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About Us

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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Accountability

Read the policies, reports, and plans on how we address issues like racism and reduce our carbon footprint, ensuring our actions align with the highest ethical standards.

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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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Featured Gaza Israel war Conflict in Sudan Surgery & trauma care

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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Featured Palestine Sudan South Sudan

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 intervention in Lodi
Gennaro, an MSF water and sanitation specialist, adjusts his goggles before entering into a ward treating people with COVID-19. Lodi province, Italy, April 2020.
© Davide Arcuri

A year of a pandemic: our response to COVID-19 in pictures

Gennaro, an MSF water and sanitation specialist, adjusts his goggles before entering into a ward treating people with COVID-19. Lodi province, Italy, April 2020.
© Davide Arcuri
  • Home
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  • A year of a pandemic: our response to COVID-19 in pictures
Photo Story11 March 2021

On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the outbreak of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, a worldwide pandemic. Since January 2020, MSF teams around the world have been responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, in both countries where we've previously worked, and those we haven't had to work in before. Meanwhile, we have also ensured people still continue to have access to healthcare.

Over the course of a year of a pandemic, MSF teams have worked hard in response in over 80 countries; here's our work in pictures.

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

MSF has started an intervention for the outbreak of COVID-19
MSF donates 3.5 tonnes of personal protective equipment to health workers at the Wuhan Jinyintan Hospital. Wuhan, China, February 2020.
MSF
MSF has started an intervention for the outbreak of coronavirus COVID-19
MSF staff undertake awareness-raising sessions on COVID-19 for groups of vulnerable people, including refugees and socio-economically disadvantaged people. Hong Kong, February 2020.
MSF
1 year of COVID-19 interventions
MSF teams identify potential COVID-19 cases and evaluate the health of 700 people who were evacuated from a camp in Aubervilliers, near Paris, to various emergency shelters. France, March 2020.
Agnes Varraine-Leca/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
1 year of COVID-19 interventions
Nafisatou, an MSF health promoter in Niono, shows a group of young girls who to wash their hands properly to protect themselves from COVID-19. Mali, May 2020.
MSF/Lamine Keita
1 year of COVID-19 interventions
In the Amazonas Forest, some communities are best reached by boat. A combined team of local and MSF health workers unpack their equipment carry out routine screening from house to house. Brazil, July 2020.
Diego Baravelli
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 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: Food distribution in Geneva, Switzerland
Switzerland - MSF staff meet beneficiaries of a local food distribution caravan for vulnerable people in Geneva, and survey them anonymously about their needs. May 2020.
© MSF/Nora Teylouni
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
Ukraine - An MSF mobile team collects samples from healthcare workers to test for COVID-19, at Krasnohorivka hospital, in eastern Ukraine. May 2020.
Katerina Stepanina/MSF
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.
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
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
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
1 year of COVID-19 interventions
MSF staff prepares a COVID-19 facility on the island of Lesbos, near the refugee camp of Moria, to be ready for an outbreak of the disease amongst this very vulnerable people. Greece, May 2020.
Anna Pantelia/MSF
Yemen, July 2020.
Workers at Al-Sahul COVID-19 treatment centre, Ibb governorate, carry an oxygen cylinder to the intensive care unit. A patient with moderate to severe COVID-19 symptoms needs around six cylinders a day and any interruption in the provision of oxygen can be deadly. Yemen, July 2020.
MSF/Majd Aljunaid
Herat Covid-19 Treatment Centre (CTC)
MSF nurse Norrulah Nasrat collects a sample from Mohammadin, a COVID-19 suspected patient, in MSF’s COVID-19 Treatment Centre in Herat. Afghanistan, January 2021.
Waseem Muhammadi/MSF
Switzerland, April 2020.
In the intensive care unit of Geneva’s university hospital, where MSF supported the medical response to COVID-19. The focus was on managing patients with the new coronavirus and organising medical teams and services in the hospital. Switzerland, April 2020.
© Nora Teylouni/MSF
Eshowe Rural COVID-19 Response
Dr Helene Muller and nurse Buhle Nkomonde have both worked with MSF in Khayelitsha and in Mbongolwane, in South Africa. In Khayelitsha, in Cape Town, they worked in MF’s COVID-19 field hospital; in Mbongolwane in KwaZulu-Natal, they helped with screening and testing for the District Hospital. South Africa, August 2020.
Chris Allan
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
1 year of COVID-19 interventions
A resident at Focused Care at Beechnut, a long-term care facility in Houston in the USA, is visited by family for her birthday. The family must stand outside, on the other side of a window, and communicate by phone with the resident. MSF conducted infection prevention and control training and mental health and wellness training at Beechnut and other nursing homes in Houston. United States, September 2020.
Christopher Lee
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
1 year of COVID-19 interventions
MSF staff adjust their protective equipment in a medical facility we’ve set-up for homeless people to isolate if they have COVID-19 or are at high risk of being infected. Brussels, Belgium, November 2020.
Albert Masias/MSF
Iraq : Treating COVID-19 in Baghdad
An elderly woman with COVID-19 receives oxygen therapy at the COVID-19 centre at Al-Kindi Hospital. Iraq, February 2021.
Hassan Kamal Al-Deen/MSF
Up Next
Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic

Responding to COVID-19: Global Accountability Report 4 - January to April 2021

Report 12 August 2021