Stories From Patients & Staff

Jennifer Craig studied law at the Australian National University and then went on to do a Masters in disaster mitigation and reconstruction at the University of Newcastle. She has built a career with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) over five overseas assignments, starting as a supply logistician in Nigeria in 2016. She then went on to work in Tanzania is a logistics manager, a role she also held in Cambodia in 2018. Later that year she returned to Cambodia as a project coordinator, a role that she continued with in her most recent assignment in Palestine.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, poor living conditions in displacement camps make women more vulnerable to sexual violence.

Rachel Coyle, who works as the midwife supervisor at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)'s Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) in Taiz Houban, southern Yemen, shares her experience in delivering twins while reflecting on the persistent challenges of Yemeni pregnant women and mothers as they strive to access essential maternal healthcare services.

Peter Clausen completed an electrical apprenticeship after school, he then went on to study journalism and work for the ABC in North Queensland, before completing a Masters in Disaster Management. He is an experienced MSF project coordinator and progressed to head of mission over his eight assignments. He first worked in Yemen in 2013, followed by projects in Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Tanzania, and most recently Ukraine in 2022 and again in 2023. 

Access to clean water is a major challenge for the hundreds of thousands of displaced people who have been surviving for months in makeshift camps located on the outskirts of Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Even with MSF's efforts in water treatment and distribution, the population in the camps continues to live with around five liters of water a day. Increased efforts are needed to improve the life of displaced people.

Jeanne Vidal has worked as a water and sanitation logistician and a logistics team leader on seven assignments with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). She has worked on projects in Ethiopia, South Sudan, Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and most recently Sierra Leone. She spoke to us about her work overseas and what the role of a water and sanitation logistician (or 'watsan’) involves. 

James Neeson grew up on a crop farm in rural Western Victoria and went on to study international business, where he majored in supply chain management at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He worked in a few rural areas as a supply chain focal point delivering farming equipment in Western Australia, as well as in Tonga as a procurement officer supporting supply chain systems for the Ministry of Health.  

Sally Thomas has done 10 assignments with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). She has a degree in architecture and a diploma in project management. She started her career with MSF by working as a construction logistics manager on a project in Nairobi in 2009, and then went on to work in Nigeria, South Sudan, Haiti, Ethiopia, Iraq, Yemen. She then took the position of deputy head of mission in Syria and her most recent assignment was in Libya. She spoke to us about her work overseas and what the role of a logistician involves. 

Once, in villages within Rakhine State in western Myanmar, the Rohingya community lived, raising families and pursuing livelihoods. However, that existence was shattered on 25 August 2017, when a wave of targeted violence and persecution forced the Rohingya to flee their homes. 

Tongogara Refugee Camp (TRC) is a remote place in the south-east of Zimbabwe where over 15,000 people live; mostly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Mozambique, Burundi and Rwanda. While in their country of origin, most of the refugees experienced traumatic events including war, rape, torture and physical injuries, among other traumatic events that caused them to flee.