MSF teams are directly responding to the COVID-19 pandemic in over 40 countries worldwide. Our COVID-19 response focuses…
Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) was established in 1971 by a small group of French doctors who had worked in Biafra. Upon their return, they were determined to find a way to respond rapidly and effectively to public health emergencies, with complete independence from political, economic and religious influences.
Today, MSF is one of the world’s leading independent international medical relief organisations, working in more than 70 countries worldwide and with operational centres and national offices in 19 countries.
Our mandate concerns emergency relief, and the principles we honour while carrying out our work are contained in the MSF Charter.
We launch our operations in areas where there is no medical infrastructure or where the existing one cannot withstand the pressure to which it is subjected. In most cases, relief programs change to rehabilitation projects that may run for several years after the most urgent needs have been met.
For more than 50 years, we have been providing medical help to people caught in many kinds of catastrophes, including armed conflicts, disasters such as floods and earthquakes, epidemics of disease and malnutrition crises. All these situations call for rapid response with specialised medical and logistical help. We are renowned for our quick response and efficient, effective work in the toughest emergencies. Beyond acute crisis, we also intervene in times that call for a less urgent type of action, for instance, in chronic refugees situations, areas of chronic instability, and in periods following a conflict or disaster.
The action we take comes in multiple forms:
Emergency public healthcare, including medicine & surgery
Mass vaccination campaigns
Water and sanitation systems
Therapeutic and supplementary nutrition
Distribution of drugs and supplies
Training and health education
Organisation or rehabilitation of health structures
Medical assistance within existing health structures
We observe impartiality in the name of medical ethics and the right to humanitarian assistance. To ensure this independence, the majority of our funding for projects comes from donations from the public. In carrying out humanitarian assistance, we act as witnesses and will speak out, in private or in public, about the critical needs of the people we help. In doing so, we seek to alleviate human suffering, to protect life and health, and to restore and ensure respect for human beings and their dignity.
Crises responses
Natural disasters
An earthquake, tsunami, flood or cyclone can have a devastating impact on entire communities.Within a matter of minutes,…
War and conflict
Around one-third of our humanitarian and medical assistance is for populations caught in armed conflict. Armed conflict devastates…
Epidemics and pandemics
Millions of people still die each year from infectious diseases that are preventable or can be treated. Outbreaks…
Access to medicines
Unaffordable, unavailable, not adapted - people around the world face these challenges in accessing lifesaving medicines. During the…
Medical activities
Malaria
Each year, malaria kills nearly half a million people. 70% of all deaths are children under five years…
HIV/AIDS
Confronting the deadly pandemic An estimated 1 million people die each year from HIV/AIDS, while nearly 2 million…
Hepatitis C
Worldwide, an estimated 71 million people are infected with the hepatitis C virus, double the number living with…
Ebola and Marburg
Ebola and Marburg haemorrhagic fevers are rare but deadly, spreading fear and panic. Caring for infected patients and…
