MSF Team Stories
© Damien Follet/MSF
MSF Team Stories
Read accounts from MSF teams in the field
Congo (DRC): After fleeing conflict, thousands face precarious conditions
Laurent Sury, deputy manager for emergencies, recently assessed the situation in the field for these refugees and explains MSF's activities.
PAKISTAN: VIDEO interview - Challenges faced when providing medical care
Following 15 months in Pakistan as head of mission for MSF, Fabien Schneider describes some of the main issues faced when providing medical care to the conflict affected population in Pakistan.
ZIMBABWE: At the end of a fragile food chain
Earlier this year, MSF responded to Zimbabwe’s cholera epidemic and medical teams started working in prisons to treat cholera patients and prevent spread of the disease. Pip Millard, OCA prison project coordinator in Zimbabwe, gives us an insight into these prisons, and the condition of the inmates.
ZIMBABWE: "Seeing 500 patients a day is a bit crazy..."
Dr Melanie Rosenvinge took a year out from her job as an HIV specialist in London to work with MSF in Zimbabwe.
LEBANON: Breaking the mental illness taboo
Farah Malyani is a Palestinian psychiatric nurse working at the Burj El Barajneh community mental health centre. Read about her work and the testimony of one of the patient
DRC: Disease and threats of violence: an inescapable and deadly situation
Thousands of people in DRC are in danger of dying from a disease they cannot get treatment for because of the insecurity in the area. Sophie Signoret, the last MSF doctor forced to leave the HAT project six months ago, shares her fears and frustrations about a seemingly impossible situation.
YEMEN: How MSF is meeting the challenges of renewed conflict
War has erupted again in the north of Yemen in the past eight weeks. Andrés Romero, head of mission in Sana’a, describes the evolution of MSF activities in the current context.
INDONESIA: Psychological needs follow the physical
Marlene Lee, MSF psychologist, reporting after an exploratory mission a few days after the earthquake in Indonesia
PHILIPPINES: Interview with Natasha Reyes-Ticzon, doctor from MSF’s Emergency team
Natasha Reyes-Ticzon is a doctor working with the MSF emergency team responding to flooding in the Philippines. Here she talks about her work on a mobile clinic.
CAR: Interview with Carol Calero, MSF field doctor in Central African Republic
Calero has been treating patients for malnutrition in the south-east of the central African state, where the closure of mines has caused widespread job losses, leaving an already highly vulnerable region without adequate sustenance. "Some children die, but we succeed in keeping many others alive" - C.Calero.
SOMALIA: Surgeon tells of her experiences with MSF
On completing her studies, Dr. Hafsa Abdurrahman Mohamed, one of the first graduates from the medical school in Mogadishu, decided to work for MSF, using her skills to help provide free medical care in Somalia. Here she describes some of her experiences growing up in Mogadishu and working as a female surgeon in Somalia...
SRI LANKA: interview with Hans van de Weerd
Hans van de Weerd, general director of MSF Holland, has been interviewed on the situation in the northern district of Vavuniya.
SRI LANKA: The story of a surgeon
Tim Pruchnic, a surgeon with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) who has been working in Pompaimadu hospital since May, describes his experience: "it is amazing what you can be thankful for."
COLOMBIA: Life in the shadow of violence
Colombia has been ravaged by decades of conflict, in which hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced. Thomas Prochnow has just returned from working as a nurse for MSF in Colombia, during which he coordinated mobile clinics in the Norte de Santander region of the country.
DRC: Continued flight from the LRA
Thousands of displaced people have been streaming into the Ariwara area, near Aru, in the northeast of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) for several weeks. They are fleeing other parts of the Haut-Uélé region where the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) continues its attacks.
MSF project coordinator Patrick Robitaille explains the MSF team's concerns about chronic insecurity and the resulting malnutrition and sanitation problems.
CHAD: Vaccinating Children Against Measles
Following an outbreak in eastern Chad, MSF is currently vaccinating children between 6 months and 15 years against measles. Lenny Krommenhoek was part of this vaccination team for five weeks. After her return, she writes about the enormous logistical challenges faced during her mission, and her very personal experience in this remote part of the world.
SUDAN: Southern Sudan's strong women
In Southern Sudan two women who were among those fleeing violence are now working with MSF as midwives. These are their stories.
ZIMBABWE: The sound of cholera
I couldn’t get the stench of chlorine off of my hands. My shirt still smelled like cholera when I picked it up days after I returned from Zimbabwe. It is a peculiar smell, incomparable to any other I know. You will be hit by it when you enter a cholera camp – a fragrance combining hope and death.
