"The world’s emergency service" - a great long read about Médecins Sans Frontières

Maxinquaye · Dec 29, 2016

If you're suffering in a land where a local crazy dictator rules atop a pile of explosives, and you're worried that this dictator's games with matches will blow everything up, there's one organisation that will make a deal with this devil to come and help you. Médecins Sans Frontières.

https://ig.ft.com/seasonal-appeal/2016/drc/

Note: If you get hit by a paywall, a good idea is to enter the title "The world’s emergency service" into Google. Financial Times have some kind of deal with Google, and anything that come to it from Google evades the paywall. And I think you should, because this is a great article about an organisation that I have the highest respect for. As explained in this blurb.

MSF had its roots in Paris 1968. Inspired by student idealism, six volunteers – two doctors, two clinicians and two nurses – headed off to treat patients in Biafra, southern Nigeria. Biafra had declared independence only a few years after Nigeria itself had slipped loose of British colonial rule. The central government responded by bombing and blockading the would-be breakaway state, causing mass starvation.

The six volunteers, including Bernard Kouchner, who would go on to become France’s minister of foreign affairs, not only treated patients in the midst of war. They also spoke out about the atrocities they were witnessing. Témoignage, or “bearing witness”, became a crucial part of MSF’s culture. So was disregard for man-made boundaries. Kouchner described its philosophy thus: “Go where the patients are. It seems obvious, but at the time it was a revolutionary concept.”

bombergirl69 · Dec 30, 2016

Wow! That's a great read. I cannot put into words how much respect I have for MSF. Those men and women are absolutely angels on earth (didn't know all that about Dr Martine!) Thanks for posting this!

Roxxsmom · Dec 30, 2016

We give them money whenever we can. They're a good organization that catches some flack for making those deals with dictators and warlords, but without doing it, they wouldn't have access to the people who most need their help.

regdog · Dec 31, 2016

I donate to them

Chris P · Dec 31, 2016

My wife is a physician and I work in international development. We have plans on how to save the world together

. I love the work MSF does and have the highest respect for them. There is a related organization Veterinarians Without Borders that does tons of awesome work with livestock.

I didn't read all of the article, but does it go into longer-term capacity building efforts? They have enough clout and opportunity to work with the host country to build their systems to respond to the next emergency if it ever happens, let alone improving routine care.

Maxinquaye · Dec 31, 2016

Chris P said:
I didn't read all of the article, but does it go into longer-term capacity building efforts? They have enough clout and opportunity to work with the host country to build their systems to respond to the next emergency if it ever happens, let alone improving routine care.

I'm not quite sure what you mean. Do you mean MSF should help in building national organisation infrastructure in the countries they operate in? I'm not sure I want them to do that, and I don't think they want to do that. MSF have quite a low overhead of adminsitration, despite the complaints in the article about the 'bureaucracy'. I'd prefer it if they used my donations to buy antibiotics, bandages, medical supplies, and paying doctors and nurses to go there. I don't want them to pay lobbyists to convince governments to build health services. There are other NGOs for that.

"The world’s emergency service" - a great long read about Médecins Sans Frontières

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer

bombergirl69

Roxxsmom

Beastly Fido

regdog

The Scavengers

Chris P

Likes metaphors mixed, not stirred

Maxinquaye

That cheeky buggerer