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About us

Who We Are

Learn about our mission, our charter and principles, and who we are.

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How we work

See what triggers an intervention and how supply and logistics allow our teams to respond quickly.

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How we're run

Discover our governance and what it means to be an association. Find a quick visual guide to our offices around the world.

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Reports and financials

Read through our annual financial and activity reports, and find out about where our funds come from and how they are spent.

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What we do

Médecins Sans Frontières brings medical humanitarian assistance to victims of conflict, natural disasters, epidemics or healthcare exclusion.

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Where we work

In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.

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MSF Websites

A Global Network
Our offices around the world
Our offices around the world
Other Sites
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MSF Association

Our staff “own” and manage MSF, making sure that we stay true to our mission and principles, through the MSF Associations.

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Access Campaign

We set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to push for access to, and the development of, life-saving and life-prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond.

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Patient blogs

Hear directly from the inspirational people we help as they talk about their experiences dealing with often neglected, life-threatening diseases.

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CRASH

Based in Paris, CRASH conducts and directs studies and analysis of MSF actions. They participate in internal training sessions and assessment missions in the field.

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UREPH

Based in Geneva, UREPH (or Research Unit) aims to improve the way MSF projects are implemented in the field and to participate in critical thinking on humanitarian and medical action.

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ARHP

Based in Barcelona, ARHP documents and reflects on the operational challenges and dilemmas faced by the MSF field teams.

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MSF Analysis

Based in Brussels, MSF Analysis intends to stimulate reflection and debate on humanitarian topics organised around the themes of migration, refugees, aid access, health policy and the environment in which aid operates.

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MSF Supply

This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.

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MSF Logistique

This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.

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Amsterdam Procurement Unit

This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.

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Southern Africa Medical Unit

SAMU provides strategic, clinical and implementation support to various MSF projects with medical activities related to HIV and TB. This medical unit is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

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Brazilian Medical Unit

BRAMU specialises in neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue and Chagas, and other infectious diseases. This medical unit is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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MSF Medical Guidelines

Our medical guidelines are based on scientific data collected from MSF’s experiences, the World Health Organization (WHO), other renowned international medical institutions, and medical and scientific journals.

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Manson Unit

The Manson Unit is a London, UK-based team of medical specialists who provide medical and technical support, and conduct research for MSF.

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Epicentre

Providing epidemiological expertise to underpin our operations, conducting research and training to support our goal of providing medical aid in areas where people are affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or excluded from health care.

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Evaluation Units

Evaluation Units have been established in Vienna, Stockholm, and Paris, assessing the potential and limitations of medical humanitarian action, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of our medical humanitarian work.

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LGBTQI+ Inclusion in Health Settings

MSF works with LGBTQI+ populations in many settings over the last 25-30 years. LGBTQI+ people face healthcare disparities with limited access to care and higher disease rates than the general population.

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LUXOR

The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.

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MSF Academy for Healthcare

To upskill and provide training to locally-hired MSF staff in several countries, MSF has created the MSF Academy for Healthcare.

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Humanitarian Law

This Guide explains the terms, concepts, and rules of humanitarian law in accessible and reader-friendly alphabetical entries.

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MSF Paediatric Days

The MSF Paediatric Days is an event for paediatric field staff, policy makers and academia to exchange ideas, align efforts, inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field.

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MSF Foundation

The MSF Foundation aims to create a fertile arena for logistics and medical knowledge-sharing to meet the needs of MSF and the humanitarian sector as a whole.

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DNDi

A collaborative, patients’ needs-driven, non-profit drug research and development organisation that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases, founded in 2003 by seven organisations from around the world.

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After six years, MSF hands over its HIV/Aids programme

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Project Update26 October 2005

"We started the program back in 2000," recalls Josje Reinartz, operational director of MSF. "With prevention of the transmission of the HIV virus from mother to her child. From there we slowly expanded the programme to all the other components of the programme."

"Ukraine has one of the highest rates of HIV/Aids in Europe and only a small amount of people is aware of their status. To break through the stigmas that still surround the disease is the only way to offer the patients good treatment and a dignified way of living," says Zahedul Islam, the departing head of the MSF programmes.

Six years ago projects were set up in Southern Ukrainian cities like Odessa, Simferopol and Mikolaev. One of the main priorities was to set up a programme that combated the disease from the moment of the very first diagnosis of the disease to daily lifelong medication for the patients.

The programmes specifically targeted those groups like sex workers and drug addicts, people at the lower end of the society that at the same time had to confront a fierce stigma and discrimination that up until today surround the disease.

According to Zahedul Islam: "An HIV/Aids programme can be only really successful, if the stigma that still surround the disease is broken through. Only then the patient can be offered good treatment and a dignified way of living."

In order to achieve this MSF set up a 'continuum of care' model. This was done in close cooperation with the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and several Ukrainian organizations. This model provides HIV/Aids patients with affordable antiretroviral treatment, diagnostic facilities and innovative psycho-social support for the patients and their direct relatives.

"We started the program back in 2000', recalls Josje Reinartz, operational director of MSF, 'with prevention of the transmission of the HIV virus from mother to her child. From there we slowly expanded the programme to all the other components of the programme."

MSF enrolled 1,239 mother and child pairs in the programme, reducing the transmission rate from around 30% to 12,9%.

Availability of antiretroviral treatment for these mothers and their children was essential. As of mid 2002 MSF started to treat children and as of November 2003 also adults with antiretrovirals. Despite the HIV epidemic these drugs were in the Ukraine only available for a small group of patients that participated in research programmes.

In total 138 adults and 32 children received the drugs. The Ministry of Health took over this programme element and was treating by September 2005 almost 2,700 people with the same medication.

Overall in the past six years the programmes of MSF in the cities of Odessa, Mikolaev and Simferopol focused on:

Reducing the transmission of HIV from pregnant women to their babies: Transmission rates dropped from over 30% to around 12.9% by providing treatment. Infant formula is also provided to prevent transmission through breastfeeding
Providing treatment and care to people living with HIV/Aids: Offering life saving antiretroviral treatment, treatment of HIV related infections and clinical follow up
Establishing psycho-social programmes: To make sure that patients would adhere to their treatment; provide voluntary counselling and testing for HIV infections in regional AIDS centres, maternity houses for pregnant women and their partners and to give psycho-social support for all patients and their families
Training staff from the Ukrainian Ministry of Health and national NGOs: From January 2004 to August 2005 MSF organized 141 trainings attended by 2,227 participants to ensure ongoing care when the Ministry of Health and the national NGOs take over the programme
Raising awareness: Together with the Ministry of Health and the national NGOs MSF participated in a national campaign to raise awareness about HIV/Aids, empowering those who live with the virus or the disease and reduce stigma and discrimination.
A lot has changed over the past six years in fighting HIV/Aids. Ukraine has received significant funding from the Global Fund for the next five years. Programmes can be expanded and more people will receive treatment. Ukrainian organizations like LifePlus, Alternativa, UNITAS and Time to Live as well as the Ministry of Health are now ready to take up the fight against HIV/Aids.

MSF hands over all its activities to them in the confidence that they will continue the fight against stigma and discrimination of those who are affected, to ensure the life-long care that every patient deserves.