About Us

Médecins Sans Frontières translates to Doctors Without Borders. Our teams act fast to provide medical assistance to people affected by conflict, epidemics, exclusion from healthcare or disasters. MSF is made up of tens of thousands of health professionals, logisticians and administrative staff, bound together by our charter and our commitment to providing essential healthcare to those in need, regardless of race, gender, politics or religion.

MSF was founded in 1971 by a group of journalists and doctors. Today we are a worldwide movement of nearly 66,000 people.

Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of impartiality, independence and neutrality. We are a worldwide non-profit, self-governed, member-based organisation.

MSF’s actions are first and foremost medical. We are committed to providing high-quality care – wherever we work – and we advocate for affordable, high-quality medicines. We always act in the best interest of people and patients: to respect their confidentiality, their right to make their own decisions, and above all, to do them no harm.

MSF’s medical-humanitarian work is largely funded by donations from individuals. We do not accept any government funding in Australia or New Zealand. Globally, 98 per cent of MSF’s funding comes from individual donors and private institutions (private companies and foundations).

This financial independence helps ensure our operational independence and flexibility so that we can respond quickly to the most urgent crises, including those which are underreported or neglected.

With nearly 66,000 staff worldwide, from 160 countries, our strength lies in our teams, including health workers, logisticians, and administrative staff. In our medical-humanitarian projects, more than 85 per cent of our staff are locally hired.

The Médecins Sans Frontières Australia office was established in 1994. Every year Médecins Sans Frontières Australia supports around 100 Australian and New Zealand professionals to work in international medical-humanitarian projects.

Médecins Sans Frontières New Zealand was established in 2017 as a result of strong existing support in New Zealand for our work providing urgent medical assistance around the world to those who need it most.