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Ebola disease in DRC: find out how we're responding
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An old displaced woman filling a bucket with clean water provided by MSF in a camp in northwest Syria.
Syria

Northern Syria: Acute water crisis poses serious health risks

People are facing a desperate situation in northern Syria, as limited access to clean water has reached breaking point, creating health problems for millions of people displaced within the region. Project Update - 29 Sep 2021
 
Abortion is a common experience—people of all ages, ethnicities, nationalities, and religions decide to end their pregnancies for various reasons. Yet in many places across the globe, people who have abortions face harmful stereotypes, blame, and social stigma. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) provides safe abortion care and also treats people for the consequences of unsafe abortion, a leading cause of maternal mortality. When our teams talk to people who are deciding to have an abortion, we often hear their personal stories. To mark International Safe Abortion Day, September 28, we want to help break abortion stigma by sharing some first-person stories from women in the places where MSF works. We hear from people all over the world—from Colombia to the Democratic Republic of Congo, Greece to India, people of many religions, students, midwives, people with children, and some without children. MSF is committed to using our voice to ensure that people everywhere have access to safe abortion care. Safe abortion care is essential health care.
Safe abortion care

A revolution in safe abortion care

Self-managed abortion with pills could open up access and uphold autonomy for millions of people - a revolution in safe abortion care Opinion - 28 Sep 2021
 
MSF doctor José Mbuta dresses up before entering the operating theatre of Popokabaka General Referral Hospital. 

From mid-July to mid-September, MSF emergency teams responded a typhoid outbreak in Popokabaka health zone, supporting treatment at the general hospital and in seven health centres, providing them with clean water, setting up sensitization activities and reinforcing epidemiological surveillance.
and reinforcing epidemiological surveillance.

In total, 2,180 patients were treated for typhoid fever and 20 surgical operations linked to complications of the disease were performed with MSF’s support. In addition to treating typhoid fever, the MSF team also operated on 11 people for surgical emergencies and treated more than 3,500 patients suffering from simple and severe malaria.
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Democratic Republic of Congo

Deadly typhoid outbreak under control in Popokabaka

An outbreak of potentially deadly typhoid fever in Kwango province, DRC, has finally been brought under control with the help of an MSF emergency team.
Project Update - 24 Sep 2021
 
A 4-year-old Hala, Inside the MSF limb reconstruction unit at Al-Awda hospital, four-year-old Hala is taken to the operating theatre for her fifth surgery, since the car accident that crushed her foot on 14 July 2021.
Palestine

Treating child injuries in blockaded Gaza

Paediatric trauma care in Palestine: the story of four-year-old Hala's recovery at the Al-Awda hospital paediatric unit in northern Gaza. Photo Story - 22 Sep 2021
 
Mornings are the busiest time at the Regional TB Dispensary in Zhytomyr, Ukraine. MSF nurse Oleksandr Tkach along with dispensary staff start their day by preparing patient lists, joint meetings and visiting wards to consult patients with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB)
Ukraine

Fighting tuberculosis with medication, mental health and social support

For TB patients to get back on their feet and back to their normal lives, comprehensive treatment is needed, from all-oral courses of medication to mental health support. Project Update - 19 Sep 2021
 
The brand new centre, located 5km away from Vathy city in Samos island, is still partly under construction, but most of it is ready. Located in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by three layers of fence & barded wire, it is designed to host up to 3,000 people, of which according to the Greek Minister of Migration, 2,100 will have a “controlled access” and 900 will be in detention waiting to be sent back to Turkey. Patients and people who live in Vathy reception centre describe it as an open-air prison.
Greece

“We can only help our patients to survive” new camp on Samos

With the opening of a new camp on the Greek island of Samos, MSF psychologists outline the trauma many refugees and asylum seekers have already lived through. Opinion - 17 Sep 2021
 
A member of MSF’s mobile vaccination team prepares a dose of COVID-19 vaccine at a nursing home in Shayle (Mount Lebanon).
Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic

European Union: more empty promises about global COVID-19 vaccine equity

More words from the EU underline the importance of global access to vaccines, but when will words turn to action? Project Update - 15 Sep 2021
 
MSF teams treating the different water points in the village of Ara in the commune of Bandé in the department of Magaria in south of Niger.  

Since June 2021, MSF launched water treatment activities in 15 villages in the commune of Bandé in Magaria, south of Niger, to prevent the development of the mosquito larvae into full grown mosquitoes aiming at decreasing the malaria cases.

This region of Niger is well-known for being one of the richest in terms of water resources, and is one of the regions with the highest rainfall in the country. However, these large quantities of water, very close to people’s homes, are a breeding ground and habitat for different types of mosquito, including anopheles, which are responsible for the transmission of malaria throughout the year. When it rains the surface area of the water increases by three to four times, creating more opportunity for egg-laying and larvae development.
Niger

Combating malaria through water treatment for communities in Niger

Since June, through water treatment and insecticides, our teams have been combating the development of mosquito larvae into full-grown mosquitoes, thus curbing malaria cases in Niger ahead of the rainy season. Project Update - 14 Sep 2021
 
Maternity – fresh mothers with one to two day old babies.
Ethiopia

Amid enormous needs in Ethiopia, MSF forced to suspend majority of healthcare

Despite complying with the Ethiopian authorities’ requests and undertaking all required action, MSF has been forced to suspend almost all activities in Ethiopia while the needs of the people are enormous. Statement - 10 Sep 2021
 
Mariam* is on Lesbos with her family, her husband and her 2-year-old girl, while she is also expecting another child.

We are a family of three. Me, my husband and my two-year-old daughter. I am also 8 months and 3 weeks pregnant. I arrived on Lesbos two years ago. I have lived in Moria camp and now I live in the new camp of Kara Tepe.

When the Moria camp was on fire, everywhere we looked, there was fire. We were in the middle of it, so we went to the mountains to protect ourselves. After the fires, we were in the streets for around ten days. We didn’t have any food and water. Food was not enough for everyone.

Now in Kara Tepe camp, the living conditions continue to be difficult. There is cold, there is heat, we cannot go to the toilet easily, we don’t have a good life here. I don’t feel well. It’s two years that I haven’t gone to a private toilet. We are in a bad mental health situation.

Right now, I don’t know if we can get recognized as asylum seekers or if we are going to get a rejection. We also have problems with getting permission to get outside of the camp. Until now, my daughter has never been to a park. I wish we could move freely, so that I could take my daughter to a park.

She is very aggressive because of what she has experienced here. She “likes” to fight all the time. She doesn’t like to play. She’s not a child who likes to play with friends, to laugh, to speak and play with dolls. All there is in her mind is the the violence she has witnessed here. The fights in the camp, the time that we had to run away, the fires, the teargas. During this age, it is important to care about the little girl, to give her a lot of love and take her to nice places, but this is not possible here.

For example, when she was learning to walk, there were no walls for her to grab to be able to stand. All we had was a blanket hanging so when she was trying to stand, she would grab it and it would fall.

My wish is to get better psychologically. And to be able to go to work, me and my husband and live like a normal person. I don’t like to be told where to go, where not to go and what time to go in and out. I wish, like all the people do, to have a good life without any stress and to have a house and for my daughter to at least play in the house.
Greece

One year on from Moria fire, EU denies dignity to migrants trapped on Greek islands

A year after a fire tore through and destroyed Moria camp, on Lesbos, Greece, thousands of refugees remain on the island, with the EU refusing to provide dignity to those trapped there. Project Update - 10 Sep 2021
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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