Stories From Patients & Staff

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.

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. 

It’s been six years since 700,000 Rohingya people fled their homes in Myanmar to escape violent persecution and sought refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh. 

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. 

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has been supporting and running medical projects in 

Obstetrician-gynaecologist Jared Watts has completed three assignments with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), working in Nigeria, Syria and more recently Sierra Leone. He spoke to us about his experience and how the role of an obstetrician-gynaecologist varies compared to working in remote Western Australia.  

Senior Health Promotion Manager, Fatumazahra Khalif (Fatma), describes the challenges facing people in the areas of Somalia where she works, and says health promotion is vital. In this profile she describes the impact of health promotion, including a moving patient story.

Neal Russell is a paediatric doctor and advisor based in London and has been working with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for 10 years. Following a recent visit to MSF’s project in Chad’s eastern region of Sila, near the border with Sudan, Neal provides his account of the situation he witnessed there. 

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. 

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.