Living conditions deteriorate for displaced people in Herat

With humanitarian assistance being reduced and water supplies running out, conditions are becoming increasingly difficult for some 100,000 displaced Afghans in Herat. Project Update - 24 Jul 2019

In February 2019, MSF conducted a large bed net distribution campaign in Sifontes municipality, a mining area in Bolivar Sate. The distribution is crucial to allow people in this mining area to protect themselves from mosquitoes and therefore malaria.

During the distribution, MSF collaborates with the National Malaria Programme to offer rapid malaria tests to people. If they test positive, they are treated on the spot. Some people have been infected more than 15 times.

Venezuela

Addressing mounting health needs in Venezuela

Médecins Sans Frontières is expanding its medical activities in Venezuela, where years of economic and political crisis are taking a heavy toll on households and health facilities alike. Project Update - 24 Jul 2019

Last year, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) assisted almost 4,000 survivors across the country; in the MSF project at the Bangui Community Hospital alone, more than 800 people have been treated in the first half of this year. In order to give the community access to treatment, MSF has extended the Community Hospital project on the outskirts of Bangui, in the popular district of Bédé-Combattant.

Central African Republic

Silence aggravates the wounds of sexual violence

MSF assisted 4,000 victims of sexual violence in the Central African Republic in 2018. Our team at Bangui community hospital have treated more than 800 people in the first half of this year alone. Project Update - 23 Jul 2019

Dr Hassan Shams El-Din works as a psychiatrist, one day a week, at MSF’s clinic in Wadi Khaled. He is seen here in a session with Kharma, one of his patients, a Syrian woman who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder and depression following the death of her husband. He has been seeing her regularly for about a year.

الدكتور حسان شمس الدين طبيب نفسي يتواجد في عيادة أطباء بلا حدود في وادي خالد يوماً واحداً في الأسبوع. في هذه الصورة، يجلس مع خرمة، مريضة سورية تعاني من اضطراب ما بعد الصدمة والاكتئاب منذ وفاة زوجها. يتابع الطبيب حالتها منذ حوالي عام.

Mental health

Tackling stigma one patient at a time in Lebanon

Although mental health issues are common in the community, they are still faced with stigma in the town of Wadi Khaled, northern Lebanon. The clear lack of mental health professionals in Akkar governorate makes way for an increase in superstitious beliefs. Project Update - 22 Jul 2019

Natali and Katerine were sexually abused by their grandfatehr (their mothers father). He has since been incarcerated. Meanwhile the girls and their mother have all received psychiatric treatment for the trauma of these occurances and have found the treatment very beneficial. This is the last of their 8 sessions with MSF psychologist Gracia and they are very grateful for her help.

Honduras

Emergency contraceptive pill vital for sexual assault victims

The prohibition of ECP in Honduras urgently needs to be overturned so that a comprehensive health protocol for victims of sexual violence can be validated and put into practice. Project Update - 19 Jul 2019

MSF provides primary healthcare, sexual and reproductive healthcare and mental healthcare to migrants and asylum-seekers from Venezuela and to Colombians unable to access to the health system in the provinces of La Guajira, Norte de Santander and Arauca.

Colombia

The uncertain lives of Venezuelan migrants on the Colombian border

Venezuelans who have fled their country's severe economical and political crisis are struggling to have their healthcare needs met in Colombia. There, MSF teams are plugging the gaps in a system which is struggling to cope with the new arrivals. Project Update - 17 Jul 2019

Ethiopia

The constant cycle of displacement

Thousands of people have shuttled back and forth between the Gedeo and Guji areas of southern Ethiopia. Displacement camps have closed, but many are unable to return home, and are surviving in difficult conditions. MSF is providing assistance. Project Update - 12 Jul 2019

Bushra Mohammed, one year and 4 months old, was hospitalized in the burns unit at MSF Hospital in Qayyarah twenty days ago. 12% percent of her body had burn wounds. After two skin grafts (a surgical operation in which healthy skin is transplanted to the burn site), Bushra needs to stay in the hospital for several more days. Doctors prefer to monitor her recovery process due to her young age and the severity of her wounds.
“We are from Qayyarah, we came to this hospital because it is the nearest hospital and we knew MSF was working here. Before the last war with the Islamic State group (IS), there were other hospitals, the General and Jumhouri hospitals, but they were shelled and destroyed.”
“It was 8:00 pm and we were having dinner, all of us, the family. Bushra’s 5-year-old sister went into the bathroom to wash her hands after eating. She turned the faucet of the hot water, and extremely hot water came pouring out. She feared that she could not turn the faucet again to close it, and left it open.”
At this moment, Bushra came in; she follows her sister’s every move. She slipped onto the water and fell with her soft skin touching the very hot ceramic floor.
“We all jumped when she screamed. She was crying in pain, and my heart was pounding when I went in to look for her. Her father carried her straight to the hospital, but still, her arm suffered a bad burn despite our quick reaction. In the hospital, the staff attended to her burns and applied dressings to cover the wounds properly. Every two days they wash and clean her wounds, and then they informed us that she needs a skin graft. We have been here in this ward for 20 long days.
Bushra is playful and curious, being stuck in bed the whole day every day is hard for her. She is even tired of seeing the colour of the green sterile hospital scrubs.
As everyone who enters the room to see and visit wears a green sterile gown, she gets upset when she sees this green colour. She used to cry whenever she sees me wearing it, and would stop as soon as I took it off.
I am now more aware of what could happen if she is left alone even for a single moment. I will never let her out of my sight ever again.”

Iraq

Supporting people in Qayyarah

Project Update - 12 Jul 2019

A supervisor for MSF cutaneous leishmaniasis treatment centre in Peshawar, Faqeer Hussain, examines 11-year-old patient Mohammad Asif’s lesion under the eye. Mohammad travels with his father for more than two hours every day to get treatment for cutaneous leishmaniasis at Naseerullah Khan Babar memorial hospital in Peshawar.

Pakistan

The only option for cutaneous leishmaniasis treatment in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

Cutaneous leishamaniasis - a skin infection caused by a parasite - is endemic in northwestern Pakistan. With the number of cases rising, and treatment expensive or difficult to access, MSF has opened one specialist clinic and plans to open another. Project Update - 9 Jul 2019

Myanmar

Clinic closure marks milestone for HIV treatment in Myanmar

MSF teams have been treating people living with HIV in the Insein clinic, in Yangon, Myanmar, since 2014. With the national HIV programme able to continue treatment programmes, we've now closed Insein; MSF counsellor Ko Myo Kyaw explains life at our clinic. Project Update - 8 Jul 2019

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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