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About Us

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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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.

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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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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.

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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
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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.

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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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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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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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MSF Science Portal

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

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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.

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TIC

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

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Telemedicine

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

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Sweden Innovation Unit

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

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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
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1993 Results
 
After severe floods hit eastern Nigeria in september 2012, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provided medical assistance and distributed aid kits to populations in need. Hundreds of villages were destroyed and thousands of people were affected by the floods, which occurred after heavy rainfall caused the Benue River to rise above its banks. The situation was worsened because additional water was released from a dam in neighbouring Cameroon. In some places, houses were totally submerged, their residents forced to flee. MSF’s intervention began early September 2012, when medical and logistics teams were deployed in Adamawa and Taraba states. MSF used motorboats to reach isolated and displaced populations in remote flooded areas that were left without access to medical attention. MSF teams exercised vector control, carried out mobile clinics, provided primary and emergency health care and distributed NFI kits and mosquito nets. In Taraba state, MSF mobile clinics carried out 1,430 consultations in Mayorenewo and 10 nearby villages. In Adamawa state, MSF mobile clinics treated 5,500 patients in 33 flooded villages and two internally displaced people’s camps in Numan and Borong. Soaps and mosquito nets were also distributed to 2,200 beneficiaries.
Nigeria

MSF provides medical assistance in flood-affected areas

After severe floods hit eastern Nigeria in September, MSF provided medical assistance and distributed aid kits to populations in need. Hundreds of villages were destroyed and thousands of people were affected by the floods. MSF staff also found high rates of malaria, particularly in the Mayorenewo area, where more than 80 per cent of the patients tested positive. Project Update - 2 Nov 2012
 
Children drawing as part of MSF's mental health activities. The mental stress of being a refugee can disable a person, making an already difficult situation even harder to cope with. Depression, anxiety and fear are common symptoms, as are unexplained physical complaints. In Doro camp, set up for refugees who crossed from Sudan’s Blue Nile State into South Sudan’s Maban County, MSF is supporting its medical activities with psychosocial work.
South Sudan

Mental healthcare for refugees

The mental stress of being a refugee can disable a person – even the whole family – making an already difficult situation even harder to cope with. Depression, anxiety and fear are common symptoms, as are unexplained physical complaints. In the camps for refugees who have crossed from Sudan’s Blue Nile State into South Sudan’s Maban County, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is supporting its medical activities with psychosocial work. Project Update - 30 Oct 2012
 
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Pakistan

MSF treats patients with acute watery diarrhoea

During the monsoon season, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa saw an increase in the number of people diagnosed with acute watery diarrhoea, a condition caused by dirty drinking water, poor sanitation, and poor hygiene conditions. In response to the growing number of cases, the teams from MSF and the Ministry of Health set up temporary treatment centres in Timergara, Hangu and Sadda. Project Update - 23 Oct 2012
 
Siyad Abdi Ar, 24, was 16 when he was abused by gunmen. For 2 days they beat and tortured him. His arms have been left permanantly disabled and he cannot control his urine. His mother says that before the attack he was a normal teenager, but has not been the same since. She chains him to stop him from wandering away. They have been in Dadaab refugee camp for 6 months. Dadaab is 100 km from the Somali border in eastern Kenya. It is the largest refugee camp in the world holding as many as 450,000 people. Most of the inhabitants have fled conflict in southern Somalia. The World Health Organisation says 1 in 3 Somali’s suffer from some kind of mental illness, the result of a war that has left a generation of Somalis who’ve only known fighting, famine, displacement, and loss.
Mental health

Bringing mental healthcare to people who need it

In the refugee camps of Kenya and beyond, psychologists are an integral part of the teams of MSF. Many of the refugees arriving at Dadaab are traumatised by their experiences in Somalia, where violence and drought led to them fleeing their homes. Since 2009, MSF has provided healthcare in Dadaab’s Dagahaley camp, where services on offer include much-needed mental healthcare and counselling. Project Update - 8 Oct 2012
 
40-year-old Erogen Labarach in the MSF hospital in Pibor. "The bullet entered my leg, and then came out the other side. The place where I was shot was along the Kengen river. I have now been here for three weeks. At first I tried to bind my leg on my own. But when I came here the doctor, she cleaned everything and she dressed my leg properly, as you see it now. And they gave me medicines too." Full testimony available from OCB Cell 3 comms officer... Jonglei State in South Sudan is in the grip of a cycle of extremely violent inter-communal fighting. Since 2008 MSF has witnessed in increase in intensity of the generations-old cattle-rustling between communities of different ethnicity. Over Christmas and New Year of 2011 a particularly violent attack in the area around Pibor and the outreach location of Lekwongole village displaced tens of thousands and left Lekwongole and some surrounding villages razed to the ground. MSF's hospital in Pibor was looted and the clinic in Lekwongole was largely destroyed. MSF treated 108 trauma victims in the following weeks, many women and children with gunshot wounds. But the consequences of fear and displacement in the bush continued long after, with malaria and malnutrition at very high levels in MSF's hospital.
South Sudan

90,000 deprived of care due to violence

Escalating violence has forced MSF to suspend medical services in two out of three of its facilities in Pibor county in Jonglei state, South Sudan, leaving up to 90,000 people deprived of essential medical care. Due to the insecurity, the populations of Lekwongole and Gumuruk, including all MSF staff and their families, have fled their homes to seek refuge in the bush. Project Update - 1 Oct 2012
 
When 12.000 refugees were eventually transferred to Bambasi in July, nearly a quarter of the children under 5 suffered from acute malnutrition. Other refugees would have chosen to return to Sudan.<br/> After vaccinated the children against measles, MSF opened a treatment center for malnutrition in Bambasi camp and distributes nutritional supplements to the most vulnerable until the situation stabilizes. *** Local Caption *** For over a year, nearly 40,000 Sudanese have fled the bombing of the Sudanese army in Blue Nile region to seek refuge in Ethiopia. About 18,000 of them lived in the camp of Ad-Amazin, about twenty kilometers from the border. End of April 2012, the Ethiopian authorities decided to close the camp, which was considered too close to Sudan, and move the refugees to a new site located near Bambasi in the Benishangul-Gumuz Region, with a capacity of 20,000 people and more than hundred kilometers from the Sudanese border. Humanitarian assistance, particularly food distribution and health care, has been interrupted end of April 2012 by the Ethiopian authorities for more than 2 months following violent protests by the refugees who refused to leave Ad Amazin, where they were exploiting gold.
Ethiopia

MSF assists aid-deprived Sudanese refugees

More than 2,000 white tents line the green hills near the village of Bambasi, in western Ethiopia. Since July, they have been home to 12,000 Sudanese refugees who fled their homeland and are now taking sanctuary from conflict in a camp established by the Ethiopian authorities and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Project Update - 20 Sep 2012
 
In April 2012, MSF launched an emergency intervention in Minova and Kalungu (South Kivu, DRC) to help the displaced population due to conflict. Thousands of displaced families began arriving to this area from lakeside towns. MSF is supporting two health centers, carrying out nutrition activities and implementing water and sanitation improvements in a temporary displaced persons site.
Democratic Republic of Congo

Multiple conflicts increase humanitarian needs

MSF has expanded its emergency medical programmes in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) in response to increasing humanitarian needs in the region. An MSF emergency intervention is recently started in the unofficial Muganga I camp 20 km west of the provincial capital Goma, where around 17,500 people have spontaneously settled and are living in inhumane conditions. Project Update - 7 Sep 2012
 
MSF has been working on the ground in Syria for the past two months, trying to provide humanitarian assistance to people affected by the conflict. With the help of a group of Syrian doctors, in six days a team was able to transform an empty house into an emergency hospital, where wounded people could be operated on and hospitalised. As of mid-August, MSF has admitted more than 300 patients to this facility and carried out 150 surgeries. The injuries have been largely conflict-related and caused mostly by tank shelling and bombing.
Syria

Two months of operations

MSF has been working in Syria for the past two months, trying to provide humanitarian assistance to people affected by the conflict. With the help of a group of Syrian doctors, a team was able to turn an empty house into an emergency hospital in six days. As of mid-August, MSF has admitted more than 300 patients to this facility and surgeons have carried out 150 operations. Project Update - 21 Aug 2012
 
Yida, Refugee Camp
South Sudan

Health catastrophe continues in refugee camps

Many of the refugees from Sudan’s Blue Nile State who have fled to Maban County in South Sudan’s Upper Nile State had family members who could not complete the journey and died before they reached Batil camp. In some cases, they said their relatives died because they were “tired of walking,” which illustrates the weakened, vulnerable state in which much of this population arrived at the camp. Project Update - 18 Aug 2012
 
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Lebanon

Syrians in need of continuous support

As the crisis in Syria intensifies, humanitarian needs are increasing. Medical assistance within Syria is limited, and aid from international organisations has been severely restricted. In neighbouring countries such as Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq, MSF has strengthened its response to the refugees who are crossing the Syrian borders. Project Update - 14 Aug 2012
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.

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