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CAR : A Forgotten Health Emergency

Learn about our mission, our charter and principles, and who we are.

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How we work

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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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Medical Activities

MSF Measles Vaccination in DRC

Learn about how, why, and where MSF teams respond to different diseases around the world, and the challenges we face in providing treatment.

Crisis Settings

Aden besieged

Learn about the different contexts and situations in which MSF teams respond to provide care, including war and natural disaster settings, and how and why we adapt our activities to each.

COVID-19 Project in Mons, Belgium

Learn about our response and our work in depth on specific themes and events.

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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Africa

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Asia & Pacific

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Middle East & North Africa

Middle East & North Africa

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Europe & Central Asia

Europe & Central Asia

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The Americas

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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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Intersectional Benchmarking Unit

The Intersectional Benchmarking Unit collects and analyses data about local labour markets in all locations where MSF employs people.

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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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Coatzacoalcos, Mexico — Nine-year-old Ángel plays under the Coatzacoalcos bridge. Since leaving Honduras, he and his family have been travelling for 16 days, 14 of them on foot. Veracruz, Mexico, March 2021.

A year in pictures 2021

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Photo Story8 December 2021

A year of responding to crises in images

In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic continued unabated around the world, as did the work our teams undertook to respond to it. But the pandemic took a backseat in many countries, as other crises and needs overtook the concerns of the people we assist.

Our teams responded to crises of conflict and displacement. We cared for people with malnutrition and malaria. We supported people who were subjected to sexual violence and rescued those who were in danger crossing the Mediterranean Sea. We saw consequences of the climate emergency.

This collection of 54 images, taken between November 2020 and December 2021, was chosen from among an estimated 8,000, from among the around 75 countries we work in. In these images, staff and professional photographers from around the world have captured just some of the stories of people and patients, and our work with them, bearing witness to an essential humanitarian need – access to medical care.

Um Rakuba refugee camp — A refugee shields her face from the wind-blown dust in Um Rakuba refugee camp. People fled northern Ethiopia’s Tigray region starting in November 2020 to escape conflict between the military and the local Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. Gedaref region, Sudan, December 2020.

Tigray Fighting Consequences on Population — A man surveys his destroyed house in the village of Bisober. Tigray region, Ethiopia, December 2020.

Newsha Tavakolian/Magnum Photosmedia:orange_logic_image:dd434dda-e8dd-4841-85bd-d3aa1e989fd0 — In the late afternoon sun, people carry on with their daily tasks in the makeshift Tsuya internally displaced people’s camp. The camp, which has been set up around the Catholic church in Drodro, accommodates approximately 20,000 people. Drodro, Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 2021.

Treating the COVID-19 Second wave — Josias was taking a shower, when he unexpectedly fainted. Family members rushed him to hospital, where he was admitted, and tested for COVID-19. After his result came back positive, he was transferred to the field hospital, where he says he was treated well. Eastern Cape, South Africa, February 2021.

media:orange_logic_image:4d7fcf97-ffdb-480e-89de-26fd860646d3 — People charge phones and power banks from electrical outlets in a shelter, managed by volunteers, for migrants crossing from Italy to France. Turin, Piedmont region, Italy, December 2020.

Oulx — MSF staff walk part of the snow-covered trail in the mountains northwest of Turin, used by people seeking to cross from Italy to France. MSF teams monitor the situation and provide support to a number of volunteer organisations who support migrants making the journey along the trail. Italy, December 2020.

media:orange_logic_image:3befb6a8-2b35-4fb2-8c1f-22902617e4c0 — An MSF mobile team, including medical and non-medical staff, unloads equipment to provide training to staff working in a nursing home on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Slovakia, March 2021.

Surviving violence — An MSF surgical team prepares to amputate the leg of a patient with a severe leg injury in Tabarre trauma hospital. Port-au-Prince, Haiti, December 2020.

Regional hospital of Tefé — A woman with COVID-19 is carried out to an ambulance, which will take her to the airport to be then transferred to Manaus, the capital of Amazonas state, for further treatment. Tefé, Brazil, December 2020.

Cox's bazar fire DSC05154.JPG — People start to rebuild shelters among the burnt-out remains of a part of Cox’s Bazar refugee camp for Rohingya people that was destroyed by fire. Bangladesh, March 2021.

Exploration in Southern Madagascar — Formerly lined with cacti, roads are now buried under sand, a legacy of three consecutive years of drought. The ‘hunger gap’ – the period between harvests when food becomes scarce – is becoming more critical in desert regions. Anosy region, Madagascar, March 2021.

Malnutrition emergency: mobile clinic in Ranobe - Portrait Vitasoa — Vitasoa and four of her six children are seen by an MSF nurse after they walked five hours to reach an MSF mobile clinic in Ranobe to get help for malnutrition. People in southeastern Madagascar are facing the most acute nutritional and food crisis the region has seen in recent years. “During the rainy season, we live off cassava, mangoes and edible leaves. But nothing’s growing because there’s been no rain,” says Vitasoa. Amboasary district, Anosy region, Madagascar, April 2021.

The journey of a wounded woman at MSF'SICA hospital in Bangui — France receives help to get undressed, so that MSF medical staff at SICA hospital can change the dressing and check a chest wound, the result of a stray bullet. Bangui, Central African Republic, February 2021.

Drodro, Ituri province, DR Congo — Christine holds her baby son in the old church in Drodro, to where she fled following the attack on her village by armed groups. Ituri province, Democratic Republic of Congo, March 2021

République Centrafricaine / Central African Republic — Nanette, a survivor of sexual violence, poses for a portrait. In 2014, she went to investigate violence in her hometown where she saw pigs eating corpses, and the bodies of her parents in a river. While she was documenting the scene, she was surrounded by a group of men, overpowered, and then raped. Her association works with MSF’s Tongolo centre to care for victims and survivors of sexual violence. Bangui, Central African Republic, December 2020.

MSF support to the populations of Bangassou and Ndu — Midwife Odette accompanies Amatou (lying down in the pirogue), who is pregnant and about to give birth, across the river to be transferred to the MSF-supported hospital in Bangassou, to receive treatment following complications that can’t be managed in the MSF-supported Ndu health centre. Central African Republic, January 2021.

Covid-19 second wave in Mumbai, India. — A tuk-tuk used by MSF to spread health promotion messages on how to avoid COVID-19 moves through the lanes of Mumbai’s M-East Ward district. India, May 2021.

Goma - Free access to urgent health care — Jean-Claude pushes his bike full of jerry cans for clean water; the need for clean water became critical in the wake of the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano on 22 May. Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, June 2021.

Goma - Free access to urgent health care — Dieudonné surveys the ruined houses in his Goma neighbourhood, destroyed by lava flows following the eruption of the Nyiragongo volcano on 22 May. Democratic Republic of Congo, June 2021.

Israeli forces injure hundreds of Palestinian men, women, and children in Jerusalem — MSF medical staff bandage the wounds of a Palestinian man injured by Israeli police during clashes in Jerusalem. Palestine, May 2021.

media:orange_logic_image:b4f53479-dfa0-428d-a85b-7813f0adcbb4 — Anapiya, right, reassures her young daughter as she gets a medical check-up at the Kok-Tash family medical centre. Batken oblast, Kyrgyzstan, May 2021.

Tackling COVID-19 in Lebanon, through prevention and vaccination — An elderly woman is vaccinated against COVID-19 by a member of MSF’s mobile vaccination team at a nursing home in Shayle. Mount Lebanon governorate, Lebanon, June 2021.

Habiba in the camp — Ten-year-old Habiba lives with Type 1 Diabetes and needs to inject insulin twice every day. She was taught by MSF to inject herself and carries her insulin home, storing it in a portable cooler. Dadaab refugee camp, Kenya, May 2021.

Expanding in challenging times — MSF logistics supervisor Mohammed Korma stands amid the solar panels that MSF has installed to run Hangha hospital with clean energy. Kenema district, Sierra Leone, June 2021.

media:orange_logic_image:c82f16ac-be71-45ec-9929-81588537ffb7 — A member of the MSF team sprays for pest control, in the Juan Orlando Hernandez community of Choloma. Honduras, April 2021.

Zhytomyr TB photographs — Vitalii swallows his pills to treat drug-resistant tuberculosis at his home in Chudniv village. Zhytomyr region, Ukraine, June 2021.

Octavia — Midwife Sylvie feels the pregnant belly of Octavie, who, after complications and five hours of labour, delivers a healthy baby boy at Nzacko health centre. Central African Republic, July 2021.

Newborn in Al-Tanideba, Sudan — Baby Dawit was born prematurely, weighing only 1.2 kilograms. His mother, Mebruit, gave birth to Dawit at MSF’s maternity clinic in Al-Tanideba camp. Sudan, July 2021.

Taiz City, mother and child healthcare at Al Jamhouri hospital — A happy father, Wael, lovingly holds his twin daughters Heba and Malath, who are receiving special care in the neonatal unit supported by MSF at Al-Jamhouri hospital. Taiz, Yemen, June 2021.

Sucre, Venezuela: Reducing maternal and infant mortality through quality maternal healthcare — Barbara has a 24-month-old son. She wants to protect herself from having more babies in the short term, but the economic situation makes access to oral contraceptives difficult. “To buy a box of pills that lasts only a month, I would have to spend two or three weeks working, without spending money on anything else,” she explains. Sucre state, Venezuela, May 2021.

media:orange_logic_image:0297b0e5-7187-4343-9a5d-5aa9dfc01c2c — Nine-year-old Ángel plays under the Coatzacoalcos bridge. Since leaving Honduras, he and his family have been travelling for 16 days, 14 of them on foot. Veracruz, Mexico, March 2021.

EU failed containment model Report — The empty playground behind the barbed wire of the brand-new migrant reception centre, just outside of Vathy. Samos, Greece, May 2021.

Lampedusa, August 2021 — The Milky Way rises on the remains of the ‘boat cemetery’ of Lampedusa. The boats used by people crossing the Mediterranean sea are pulled out of the water, brought on to the beach and piled up in strategic points on the island, before being demolished. Lampedusa, Italy, September 2021.

Cargo to Haiti at Brussels Airport 04 — Airport staff load the first of 100 tons of material onto two cargo planes destined for Haiti, to respond in the wake of a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. The cargo includes items for setting up emergency medical structures; materials to install drinking water supply systems for 30,000 people; and medical supplies for the care of 30,000 patients. Brussels, Belgium, August 2021.

MSF mobile clinics - Nzacko — An MSF convoy crosses the river on the way back to Bangassou, following a mobile clinic session in Nzacko. Central African Republic, July 2021.

Urgent measles vaccination and treatment campaign in Jebel Marra, South Darfur — An MSF team comprising of medical assistants, a nurse, a nursing manager and project coordinator use donkeys to travel from Koya to Dilli, in the isolated and mountainous Jebel Marra region, to urgently respond to a measles outbreak. South Darfur, Sudan, July 2021.

Northern Syria: Acute water crisis poses serious health risks — The tents of internally displaced people stretch out across a camp in northwest Syria, in which very poor living conditions and a lack of clean water pose serious health risks. Syria, September 2021.

Haiti earthquake - Tabarre — A man looks down at the external fixators on his legs, severely injured during the 7.2 magnitude earthquake on 14 August. Tabarre trauma hospital, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, August 2021.

Haiti - Earthquake response in Les Cayes 07 — A patient at Hôpital Immaculée Conception receives treatment from an MSF physiotherapist, following injuries sustained in the 14 August earthquake. Les Cayes, Haiti, September 2021.

Zinder, Niger, July 2021 — A man sits on a bed under a mosquito net, to help protect him from malaria-transmitting mosquitoes during the rainy season. Zinder, Niger, July 2021.

Venezuela: How studying mosquito behavior help bring down malaria in Sucre state — Anopheles mosquitoes caught in a trap are examined by the light of a torch. MSF epidemiologists capture and study the mosquitoes, which transmit malaria, to design strategies to control them and prevent malaria in communities in Sucre state. Venezuela, August 2021.

Rotation 2 - Rescue 2 — 188 people sit on an overcrowded wooden boat, as teams from the MSF search and rescue ship, the Geo Barents, approaches to rescue them. Central Mediterranean Sea, August 2021.

Rotation 3 - Rescue 2 — A member of the MSF team on board search and rescue ship the Geo Barents, communicates with the aerial observation plane Colibri, from Pilotes Volontaires, which has spotted a rubber boat in distress carrying 54 people. Central Mediterranean Sea, September 2021.

IRAQ: Tackling multidrug-resistant tuberculosis, one patient at a time — Hameeda looks at an x-ray of her lungs, following her successful treatment for multidrug-resistant tuberculosis using newer oral drugs. Baghdad, Iraq, September 2021.

Treating child injuries in blockaded Gaza 01 — Four-year-old Hala is carried by her father, Mohammed, before she goes in for surgery. Hala’s right foot was crushed by a car and she needs multiple surgeries to repair the damage. Treatment for trauma injuries can be challenging in the blockaded Gaza Strip. Palestine, August 2021.

media:orange_logic_image:03a5ce18-0e18-4c94-8aea-7ba9de919085 — Kuzal (left) sits together with her son in her house; she is a midwife in the Nablus MSF hospital. The Islamic State group forced her to work during the war; her son would drive her to work every day. Mosul, Iraq, September 2021.

Northeast Syria COVID-19 | Hassakeh Hospital Mr. Ali Testimony — Mr Ali sits on his bed receiving oxygen, while head nurse Abdul Harma provides him with care, at the COVID-19 hospital in Hassakeh. Syria, June 2021.

Family pushed back — A volunteer from Polish organisation Fundacja Ocalenie covers refugees with sleeping bags. An MSF team accompanied a team from Fundacja Ocalenie into a forested area near the Polish/Belarusian border, where they met a family of 13 Iraqi Kurds, including four children, on the Polish side. The family asked for asylum in Poland and were taken by the Polish border guards back to the emergency state zone at the Belarusian border. The next day, they sent their location indicating that they were back on the Belarusian side of the border. Narewka, Poland, October 2021.

media:orange_logic_image:17b77d9c-7545-44b7-a792-4a781dcc2e96 — A man trims his beard in the sun outside the MSF COVID-19 hospital in Herat. Afghanistan, October 2021.

Sandra Calligaromedia:orange_logic_image:28ec5e4c-11b8-41fa-991d-879ed8506dd7 — Malnourished children are being fed by their mothers at MSF’s Inpatient Therapeutic Feeding Centre at Herat Regional Hospital. The centre is overcrowded: there are actually 84 patients for 60 beds, with some mothers having to share one bed for two children. Afghanistan, October 2021.

Canoe in floodwaters, Bentiu — Two men use a canoe to navigate through floodwaters on the outskirts of Bentiu internally displaced people’s camp. South Sudan, November 2021.

Rescue 4 - Rotation 4 — An MSF team from search and rescue ship the Geo Barents reaches a rubber boat with 95 people on board, just before it was intercepted by the Libyan Coast Guard. MSF teams arrived on time to carry out the rescue safely. Central Mediterranean Sea, October 2021.

Rescue 3 - Rotation 5 — The Geo Barents rescues 99 people from an overcrowded wooden boat, which had been adrift for 13 hours. At the bottom of the wooden boat, 10 people were found dead, having been asphyxiated by petrol fumes. Central Mediterranean Sea, November 2021.

COVID-19 Vaccines Equity Demonstration in Washington, DC — MSF staff and supporters demonstrate outside the White House, calling on the Biden administration to do more to ensure global vaccine equity for COVID-19 vaccines. Washington DC, United States of America, November 2021.

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