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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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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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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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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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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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MSF Science Portal

Our digital portal dedicated to sharing the latest medical evidence from our humanitarian activities around the globe.

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Noma

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.

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TIC

The TIC is aiming to change how MSF works to better meet the evolving needs of our patients.

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Telemedicine

MSF's telemedicine hub aims to overcome geographic barriers for equitable, accessible, and quality patient care.

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Sweden Innovation Unit

Launched in 2012, the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit deploys a human-centered approach for promoting a culture of innovation within MSF.

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MSF provides medical assistance in Covid+ centres in Paris and the suburbs

In pictures: MSF responds to COVID-19

Photo Story19 May 2020

MSF teams around the world are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, in both countries where we've previously worked, and those we haven't had to work in before. Here are our teams at work in pictures.

Find out more on how we're responding to the pandemic.

COVID-19: challenges in Bangladesh and the Rohingya refugee camps
Bangladesh - Nazrul Islam, medical assistant and Mahabuba Khatun, nurse aid, triage a patient at MSF’s Jamtoli primary healthcare clinic in the Cox’s Bazar refugee camps. April 2020.
MSF/Daniella Ritzau-Reid
COVID-19 Tour and Taxi project, Brussels
Belgium - Julie (left), a former MSF field nurse and now volunteering with MSF, and Houria, an MSF health promoter, get dressed in protective equipment before entering into the patient area of the COVID-19 treatment facility for vulnerable people in the Tour & Taxis area of Brussels. May 2020.
Albert Masias/MSF
COVID-19: South Africa Mass testing
South Africa - An MSF health worker prepares to swab a patient for a coronavirus test during a mass COVID-19 screening and testing event held in Johannesburg. May 2020.
Tadeu Andre/MSF
Covid-19: Food distribution in Geneva, Switzerland
Centre de Traitement des Épidémies de Nongo, à Conakry
Guinea - MSF health workers carefully disinfect and remove personal protective equipment after taking care of patients affected by the COVID-19 pandemic at the Nongo Epidemic Treatment Centre. Conakry, April 2020.
/MSF
EMT Faith Njeri checks Vitals of a Patient at MSF's trauma room holding area
Kenya - Faith Njeri Kariuki, an emergency medical technician at MSF's medical care and trauma room centre, Lavender House - checking the vitals of a patient. Nairobi, May 2020.
Paul Odongo/MSF
Responding to COVID-19 in Ukraine
COVID-19 MSF Outreach activities - food and hygiene kits distribution support
Belgium - People who are at risk of social exclusion risk - those who are homeless, migrants and asylum seekers - line up to receive food and hygiene kits distributed by MSF, the Belgian Red Cross and local organisation Plateforme Citoyenne. MSF teams are supporting the distribution and a health promotion team raises awareness about hygiene and water and sanitation measures. April 2020.
Covid-19 Preparation in Nduta Camp
Tanzania - Tumaini Kombe, an MSF health promoter in Nduta refugee camp in north-western Tanzania, shows Burundian refugee residents in the camp how to cough into the elbow crook, as a means of preventive measures against COVID-19. April 2020.
MSF
COVID-19 response in Intensive care unit of HUG
Switzerland - MSF nurse Kathrine Zimmerman (far right), who was seconded to the intensive care unit of the University hospital of Geneva, assists a group of nurses and doctors turn a patient with COVID-19 on her stomach to clear the lungs so she can breathe better. April 2020.
Nora Teylouni/MSF
Covid-19 Response in Liberia
Liberia - An MSF staff member hands out soap and information leaflets on how to prevent COVID-19 to households in Logan Town, near the capital city, Monrovia. April 2020.
Ruud van der Linden/MSF
New York City coronavirus COVID-19 Response
United States - Staff members wait for the first visitors on opening day of MSF's shower trailer in Manhattan. MSF is offering free warm showers to the homeless and other people who currently lack access to hygiene facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. New York, April 2020.
Michelle Mays/MSF
Increasing activities in Matamoros-covid19
COVID-19: MSF provides support to two health centres set up in Marseille
France - An MSF nurse assesses a local woman for a possible case of coronavirus at a support centre in north Marseille, where there is a lack of testing and referral centres. April 2020.
CLEMENT MAHOUDEAU/MSF
Intervention in Marche region
Italy - An MSF staff member shares a thumbs up with the resident of a nursing home in the country's central eastern Marche region, where our staff are providing medical care and implementing infection prevention and control measures. April 2020.
MSF/Vincenzo Livieri
Coronavirus COVID-19 Intervention in South Sudan
South Sudan - Water and sanitation coordinator Adrien Mahama illustrates the correct use of masks during an infection prevention and control training for the staff of the Al-Sabah hospital in Juba. MSF is conducting training to support the Ministry of Health in preparation for the arrival of COVID-19 patients. April 2020.
Gabriele François Casini/MSF
Spain, March 2020.
MSF intervention in Lodi
Italy - Gennaro, an MSF water and sanitation specialist, adjusts his goggles before entering into a ward treating people with COVID-19. His key job, at a hospital in Italy's northern Lodi province, is to protect hospital staff from being infected with the virus. April 2020.
Davide Arcuri
Spain, April 2020.
Spain - Two MSF staff disinfect beds in a nursing home for elderly residents in the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes Residence in El Royo. MSF is accompanying volunteers from the fire brigade to disinfect spaces, establish staff and resident flow, and transfer patients from nursing homes and residences for the elderly throughout the Castilla y León region. April 2020.
Olmo Calvo/MSF
COVID-19 São Paulo, Brazil
Brazil - MSF doctor Ana Letícia Nery, coordinates MSF's COVID-19 response activities in São Paulo. MSF teams are working with homeless people, providing medical consultations for screening and detection of people with suspected cases of COVID-19, and referring patients in more serious conditions to hospitals. April 2020.
MSF intervention in Lodi
Italy - MSF anaesthetist Stefano (right) works to intubate a patient with COVID-19 in Lodi hospital. MSF has staff - including medical staff, logisticians and water and sanitation experts - working in three hospitals in the country's northern Lombardy region. April 2020.
Davide Arcuri
MSF coronavirus Covid-19 Response in Pakistan
Pakistan - An MSF health promoter advises people to keep a distance of at least 1.5 metres between each other and to wash their hands at the handwashing points as they enter Timergara DHQ hospital, in Lower Dir district. MSF staff installed a COVID-19 screening point at the entrance to the hospital, in Pakistan's north, through which about 1,000 people pass every day. April 2020.
Nasir Ghafoor
coronavirus COVID-19 Project in Brussels, Belgium
Coronavirus: MSF's mobile clinic for vulnerable groups
France - MSF nurse Charline Vincent examines a man in MSF's mobile clinic, set up to provide medical care for homeless people, who are particularly vulnerable to the new coronavirus. MSF is providing a series of mobile clinics across Paris and the surrounding suburbs to assess vulnerable people's health and identify people with suspected COVID-19 cases. March 2020.
Agnes Varraine-Leca/MSF
IPC Training in Ibn El-Khateeb Hospital, Baghdad
Iraq - An MSF staff member explains how to properly put on a surgical mask to medical staff from the Iraqi Ministry of Health. An MSF team is providing hospital staff from the Ibn Al-Khateeb hospital in Baghdad with technical support on infection prevention and control, and triage of COVID-19 patients. April 2020.
MSF
MSF intervention in care homes for coronavirus COVID-19
An elderly man watches as an MSF staff member disinfect his room in the Nuestra Señora de las Mercedes nursing home residence in El Royo, Soria province. Spain, April 2020.
Olmo Calvo/MSF
MSF coronavirus Covid-19 Response in Pakistan
Pakistan - MSF nurse Sajjad takes a rest between testing people for the new coronavirus. MSF set up a COVID-19 screening area at Timergara DHQ hospital in Lower Dir district. April 2020.
Nasir Ghafoor
Visitors pass by the coronavirus COVID-19 pre-screening, Bamenda's St Mary Soledad Hospital
Cameroon - A woman stops outside the COVID-19 pre-screening tent MSF teams have set up at the entrance of Bamenda's St Mary Soledad hospital in the country's North West region. MSF is screening people for the new coronavirus and providing information on infection prevention and control to hospital staff. April 2020.
Freida Nemkul/MSF
COVID-19: MSF sets up an inflatable tent in Reims hospital
COVID-19 São Paulo, Brazil
Brazil - An MSF medical doctor evaluates a woman during a mobile clinic to screen homeless people in shelters in downtown São Paulo for the new coronavirus and to provide health promotion advice. MSF teams are working with homeless people, providing medical consultations for screening and detection of people with suspected cases of COVID-19, and referring patients in more serious conditions to hospitals. April 2020.
Up Next
Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic

Governments must support landmark proposal to waive COVID-19 patents

Press Release 19 November 2020