MSF first worked in Albania in 1981. Prior to the war in Kosovo, we had been distributing medical supplies across the country and assisting the Ministry of Health in developing a long-term care programme in the hospital in Fier, southern Albania.  
 
As people fleeing the Kosovo war began to enter Albania in 1999, MSF began providing assistance to refugees in camps, reception centres, hospitals, health posts and to people in remote villages throughout the country. This included providing medical, water and sanitation assistance.