Statement - 28 Dec 2017

MSF Netherlands project at the Kutupalong Makeshift Camp. Kutupalong makeshift camp A violent crackdown on stateless Rohingya living in Bangladesh has led thousands of people to seek safety at Kutupalong makeshift camp. Driven from their homes in the Cox's Bazaar area by local authorities and vigilante groups, around 2,000 people arrived in January alone, swelling camp numbers to nearly 30,000. New arrivals describe how they have suffered threats, beatings and in some cases escaped being forcibly returned to Myanmar. For decades, thousands of Rohingya, an ethnic and religious minority from Myanmar, have sought refuge in Bangladesh. However, a mere 28,000 are recognised as prima facie refugees by the Government, and live in official camps under the supervision of UNHCR. In sharp contrast, more than 200,000 people struggle to survive unrecognised and largely unassisted, vulnerable to ill health and exploitation. MSF runs a basic health programme in Kutupalong, providing much needed medical care to stateless Rohingya in Kutupalong makeshift camp and the host community.

Bangladesh

Emergence of diphtheria worsens situation of Rohingya refugees

Cases of diphtheria are increasing among Rohingya refugees living in densely-populated camps in Bangladesh. Project Update - 24 Dec 2017

Waiting outside the Accident and Emergency room of the MSF clinic in Kutupalong, Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh.

Rohingya refugee crisis

Crisis update – December 2017

Cases of diphtheria are increasing among Rohingya refugees living in densely-populated camps in Bangladesh. Crisis Update - 23 Dec 2017

Syria

MSF reports show more assistance is needed to meet healthcare needs

Our data shows women and children have the most difficulty in accessing adequate healthcare. Humanitarian assistance must be increased. Report - 20 Dec 2017

While working on her farm on the outskirts of Baghdad, Faleeha stepped on a landmine which exploded and left her with factures in her hand and severe damage to her face. Her left leg was so gravely wounded that at a local hospital it had to be amputated below the knee. After the amputation, Faleeha was referred to the MSF Hospital in Amman for reconstructive surgery. Here the orthopaedic surgeons operated on nerves in her hands and elongated the tendons in order to mobilise the joints

Website

MSF Reconstructive Surgery Hospital

Healing war wounds in the Middle East. http://rsp.msf-me.org/

Madhor
“Russian, Syrian… I don’t know. There were so many aeroplanes dropping bombs in those days in 2016,” says Madhor. A farmer from rural Hama governorate, in Syria, Madhor was sitting under an olive tree with his seven children when a barrel bomb hit them, killing two of the children. He remembers the moment that the bomb dropped, but then he lost consciousness for three days. He awoke in a hospital in Hama to find he had lost an eye and his left leg was bloody and broken. “I just thought I would die,” says Madhor. “I also lost my teeth, and for three months I almost didn’t eat.”
Madhor can now walk with crutches, but it remains painful. After multiple operations at MSF’s hospital in Amman, the intensive physiotherapy has had positive results: Madhor can now enjoy days away from the hospital visiting his wife Layla and their five remaining children in Jordan’s Azraq refugee camp. He can also walk the couple of hundred metres to the hopsital’s nearest mosque, for a calm moment of prayer in his ongoing recovery.

Jordan

A decade of healing at MSF’s reconstructive surgery hospital

Surgeons at our Amman-based reconstructive surgery hospital operate on victims of conflicts in the Middle East whose wounds are inflicted by bomb blasts, bullets, shrapnel and burns. Research and innovation are an important part of the hospital’s programme. Project Update - 20 Dec 2017

Young girls Elyes and Diana fix each other's hair before posing for a portrait in their tenement home near Smokey Mountain, Manila. Both girls are recipients of free vaccinations from Likhaan clinic, which provides free healthcare for low income communities.

Photo story

A year in pictures 2017

MSF's Pictures of the Year collection looks back on a year of providing medical care in extreme conditions and contexts across the globe. Through the lens of its photojournalists, MSF remembers and pays tribute to those who have struggled, those who have persevered and those who have perished. Photo Story - 18 Dec 2017

Din Savorn, 50, receives a blood test from MSF laboratory technician Sokchea Yan, at the MSF Hepatitis C clinic at Preah Kossamak Hospital in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 20, April 2017.

Access to medicines

MSF challenges Gilead’s patent application for hepatitis C treatment

The world desperately needs more affordable sources of these essential hepatitis C medicines to save lives and contain this growing epidemic. Press Release - 15 Dec 2017

Bangladesh

A living nightmare (part one): To leave or die

On 25 August 2017, Myanmar's military and local militias launched a wave of "clearance operations" in response to attacks by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army in Rakhine state that turned into widespread violence against civilians. Since then, more than 647,000 members of the Rohingya community have fled Myanmar to Bangladesh. Photo Story - 14 Dec 2017

Yemen

From cholera to diphtheria – shattered health system battles a new threat

Yemen’s healthcare system cannot afford another outbreak. Statement - 12 Dec 2017

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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Medical evacuations must be permitted with no strings attached