffering from cholera outbreaks or meningitis epidemics, and other emergency situations such as periodic floods, droughts or earthquakes.
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How is it that MSF managed to admit 63,000 severely malnourished children into its programmes in Niger in 2005, the largest nutritional intervention in the organisation's history? Niger is not the image most would associate with recent famines - civil war, violence, population displacement, severe food shortage, massive malnutrition (including adults), disease and epidemic - the typical picture of excess death due to catastrophic famine in the 20th century.
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HIV/AIDS care: Doing more by doing less
The Thyolo region of southern Malawi is a verdant area of tea estates. Bright green tea fields are cut through by reddish tracks, linking the many communities spread out in small villages. One of 28 districts in the country, it is also the area that is perhaps hardest hit by HIV/ AIDS, with 20% of people now testing positive for the HIV virus.
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United Nations: deceptive humanitarian reforms?
Responding to many of the same crises and often working alongside United Nations relief efforts within the field, MSF has given much consideration to the nature of humanitarian aid offered under the UN relief system. Increasingly, there has been a feeling of a great discrepancy between the needs to be covered quickly and the effectiveness of the UN response.
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Democratic Republic of Congo: Forgotten war
As a medical-humanitarian organisation, MSF seeks to help people most in need, and for years the DRC has been at, or near, the top of our list. The longstanding war and the collapse of the public health system have resulted in widespread acute medical needs. MSF teams, composed of international and Congolese aid workers, are active in all corners of this huge country striving to reach those most at risk.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Project Handovers - 2006
MSF opens and closes a number of individual projects each year, responding to acute crises, handing over projects to other actors, and always monitoring and remaining flexible to the changing needs of patients within a given location. Several projects may be running simultaneously in a single country as needed. In 2005/2006, with the closure of the following single projects, MSF effectively ended its existing operations in Brazil, Sweden and the Ukraine.
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Overview of MSF Operations - Audited Facts and Figures
Activity highlights - Project Locations - Context of Interventions
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More from MSF
MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES - Rue de Lausanne 78 - CP 116 - 1211 - Geneva 21 - SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 (22) 849.84.00 - Fax: +41 (22) 849.84.04 CONTACT MSF
