Stories From Patients & Staff

When 14-year-old Peter* started having epileptic seizures, a misdiagnosis only made things worse, and his mother feared he wouldn’t be able to return to school. Now on regular treatment, Peter looks forwarding to fulfilling his own dreams for the future, and his mother’s for him. 

When Mary*, a 15-year-old school student in Monrovia, Liberia, started having epileptic seizures last year, it was frightening and confusing for her and everyone around her. The Médecins Sans Frontières-supported epilepsy treatment program at Star of the Sea Health Centre has helped her family and community understand the condition so that Mary can draw on their support to stay in school. 

Akeela, an Outreach Counsellor with MSF since 2020, lived in the village of Mir Gul Hassan Manju Shori Barun Naseerabad which is around 5 kilometres from Dera Murad Jamali (DMJ) in Balochistan, one of the areas hardest hit by monsoon rains and extreme flooding that left one third of Pakistan underwater. After losing her home, she is now responding to the emergency on the front line.

The Rohingya people are considered “stateless” under international law. But what does the term actually mean?

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) humanitarian affairs coordinator Gina Bark explains the concept of statelessness and what that means to an individual.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) spoke with five Rohingya people living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, to understand how they see their lives five years since being forcibly displaced from Myanmar.

Representing the ages five, 15, 25, 45 and 65, together they span three generations of Rohingya living in the camps.  They are all current or former patients of MSF.

Agy Agy, 28, is a logistics supervisor with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.

Over the past 10 years, successive governments have reduced Australia’s aid budget, decreased its refugee intake, and failed to provided a solution for hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers held in limbo.

As Australia prepares to go to the polls, Médecins Sans Frontières Australia's Executive Director Jennifer Tierney discusses the need for ethical and humane refugee policies—and the political will needed to secure them. 

Sasha, a long-time staff member of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from Mariupol, Ukraine, describes life in the city as it was encircled and bombarded by Russian forces. For security reasons, he is using only his first name.

Aleksandr Burmin (name changed) is an MSF staff member in Ukraine. Like so many other Ukrainians, the conflict has forced Aleksandr to flee his home, and is now internally displaced within the country.

Gloria Mwambazi knows the importance of building up other women. As community engagement technical capacity manager, Gloria works with female sex worker-led community-based organisations to empower participants as part of a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)-supported project in Malawi. For her, leadership starts with a vision that's shared with others. 

Gloria's story is part of our coverage of women in leadership in MSF for International Women's Day.