In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.
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.
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.
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.
Minds and bodies marked by sexual violence in Colombia
Photo Story28 November 2014
Minds and bodies marked by sexual violence in Colombia
Sexual violence affects thousands of people in Colombia. Most sexual violence incidents remain hidden. Puerto Saija, Pacífico, Cauca.
Anna Surinyach/MSF
Women and girls are the main victims, but men and boys also suffer from sexual violence. Most of them don´t go to healthcare facilities to seek immediate help. Puerto Saija, Pacífico, Cauca.
Anna Surinyach/MSF
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) cares for hundreds of sexual violence survivors every year in its medical and mental health programmes in Cauca, Nariño and Caquetá, in the south of Colombia. In the photo, a psychologist working for the organisation gives a psychotherapy workshop to a group of women. It is a space where sexual violence victims find support and conversation. Puerto Saija, Pacífico, Cauca.
Anna Surinyach/MSF
Most of the victims fail to seek medical care because they are not aware of the need to go to the hospital, because they do not consider the incident to be sexual violence, or because they have been threatened by the perpetrator.
Anna Surinyach/MSF
The group of women meet every month and share their activities with more women in order to reach more people. It is a way to empower them and prompt them to seek help when needed. Puerto Saija, Pacífico, Cauca.
Anna Surinyach/MSF
Fabiola Orovío provides care to the group of women with other friends in Puerto Saija, in the Pacífico area, Cauca. “There is a high level of sexual violence here. Men do not always value us. We have learned that rape can also happen at home,” says this 48-year-old mother of eight children.
Anna Surinyach/MSF
“In the group we have learned that we have rights as women.” Emérita Montaño, 33, is a housewife and has three children. Puerto Saija, Pacífico, Cauca.
Anna Surinyach/MSF
The consequences for the physical and mental health when these cases are neglected can be very serious. Unwanted pregnancies, forced abortion or sexually transmitted diseases, in addition to depression or anxiety. The MSF teams offer mental healthcare to sexual violence victims in the villages in the Cauca Mountains. Las Guacas, Cauca.
Anna Surinyach/MSF
Zenobia Moreno has been in therapy with one of the MSF psychologists for some months in one of the villages in the Cauca Mountains, Cauca.
Anna Surinyach/MSF
Mercedes is a 70-year-old MSF patient in Montañita, Caquetá, where MSF also provides care to victims of sexual violence.
Anna Surinyach/MSF
An MSF psychologist explains to the teachers how to detect signs of sexual violence in the children at Hogar Infantil La Montañita, Caquetá.
Anna Surinyach
