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.
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.
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.
"The outlook for Chechnya is grim", said MSF operational director Freek Landmeter, who has recently returned from a visit to the Caucasus. "The occasional shelling and mines still kill and wound hundreds of people each month. Very few in Chechnya have faith that the conflict will come to an end soon."
In Chechnya and the neighbouring Russian republic of Ingushetia, where many Chechens fled to, MSF is currently distributing essential medicines. The medicines go directly to various hospitals and clinics. In addition MSF has mobile clinics in Ingushetia and is providing additional support to one hospital in Ingushetia and two in Chechnya.
In Chechnya many hospitals and clinics only receive the drugs that MSF provides. In Ingushetia, hospitals receive some supplies from the Ministry of Health, but these are not enough for them to cope with the influx of internally displaced people (IDP).
"The Chechen staff we are working with are very motivated, but also critical towards their own system, which gives us a guarantee that the drugs end up in the right places," said Landmeter.
"For the near future, we are planning to rehabilitate parts of two hospitals and to re-establish good operating theatres and small in-patient departments in Grozny and Staryy Atagi. In many places, surgery and patient care still takes place in basements and private houses. The next step might be the introduction of a mental health programme."
In Ingushetia, Landmeter was very impressed with the official health system.
"Ingushetia houses approximately 120,000 IDP in camps, private houses and with host families," he said. "Existing health services are open to the refugees and the Ministry of Health has set up clinics in all camps. Although the clinics are underfunded and lack resources, they have provided far more services to the IDP population than NGOs ever could have. The situation of the displaced in Ingushetia is also unsure. Most of the IDPs refuse to return to Chechnya because of the lack of security there. Many IDPs fear that the Russian government will attempt to force them back against their will."
