Skip to main content
Back to main menu

About Us

How we work

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

Learn more
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.

Learn more
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.

Learn more
Accountability

Read the policies, reports, and plans on how we address issues like racism and reduce our carbon footprint, ensuring our actions align with the highest ethical standards.

Learn more

What we do

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

View all topics Activities by country
Featured Cholera Gaza Israel war Mediterranean migration

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.

View all countries
Featured Haiti Palestine Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

MSF Websites

A Global Network
Our offices around the world
Our offices around the world
Other Sites
View Resource Centre
MSF Access

MSF Access pushes for access to, and the development of, life-saving and life-prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
ARHP

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

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
Humanitarian Law

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

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
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.

GO TO SITE
MSF Science Portal

Our digital portal dedicated to sharing the latest medical evidence from our humanitarian activities around the globe.

GO TO SITE
Noma

Noma is a preventable and treatable neglected disease, but 90 per cent of people will die within the first two weeks of infection if they do not receive treatment.

GO TO SITE
TIC

The TIC is aiming to change how MSF works to better meet the evolving needs of our patients.

GO TO SITE
Telemedicine

MSF's telemedicine hub aims to overcome geographic barriers for equitable, accessible, and quality patient care.

GO TO SITE
Sweden Innovation Unit

Launched in 2012, the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit deploys a human-centered approach for promoting a culture of innovation within MSF.

GO TO SITE
Geo MSF

The GeoMSF platform is a dynamic one-stop-shop website for all of MSF's GIS related services and products. Access maps and applications through the catalogue, request geographical support, or produce a map on GeoMSF.

GeoMSF
Ebola disease in DRC: find out how we're responding
Learn more
431 Results
 
*** Local Caption *** MSF has been working in the hospital in Paoua (173 beds) since 2006. Working alongside the Ministry of Health, our activities include emergency care, outpatient and inpatient treatment, internal medicine, paediatrics, obstetrics/maternity, HIV-AIDS and tuberculosis treatment, surgery and routine vaccination. MSF also supports a health centre in the town. Between March (when MSF took over the emergency room at the hospital) and October 2014, 9,640 consultations were provided at the hospital and 50,617 in the surrounding areas, 103 of which were for violence-related injuries. In total, an average of 59% of consultations concerned children under five and 76% were for malaria. There were 6,489 patients hospitalised in Paoua, including 1,208 suffering from malaria in the paediatric unit and 123 with violence-related injuries. Also, 1,976 surgical procedures were performed, 329 for violence-related injuries, and 1,213 children were admitted to our nutrition programme. MSF provided 7,890 antenatal consultations, assisted 1,354 natural deliveries and performed 128 caesareans. There were 6,148 children vaccinated against measles. MSF is treating 13,288 patients with HIV/AIDS and 8,730 are on antiretroviral treatment.
Central African Republic

Providing guidance to ensure high quality care

Voices from the Field - 13 Sep 2016
 
There are an estimated 15,000 people in Bama camp – most of these people are women and children under the age of five. People are living inside a camp surrounded by the Nigerian army. Boko Haram fighters are stationed a few killometres away from Bama camp, the town is empty, and it is like a ghost town. The only people who remain in Bama are inside the camp. We returned to Bama on August 17th to carry out our emergency response. We reached a total number of 3,293 children under the age of five. We treated 513 malnourished children (4.2% have severe malnutrition and 10.9% have moderate malnutrition). Our operational aim was to reduce morbidity and mortality among children under the age of five by providing treatment and food for one month. We took Non Food Items (mosquito nets, soap), therapeutic food for malnourished children (plumpy nut) and a food blanket ration targeting malnourished children’s household (oil, emergency food, rations and beans). We started our distribution at 7am and there were people as far we could see. There were lines and lines of women and children. We screened the children for malnutrition as we distributed the items. Our operation strategy is to return to Bama every month for the next two months. There is an Outpatient clinic run by the Ministry of Health and UNICEF but very few patients go to the clinic because there are not enough medicines there. In addition the Nigerian Air Force opened few days ago an hospital in front of the camp’s entrance. Most people in the camp live in make shift corrugated iron shelters – with sheets of metal not offering much protection against the rain or elements. Now some people have plastic sheeting on their shelters and tents but there are no windows so it’s very hot inside these shelters and they’re not sustainable. There is also an issue around water. There isn’t enough water for the number of people in the camp. here is nine bore holes in the camp and only seven are functioning, this is not covering the needs of the 15,000 people in the camp.
Nigeria

Malnutrition is the biggest problem in Bama

Interview with MSF project coordinator Hakim Khaldi Voices from the Field - 7 Sep 2016
 
msf-placeholder
South Sudan

Patient story - Nyajuba

Nya is one of the 201 patients who received surgery from MSF following the recent clashes in South Sudan, 54 of which were major operations. Voices from the Field - 5 Sep 2016
 
Fanne holds her 8-month old son Mallum Abba. He weighs 5,4 kg and is receiving treatment for malnutrition at MSF's inpatient therapeutic feeding centre in Ngala.
Nigeria

Video: Testimonies from displaced women in Maiduguri, Nigeria

Voices from the Field - 23 Aug 2016
 
Amina Story 7/7 Amina is 15 years old, she looks like she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. Her small frame shrinks further in size as she talks about what she has experienced. Sleeping on the hospital bed besides her is her son Yaqub, who she gave birth to a few days ago in MSF‘s health facility in Maimusari, 15 kilometres from the centre of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, north east Nigeria. The MSF health centre in Maimusari is heaving with women and children, everwhere you look women are huddled holding their babies or seated on benches waiting to be seen by health workers. I say women, but many of the faces in the crowd are teenager girls similar in age to Amina. Some of these girls have given birth to their second or third child. More than five hundred women and babies are being treated in this MSF health facility daily and more than seventy babies are delivered every week. MSF runs an In Patient and Out Patient Department, maternity and ante natal services and an Ambulatory Theraputic Feeding Centre – ATFC. This is where malnourished children and babies are provided with threaputic treatment. Amina says she is her husbands second wife, he has five children from his first wife, Amina says she has no idea where he is and he has yet to meet their newborn son. Amina is from Bama, a town in north east Nigeria. Bama is one of the frontlines in the ongoing conflict between the Nigerian army and Boko Haram that has left more than one million displaced and facing a growing nutrition crisis. Amina was evacuated from Bama and refered to MSF‘s health facility in Maimusari. The journey by road takes two and a half hours, the road is in poor condition and dangerous because it is part dotted with military checkpoints and is close to the Sambisa Forest in Gwozah, where Boko Haram are said to have a base. “I don‘t remember the journey from Bama to Maiduguri because I was in so much pain I had passed out. My youngest sister, Noor, aged five acompanied me on the journey. Was I scared ? I have spent my whole life being scared and so this was no different“ says Amina. “It is very hard to be a girl here. Many bad things happen to girls, unspeakable things happen and they start happening to little girls as young as ten“ Amina twists the fabric of her dress as she talks and looks away frequentky trying to avoid eye contact with the nurse in the room. “What can I tell you ? It is impossible for me to talk about these things. “ I ask her how she feels about being a mother? She shrugs her shoulders and then leans back and looks in to the distance. In the same room as Amina there are two women on each bed with their newborns. The older looking mothers handle their children with more experience and attachment, holding their babies close as they breastfeed them. In one bed there are twins nestling into the blankets they’re laid out on. Many of the new mothers have expresionless faces. They look utterly exhusted. Fatima, 35, has given birth to her sixth child, she says her baby was deliverd safely by MSF and she is thankful that she had somewhere to turn to in her time of need. “I felt safe here and knew that I would get good care and my baby would be healthy. I do not know what tomorrow will bring and all I can do is hope for the best for my child and all the children.“ MSF midwife Etsuko Nakamura is doing the rounds in the health centre. In the delivery room a woman has just given birth and has a retained placenta which can be life threatening as it can cause infection. Nurses masage her uterus to try and encourage the placenta to discharge. Another woman is in labour and the staff are preparing for her delivery. “Our women patients are mostly in poor general health and for most it is very difficult for them to get to see a doctor because they don’t have the money or their family members do not see it as a priority,“ says MSF midwife Etsuko. “We deliever up to fifteen babies daily, many of the women have had repeat pregnancies and deliveries in a short space of time – their bodies are weak and exhausted. As always with our work we see the dailly impact of conflict and poverty. We see how women and children’s lives are made harder by violence and instability. It is the women and children who are the most vulnerable and suffer the most,“ says Etsuko.
Nigeria

Amina, a 15-year-old mother in Maiduguri

“Our women patients are mostly in poor general health, and for most it is very difficult for them to get to see a doctor because they don’t have the money or their family members do not see it as a priority,” explains Etsuko Nakamura. Voices from the Field - 18 Aug 2016
 
Dayo, 31, was referred to Mora Hospital in Cameroon in late July by MSF teams in Banki, Nigeria. She accompanied her sick four year-old son, Barine. The child urgently needed to be admitted to hospital as he was suffering from severe acute malnutrition.
Nigeria

We are scared to return

Patient testimonies from Banki Voices from the Field - 11 Aug 2016
 
In Guinea-Bissau, MSF is woring at the national hospital in Bissau, the capital of the country. MSF teams are now in the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Guinea-Bissau

Many children would be saved if they arrived at the hospital earlier

In the region of Bafata, in the northeast of the country, we are working in the regional hospital and at several health centres in rural areas. Voices from the Field - 29 Jul 2016
 
MV Aquarius disembarks 209 people and the dead bodies of 21 women and one man in Trapani, Sicily on the 22nd July 2016. The search and recue vessel, a partnership between MSF and SOS Méditerranée, responded to a boat in distress on 20th July 2016. "We see from the people that survived that they are unusually silent. They are just staring with these empty eyes into nothingness for hours and hours. It's been horrific. These things shouldn't happen. It's 2016. It shouldn't happen anymore." Dr Erna Rijnierse, Doctor onboard MV Aquarius a search and rescue vessel run in partnership between MSF and SOS Méditerranée.
Mediterranean migration

MSF doctor recounts finding deaths at sea

By Dr Erna Rijnierse, an MSF doctor onboard the search and rescue vessel the MV Aquarius Voices from the Field - 25 Jul 2016
 
Dr. Christine BIMANSHA MBOMBO, MSF Medical Activity Manager of the HIV/AIDS program in the Hôpital communautaire of Bangui. 09 July 2016 - Hôpital communautaire, Bangui, Central African Republic.
Central African Republic

If you provide care, they will come

Voices from the Field - 18 Jul 2016
 
Teams are providing mobile clinics in Gudele 1 and Gudele 2 today, where approximately 3000 people are sheltering after having been displaced by intense fighting.
South Sudan

Our patients are telling us terrible stories

"In escaping from the violence, many people lost family members. Today I met an eight-year-old boy whose mother and father were both shot and who now has no one to take care of him. I saw a girl of 12, her three-year-old sister in her arms, come for a consultation, saying she had lost both parents. " Voices from the Field - 15 Jul 2016
Four mothers posing in a corridor of the Hospital in Bili. All four of them are staying in the hospital with their child, that's suffering from a severe case of malaria. Since the beginning of the project in 2016, the pediatric ward already treated more than 4.000 cases of complicated/severe form of malaria.
Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)

Independent medical humanitarian assistance

We provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or exclusion from healthcare. Our teams are made up of tens of thousands of health professionals, logistic and administrative staff - most of them hired locally. Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of independence and impartiality. We are a non-profit, self-governed, member-based organisation.

Learn more