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About us

Who We Are

Learn about our mission, our charter and principles, and who we are.

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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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What we do

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

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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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MSF Websites

A Global Network
Our offices around the world
Our offices around the world
Other Sites
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MSF Association

Our staff “own” and manage MSF, making sure that we stay true to our mission and principles, through the MSF Associations.

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Access Campaign

We set up the MSF Access Campaign in 1999 to push 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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Patient blogs

Hear directly from the inspirational people we help as they talk about their experiences dealing with often neglected, life-threatening diseases.

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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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Southern Africa Medical Unit

SAMU provides strategic, clinical and implementation support to various MSF projects with medical activities related to HIV and TB. This medical unit is based in Cape Town, South Africa.

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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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Manson Unit

The Manson Unit is a London, UK-based team of medical specialists who provide medical and technical support, and conduct research for MSF.

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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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Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting

Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting

Photo Story19 April 2017

Tens of thousands of Nigerians have lost their homes and livelihoods in Borno State, in the northeastern part of the country, due to the conflict between government forces and Boko Haram. Displacement and fear have shaped their lives. This is what their journey looks like and how they feel today in Pulka, a small Nigerian town close to the border with Cameroon that has become a hotspot destination for many of them.

Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting
Newly displaced people carrying their belongings into the hospital compound where most of the people arriving in Pulka first settle.
Malik Samuel/MSF
Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting
The hospital compound where MSF provides medical assistance and some other basic services along with other NGOs. MSF carries out medical and nutritional screenings of the new arrivals, checks their general health and refers those requiring further medical care to the clinic. In March, around 1,000 families were moved to newly constructed camps, but many more need a proper location to live with adequate services in place, like latrines and a regular water supply.
Malik Samuel/MSF
Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting
A displaced person receives some food. MSF also gives food and non-food items for new arrivals. The security situation in Pulka is still volatile, with movements in and out of the town highly regulated by the military. People cannot go very far to farm or fetch firewood because of fear of attacks. This is why residents largely depend on food distributions made by the government and humanitarian agencies.
Malik Samuel/MSF
Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting
An MSF staff member checks a child’s health condition. Most of the children arriving in Pulka have never been vaccinated. Therefore, MSF filters children from six months to 10 years old to include them in an expanded programme of immunisation (EPI) against measles, whooping cough, etc.
Malik Samuel/MSF
Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting
A mother with her baby at the MSF hospital in Pulka. She arrived in Pulka some weeks ago after fleeing the ongoing conflict in Borno State. The most common morbidities among the patients are acute respiratory infections, acute non-bloody watery diarrhoea, malaria, gastritis and conjunctivitis. MSF’s primary goal is to take care of these people’s health needs but, due to the magnitude of the problems they face and the inadequate support, the organisation has to step in to provide shelter too.
Malik Samuel/MSF
Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting
A general view of the hospital compound. Due to the ongoing insecurity, most of the eastern countryside of Borno State, where these large displacements are happening, remains difficult to reach for humanitarian organisations, with the exception of a few towns. Most of the aid agencies working in the state are present in the capital, Maiduguri, but only a few are able to operate continually in the hard-to-reach areas where assistance is most needed.
Malik Samuel/MSF
Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting
Access to water is an essential need for newly displaced people. MSF has built water points inside the hospital compound and organised two trucks to bring in water on a daily basis. Currently, MSF is providing 8,000 litres of water per day in the town to complement what is being provided by Oxfam. As the population in Pulka increases, so does pressure on existing resources provided by the few humanitarian workers present.
Malik Samuel/MSF
Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting
Displaced people receive food and non-food items.
Malik Samuel/MSF
Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting
Firewood is currently one of the main needs in Pulka. It is very expensive, so many families can’t afford to buy it. Despite the availability of food, people still go hungry, sometimes for days, because of the lack of firewood. Two pieces of firewood cost N50 (US$0.15), which is not only expensive but also not enough to cook a family meal.
Malik Samuel/MSF
Nigeria: Searching for aid after fleeing the fighting
A woman being cared for at the MSF hospital in Pulka. She arrived some weeks ago, fleeing the ongoing conflict. Many displaced people report that in the places they fled survival is a struggle. There are no functioning hospitals or markets because they have been burned down or demolished, and farming activities were very limited. As a result, most of them arrive in poor condition due to the deprivations they have had to endure.
Malik Samuel/MSF