Equipping healthcare staff
In Manila, our teams have built triage tents, and continue to support health workers by providing infection prevention and control training and personal protective equipment.
Providing essentials
MSF teams have distributed quarantine kits and hygiene materials to several COVID-19 patients and their close contacts.
Médecins Sans Frontières is providing support and medical care around the world to counter the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re providing essential care through dedicated COVID-19 facilities, equipping frontline medical staff with PPE and training, and supporting health authorities through testing and community education.
With 50 years of experience fighting epidemics, we’re committed to protecting the most vulnerable and saving lives.
More than 7,000 islands make up the Philippines, but the bulk of its fast-growing population – now more than 100 million people – lives on just 11 of them.
Much of the Philippines is mountainous and prone to natural disasters. It is often lashed by typhoons and other storms. MSF has responded to several natural disasters in the Philippines, including Typhoon Haiyan in 2013 and Typhoon Tembin in 2017.
Médecins Sans Frontières first worked in the Philippines in 1987.
More than 200 people died in the resulting flash floods and mudslides, caused by Typhoon Tembin. According to estimates, nearly 800,000 people were affected by the typhoon. MSF distributed non-food items such as water and hygiene kits to around 900 families in six barangays (Filipino for village/district) within three municipalities. Mental health experts also delivered grief counselling sessions to those affected. © Badando / MSF
Following a 2015 assessment, MSF confirmed the need for sexual and reproductive health services in the densely populated and impoverished districts of the country’s capital, Manila. In collaboration with a local organisation, Likhaan, MSF staff offer sexual and reproductive health services at two clinics based in the Tondo and San Andres slum communities.MSF offers family planning services and care for victims of sexual violence, human papilloma virus vaccines, as well as screening and treatment for cervical cancer.
Following the siege of Marawi, MSF offered psychological first aid and ran water, sanitation and hygiene activities for people displaced by the conflict between the Philippine armed forces and two pro-Islamic State factions, the Maute group and Abu Sayyaf, in Marawi city, Mindanao region. MSF has remained in the area to support internally displaced people and returnees.
A young girl from Tondo, Manila, is seen in a Likhaan clinic for her free HPV vaccination. Likhaan provides reproductive healthcare services for low income families in the Philippines, where there remains a gap in women's awareness of their reproductive rights. © Reyes Morales / MSF
Médecins Sans Frontières has been working in Afghanistan since 1980, providing emergency surgical care, responding to conflict and natural disasters, and treating people cut off from healthcare.
MSF worked in Angola from 1983 until 2007. Why were we there? Armed conflict Endemic/Epidemic disease Social violence/Healthcare exclusion
MSF worked in Argentina from 2001 until 2003. Why were we there? Providing essential medicines and supplies
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion Natural disaster
Cameroon is facing multiple and overlapping crises, including recurrent epidemics, malnutrition due to food insecurity, displacement, and conflict.
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Healthcare exclusion Natural disaster
The political, economic and military crises of 2002-2010 have taken a severe toll on the Ivorian health system.
MSF worked in Ecuador until 2007. Why were we there? Endemic/Epidemic disease Natural disaster
In France, we work with migrants and refugees, who encounter policies and practices aimed at preventing them from settling or claiming their rights.
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/heathcare exclusion
Haiti’s healthcare system remains precarious in the wake of natural disasters and ongoing political and economic crises. Ongoing disasters have led to Haiti becoming the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere.
Honduras has experienced years of political, economic and social instability, and has one of the highest rates of violence in the world. This has great medical, psychological and social consequences for people.
An MSF team in Hong Kong opened a project at the end of January focusing on health education for vulnerable people. Community engagement is a crucial activity of any outbreak response and in Hong Kong, this focuses on groups who are less likely to have access to important medical information, such as the socio-economically disadvantaged. The team is also targeting those who are more vulnerable to developing severe disease if they are infected, such as the elderly.
MSF worked in Indonesia between 1995 and 2009 Why were we there? Natural disaster
Jordan hosts over 700,000 refugees, according to the UNHCR, many of whom reside in camps or have settled in the country.
Although health services are being progressively restored in Liberia, important gaps persist, notably in specialised paediatric care and mental health.
Libya remains fragmented by a decade of conflict and political instability. The breakdown of law and order, the collapse of the economy, and fighting have decimated the healthcare system.
Access to medical care remains very limited in the north and centre of Mali due to a lack of medical staff and supplies and spiralling violence between armed groups.
In Mozambique we are responding to emergencies including disease outbreaks, providing care to people with advanced HIV, while also working in the conflict-ridden Cabo-Delgado province.
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence/healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Providing comprehensive emergency healthcare to people in remote regions of Pakistan is a priority, yet accessibility and security are a constraint for both Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) and patients.
At the end of 2007, MSF ended its activities in Rwanda after 16 years in the country. MSF's work included assistance to displaced persons, war surgery, programmes for unaccompanied children and street children, support to victims traumatised by the conflict, programmes to improve access to healthcare, responding to epidemics such as malaria, cholera and tuberculosis, and projects linked to maternal and reproductive health.
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Armed conflict Endemic/Epidemic disease Healthcare exclusion
Why are we there? Endemic/epidemic disease Social violence Healthcare exclusion
