NGOs, Medecina San Frontieres

Question 1

What does MSF stand for!?

Answer 1

MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES

Question 2

List some MSF missions

Answer 2

• Afghanistan
• Ethiopia x2
• Sri Lanka x3
• Rwanda

Question 3

Give a brief history about MSF

Answer 3

• Founded in 1971
• A worldwide medical humanitarian organisation
• We are committed to providing medical aid where it is most needed, regardless of race, religion, politics or gender, and also to raising awareness of the plight of the people we help

Question 4

Who are the MSF?

Answer 4

MSF employs over 35,000 people around the world, over 80% local staff (the rest international)

Question 5

List the core values of MSF

Answer 5

• Neutrality
• Impartiality
• Independence

Question 6

How are the MSF funded?

Answer 6

• To maintain our independence and the freedom to work where and when we choose, we rely on donations from private individuals and charitable funds.
• Income: 95% private sources, 5% from institutional and public funds and other sources.

Question 7

What do the MSF do?

Answer 7

• Focus on:
• War and Conflict
• Outbreaks and Epidemics
• Man-made or natural disasters
• Exclusion from healthcare

Question 8

What is the MSF temoignage?

Answer 8

‘We believe in speaking out publicly when our staff witness acts of violence against individuals and groups. We speak out based on eyewitness accounts and medical data’

Question 9

Give some examples of the MSF work previously carried out

Answer 9

• Primary Healthcare: Democratic Republic of Congo
• Malnutrition
• Maternal Healthcare: Afghanistan
• Vaccination campaigns
• Neglected Diseases
• Water and Sanitation
• Emergency Surgery
• MSF Supplies

Question 10

What is the scale of MSF work in figures?

Answer 10

• 9,792,200 outpatient consultations
• 869,100 measles vaccinations in response to outbreaks
• 232,400 HIV patients receiving treatment
• 80,100 severely malnourished children entered into therapeutic feeding programmes
• 250,300 births assisted
• 2,536,400 malaria cases treated

Question 11

Provide a glance of MSF’s history (PART 1)

Answer 11

• 1971: MSF is founded by a group of French doctors and journalists in the wake of the Nigerian civil war (Biafra)
• 1972: MSF works in its first natural disaster: Nicaraguan earthquake
• 1975: MSF works in its first refugee crisis: Cambodians fleeing the Khmer Rouge
• 1976: MSF’s first major response in a war zone: Lebanon
• 1985: MSF speaks out against the Ethiopian government’s policy of forced displacement of civilians, which contributed to the famine

Question 12

Provide a glance of MSF’s history (PART 2)

Answer 12

• 1994: MSF provides medical aid throughout the Rwandan genocide
• 1999: MSF is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
• 2001: MSF starts providing antiretroviral treatment for HIV/AIDS patients in seven countries
• 2009: MSF vaccinates more than seven million people against meningitis in west Africa: MSF’s largest ever vaccination campaign
• 2010: MSF launches its largest emergency response following the earthquake in Haiti

Question 13

Provide a glance of MSF’s history (PART 3)

Answer 13

• 2013: MSF launches the TB Manifesto – signed by 55,000 - calling for new drugs to treat MDR TB
• 2013: MSF remains one of the few international medical aid organisations in Central African Republic as violence escalates to unprecedented levels
• 2013: MSF responds to Typhoon Haiyan providing healthcare and clean water and repairing health centres and sewerage systems.
• 2014: MSF lead’s the world’s response to the devastating Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, building 15 management centres and treating over 7400 people. Fourteen MSF staff and hundreds of other health workers lose their lives.

Question 14

Provide a glance of MSF’s history (PART 4)

Answer 14

• 2014: MSF ramps up work in the Occupied Palestinian Territories in response to Israel’s military offensive, Operation Protective Edge.
• 2014: MSF launches the Missing Maps project which aims to map the most vulnerable places in the developing world so that individuals and organisations can better respond to crises.
• 2015: MSF launches search and rescue operations in the Mediterranean with three boats rescuing over 11,000 people by half way through the year.
• 2016: In a historic move MSF refuses EU funding as protest against shambolic policy towards refugees and migrants.

Question 15

List some current crisises

Answer 15

• Violence, Malaria & Malnutrition in South Sudan
• Vaccination Campaigns in the Democratic Republic of Congo
• Syria & the Region
• Conflict in Yemen
• Refugees in Europe
• Search & Rescue in the Mediterranean Sea
• The Ebola Epidemic in West Africa
• Rohingyas fleeing into Bangladesh
• Detention Centres in Libya