In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MSF missions.
This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.
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.
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.
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.
Noma is a preventable and treatable neglected disease, but 90 per cent of people will die within the first two weeks of infection if they do not receive treatment.
Jakarta - The religious conflict in the Malukus (Christian vs. Muslim) is spreading and engulfing ever greater areas and island populations. Given the escalating level of violence and lack of resolve or capacity on the part of the authorities to prevent or stop it, MSF is now extremely worried that the vulnerable population mostly concentrated in camps will very soon be left totally unprotected and isolated.
Today, a significant percentage of the population no longer has access to healthcare. This is most notable in the healthcare system where MSF has a direct involvement - essential drugs cannot be delivered to many of the clinics that dot the island. People are often unable to access healthcare facilities because the area health facility is in the zone of the other religion and health staff are unwilling to take the risk of crossing religious lines.
The weapons of the conflict in the Malukus have changed from a swords and spears to guns and bombs, this is evidenced by the higher casualty rates. The percentage of gunshot wounds now exceeds 90%. Yet, there is a desperate shortage of physicians which frequently leaves a hospital without a doctor. As no one comes to fill these critical positions, people continue to die for this reason.
"As the situation deteriorates, more people will die as they are left without care", said Richard Rowat, programme responsible in Ambon. "The risks are getting bigger that children will die of curable diseases as the parents can not get access to health care".
Presently there are in excess of 100,000 recognized Internally Displaced People (IDPs) throughout the Malukus and at least an additional 80,000 IDPs in the Sulawesi island group having come from the Malukus. Most of the IDPs have been forced to stay away from their homes for almost one year, without any prospect for them to return in the foreseeable future. On the contrary, insecurity obliges them to continue fleeing.
MSF has been in the Malukus since its first assessment mission in February 1999, following the first round of religious clashes. MSF works with both Muslim and Christian communities. MSF provides water and sanitation for the IDPs, support for local health facilities in terms of drugs and trauma care equipment and a health surveillance system that monitors the incidence of diseases and deaths in the society.
