Stories From Patients & Staff

In the days since Haiti's 7.2 magnitude earthquake on 14 August, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams have been conducting exploratory missions and providing critical aid to those most affected.

Xavier Kernizan is an orthopedic surgeon based in MSF's Tabarre hospital in Port-au-Prince, who has been working with an MSF surgical team in Jérémie providing emergency care to those injured by the earthquake. Here he discusses the situation on the ground.

María Hernández, Yohannes Halefom and Tedros Gebremariam were killed on 24 June in Tigray, Ethiopia. Their colleagues from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) remember them.

Judy Forbes, based in Christchurch, New Zealand, has worked as an anaesthetist in humanitarian settings in over 40 countries. This includes 10 assignments with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in places like Palestine, Cameroon and Sri Lanka—and she’s not done yet.

On 10, 11 and 12 June, teams on board the MSF-chartered search and rescue vessel, GeoBarents, carried out seven consecutive rescues of people from unseaworthy boats in distress in the central Mediterranean Sea. In less than 48 hours, our teams safely brought on board 410 men, women and children, including one pregnant woman and 91 unaccompanied minors. Some of the survivors recounted their harrowing stories of survival in attempting to cross the deadliest migratory route in the world.

In the MSF Children’s Hospital in Monrovia, Liberia, critically ill children are treated year-round. Many suffer life-threatening complications of malaria—like Paul B. Morris Junior, who arrived unconscious. Paul’s mother Lydia and the team who treated him share his story. 

Last year, as COVID-19 lockdowns restricted movement in communities around the world, women in Nablus, Palestine, were suddenly trapped at home, with no escape. The only way we could reach them and continue our support was to pivot to tele-counselling—something new for our therapists and patients alike.  

The fighting between the Israeli military and Palestinian armed groups, principally Hamas, broke out once again after weeks of tensions in occupied East Jerusalem, which has been illegally annexed by Israel. 

Aymen al Djaroucha is Palestinian who has lived in Gaza for 20 years. He is currently the Project Coordinator for MSF, and here he recounts the extreme violence that is taking place in the blockaded enclave.

As the second wave of COVID-19 is reaching extremely alarming levels in India Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has scaled up its intervention in Mumbai, where the increasing number of people with COVID-19 has devastated the health care system and overwhelmed frontline workers. Dr Gautam Harigovind, medical activity manager for MSF’s COVID-19 project in Mumbai, shares his story. 

MSF teams have mobilised to provide medical assistance to people fleeing intense violence in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique. Since attacks began March, hundreds of people have fled the coastal city of Palma to nearby towns in search of safety - most fleeing by foot and hiding in the bush for days.