Receive letters from MSF staff working in international projects

A day in the life...

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 12:00:00 GMT

To give a better idea of what it is like to be running mobile clinics in remote parts of Eastern Congo, here is a little summary of what I did today…

Letter from Jenna in Papua New Guinea

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Hey all! I hope you are all well. Any more news from home/ rest of the world? I'm exhausted after the last few weeks and half asleep at the moment. Patients keep coming and they seem to present more sick each time. I'm tired of seeing people die, of seeing babies die before they've even had a chance in this world.

And the queues get longer...

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

As the message spreads that MSF is providing free health care through mobile clinics, the length of the queues of patients awaiting our arrival each morning is growing. Our MSF doctor and nurse are getting used to doing 10 hours of back-to-back consultations, with only time for a few bananas to eat during the day!

At night I sleep under a tent, during the day I work under one

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

I am 30 years old and I work for MSF as a physiotherapist. I help victims of the earthquake in their rehabilitation by providing manual treatment like massages or helping amputees with their mobility. Some will have to use crutches or walkers and I make sure their recovery goes smoothly.

Kitutu

Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Two months after carrying out a health assessment in Kitutu, South Kivu, in eastern DRC, I have returned with a small team to run mobile clinics for the local population, in particular the displaced families.

Leaving Haiti

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 12:00:00 GMT

I’ve been dreading this day because there is no easy way to say goodbye. I have developed so much affection and respect for Haitians, who carry such dignity in the face of this crippling adversity.

Living MSF

Sat, 30 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

The moment the earthquake destroyed so many homes and lives in Haiti I, still new to the organisation, got to experience the essence of MSF. The news of the catastrophe reached us fast: communications were sent out from headquarters keeping us up to date on our colleagues that went missing, those that were miraculously rescued and those we lost.

Miraculous moments in Haiti

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

In any tragedy there are miraculous moments. A couple of those moments occurred today.

Sudan: Dahabaya in Shangil Tobaya

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Shangili Tobaya Talgi Dahabaya, is a rhyme from the opening song of an old Sudanese television series that takes place in Shangil Tobaya. The words Shangil Tobaya translate from Sudanese colloquial Arabic as “flip a brick” and the popular rhyme translates to “flip a brick you will find gold”.

"Their behaviour speaks louder than words"

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Things are slowly changing. Everyday when I walk into our office and our hospitals there are small noticeable changes and supplies are finally piling up in our storage, there is some order to the madness. MSF’s programme is also evolving.

I woke up shaking

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

I had the scare of my life this morning. I had hoped I could sleep in an extra 10 minutes because I’ve been working on 5 hours sleep a night for the last week and am hitting the bottom of the barrel.

First report since arriving in Port-au-Prince

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

The situation remains critical, few aid agencies in place, still hundreds of bodies stuck in buildings. I've only seen about 4 or 5 trucks and cranes trying to remove buildings to get people out, in the entire city!

MSF in the Prison of Hunger, Bunia, DRC.

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:00:00 GMT

Over a two-month period, seventeen prisoners referred from Bunia Prison, in the eastern district of Ituri, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), to the city’s hospital have died - victims of severe malnutrition. An MSF team working in Bunia recently went to the prison to try to put an end to the tragic situation occurring at the prison, into which, more than 500 prisoners are crammed, barely one third of them having been before a judge.

On saying goodbye

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:00:00 GMT

The last day in the field is a blur: some final handover of reports and evaluations and lessons learned the hard way before I forget; a sumptuous lunch followed by a grand afternoon tea organised respectively by the wonderful staff in my two departments; pictures and hand-shakes and exchanging contact details…

My girlfriend has locked me in my room

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 12:00:00 GMT

My girlfriend has locked me in my room. She doesn’t usually treat me this way and if you can hear a banging that’s her nailing lumps of wood across the door to stop me trying to go to work, running mobile clinics here in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) . The reason for this? Because I managed to get malaria this week.

Success never just comes

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 12:00:00 GMT

“Success Never Just Comes” is the motto of one of the schools we pass during the four-hour drive to Gokwe Prison. Now that we are in the final weeks of the project, this reminder isn’t really necessary.

Get up, vaccinate, go to bed.

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT

In February and March this year, MSF completed an emergency vaccination campaign in eastern Chad, immunising a total of 98,000 children against measles. Due to high levels of malnutrition and lack of good healthcare, children in Chad are much more vulnerable to disease; the morbidity rate for children contracting measles is around 30%.

Four months’ hard labour in Zimbabwe’s prisons

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 12:00:00 GMT

I’m currently working with a cattle rustler, two bank felons and someone who’ll only admit that he “made some mistakes.” They are all serving time in Chivhu prison, which is one of eight prisons where our water and sanitation (“watsan”) team is working as part of MSF’s four-month project to address the serious malnutrition and health problems in some of Zimbabwe’s most affected prisons.

Too dangerous to stay, even more dangerous to go.

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 12:00:00 GMT

I won’t pretend that this is a genuine letter 'from the field', as I have been back from Pakistan for a while now, following 15 months in the country as Head of Mission. So this piece may not be ‘hot off the press’, but it does benefit from having a period of reflection. As I’m sure you can imagine, there are a vast amount of things that I could write about.

Where is 'The Field'?

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:00:00 GMT

First of all, there are no fields involved in my work. Not of the grassy variety anyway. ‘The Field’ is an interesting term that is bandied around a great deal in development and humanitarian circles, and it is interpreted differently depending on where you are when you say it*.

“Nobody could take her dignity from her”

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:00:00 GMT

They came for the money. One of the many luxuries a gun affords a young man in North Kivu is that of time; time to mooch about, time to ask questions, time to observe. That week, a group of armed men loosely affiliated to a group overheard, whilst loitering on the periphery of a village, no doubt hungry and unpaid, that her family had sold a cow. They watched, made casual enquiries - and they plotted.

Week 2: Waiting for the rains

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Week 1: Looking for a dry spot

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 13:00:00 GMT

Mud, water and more mud

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:30:00 GMT

“There seems to be no end to this catastrophe”

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:00:00 GMT

Battered Trucks and Donkey Tracks

Mon, 02 Mar 2009 12:00:00 GMT

This area is quite remote, sometimes insecure and very difficult to travel. MSF has hired battered local trucks to reduce the risks of car-jackings. The whole team consists of around 50 people, including logisticians, registrars, nurses, and drivers. We travel in convoy from one base to another, going in seven teams, vaccinating every day. An international team leader is in charge of each team, making sure that we go to the right villages and overlooking the vaccination.

The quick killer

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT

Dealing with cholera is different than other emergencies I have worked on. It was the speed of it that made it so different. When you enter an area with many people sick from cholera or a clinic completely overloaded with cholera patients, you know lives will soon be lost.

For those who have fled Zimbabwe

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 08:00:00 GMT

Hello everybody, here I am again, out with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) for three months. This time I am in South Africa to assist Zimbabweans who have fled their country, particularly those affected by the cross-border cholera outbreak. We have a base up at the border in a small town called Musina, where we have mobile clinics providing medical aid to the thousands of Zimbabweans fleeing the country.

The sound of cholera

Wed, 04 Feb 2009 12:00:00 GMT

I couldn’t get the stench of chlorine off of my hands. My shirt still smelled like cholera when I picked it up days after I returned from Zimbabwe. It is a peculiar smell, incomparable to any other I know. You will be hit by it when you enter a cholera camp – a fragrance combining hope and death.

Christmas in Darfur

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT

It’s going to be a funny sort of Christmas this year. Not because I’ll be working – if you’re a childless A&E nurse then you tend to find yourself working on Christmas Day (so that those with young families can spend it at home), and I’ve only had one “family” Christmas in the last six years. The reason that this Christmas will be particularly different for me is that I will be spending it working in Shangil Tobaya IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camp in Northern Darfur, Sudan.

Jill's Ethiopian Diary: Memories, good and bad.

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:00:00 GMT

I am nearing the end of my three month mission in Ethiopia in the Kambata and Tambaro regions on a malnutrition project. When I look back and reflect on the last three months there are many emotions and fond memories that I wish to hold on to for a very long time… and quite a few that I am sure I will remember, because it is important, but which are not happy ones.

Jill's Ethiopian Diary: Birth, barbecued maize and the weekly shop.

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Many more donkey and carts are seen on a daily basis now, laden with maize, cabbages, bananas and ginger going to and from markets. In most of the areas, there is now a visible reduction in the severe acute malnutrition admissions.

Essential healthcare amid the dust and desolation in Southeast Ethiopia

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Life in the Somali region of Ethiopia is tough. The rains have failed, food is running out and even the camels are dying of thirst.

Jill's Ethiopian Diary - Fighting the food crisis

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT

The journey from Shinshicho to Hadero takes thirty minutes along a pot-holed dirt road.

On the boat

Fri, 30 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

“We’re going to try it.” That is the conclusion. Tomorrow we’re going to go out in a boat with the mobile team. For the first time expats will join one of the national teams to carry out medical consultations and distributions. We have no idea how the authorities will react now that foreigners are also going out into the field.

Nearly the end

Thu, 15 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Traumatised

Mon, 12 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Sunday, 12 May - Everyone on our team sees an average of more than 200 patients a day and many people are in shock or are experiencing trauma. There are confused people still searching for their families, children who have lost their parents, parents who have watched their children drown. In the evenings, I sit with my colleagues and everyone tells what they’ve heard and seen during the day. It is difficult for everyone. We are all tired and we sleep poorly.

Survival

Sun, 11 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Saturday, 11 May - We need to rent more boats. Every day the number of teams and amount of material grows and most places can only be reached by boat. I negotiate with a boat owner. He is a nice guy and is very glad to help us with our work. Just as all the other people here, he has a “I barely survived” story too.

Fear

Sat, 10 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Friday, 10 May - The weather got worse last night. Our team tried to sleep in the supply tent we had set up in the village earlier in the day. But in the middle of the night, it was no longer possible. Soaked to the bone and cold from the storm and rain, we ran to a nearby house.

Infection

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Thursday, 9 May - The girl is seven years old. She has a big, ugly head wound from the moment a palm tree fell on top of her. Using unhygienic material, someone gave her emergency stitches. The wound is now terribly infected and she needs more medical help than our mobile team can offer. Her father is a fisherman and they lived in a house by the sea.

Rice

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Skeletons

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Yangon

Tue, 06 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Radio News

Sun, 04 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Lost luggage

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Living in Palestine and working with the local people has provoked thoughts about my own relationship with material items and ideas of ownership. I’ve asked myself about the importance of material items, how much they mean in my life, how much my ideas of happiness and fulfillment are connected with what I have and what I own.

Speaking out

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Sometimes I’m speechless in the face of people’s suffering here. Words just don’t come to me. I listen and try to give people the time and the space they need to say what they have inside, to vent their sadness and frustration. I wonder how many of them have only told me about what’s happened to them.

Sink or swim in the Dirty River

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

I'm woken up at 5.30 am by drums and trumpets. Undeterred by a heavy flooding, the local marching band has taken over the boats. In any other context this might be unusual but in the aptly named town of Riosucio (dirty river), the unusual is an everyday occurrence.

Sad, disappointed, angry, but not shocked

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Hard to say goodbye

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

There are some patients that you just can’t leave behind once the sessions have concluded. There are some that you feel you are going to miss, that you would like to see again, and usually the feelings are mutual.

If... if...

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Half of my patients are children who have faced a traumatic event such as an incursion and the other half are usually the mothers and close relatives of those who have been arrested. As patients, children suffer from nightmares, bedwetting, general fear and physical complaints, while adults show lack of interest in daily life, they can’t sleep or eat

Playing in the snow

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Palestine

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

A Bundle of Babies

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

The Power of Positive Thinking

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I'm writing this from Tam, the traditional tribal area of the Bol-Nuer tribes. We are doing three weeks of outreach work here; it's isolated, there are very few trees and it's the hottest place I have ever experienced in the world!

Rain inside my collar

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In this diary entry Nicola meets strong women and suspicious men.

Impossible Choices...

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Condom stories

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In this diary entry Nicola meets strong women and suspicious men.

A Town of Tukuls

Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In Sri Lanka's turbulent Jaffna Peninsula

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

"We did a totally crazy transfer today of a guy who had been shot through the neck..."

A Day in the DRC

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Back from Nepal

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

For 11 years Nepal has been in the grip of a Maoist insurrection. To the tourist this is barely noticeable. The major urban centres have remained under Government control and trekkers and climbers have free passage through the rural areas - as long as they pay their dues.

Benish Bibi

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Hardly the fearsome matron, Benish Bibi is quiet, but forthright. She is a beacon of organisation within a chaotic world. She makes sure all the jobs get done on the ward by either delegating tasks or by doing things herself. She creates the nursing rota, checks patients' registers, and makes sure all equipment and drugs are ready to be used. Here she describes her work and her plans for the future:

Unexploded ordinance wreaks havoc in Chad

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Let me tell you about the Ade project I'm involved in. There's still plenty to do in our little frontier paradise. We're running a basic health care programme and a feeding programme for malnutrition.

From Galcayo Somalia ...

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

But what you don't realise is tuberculosis carries a lot of stigma - like AIDS - so they won't tell you if the child has been in contact with someone with TB, especially if it's a senior member of the family.

Human resources in the humanitarian frontline

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

May 2006

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Gareth: Sudan is a country that I thought I knew quite well. I had previously spent four years in South Sudan. Yet, I didn't expect Darfur to be such a truly confusing...mess! On the medical side, you had the four classical emergencies: displacement, hunger, epidemics and trauma. They are all there in abundance. So there was never any question in my mind that MSF needed to be there.

Lives Hanging in the Balance in Northern Kenya

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Marburg Disease in Angola

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

A Flying Watsan in Sudan

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

It was a Thursday last March that the call came from MSF. "Can you leave for Sudan on Sunday. There's an outbreak of cholera there..."

Isaac

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

"... When he first arrived he was too weak to stand and so to see him walking gives everyone hope."

In the ongoing crisis in Darfur

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

In Northern Uganda

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

The Helpless Attendant

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

"I start to feel scared. I want to pick him up and take him home. I'm sure that with all our fancy intensive care in the UK, he would be alright. The whole situation seems so unfair."

In Kashmir

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

There are two people who particularly stick in my mind. One is a small child - probably about two years old - who had horrific injuries - she had virtually been split in two, from her thigh to her buttocks.

Sandflies Sorghum and Stigma Tackling Kala Azar and HIV in Ethiopia

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Khabirs smile

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Khabir shows no emotion and I'm not surprised. What mental tools does a 5 year old have to deal with that kind of experience? The terror and pain of being buried alive with broken limbs is impossible to imagine.

Night and Day in Darfur

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Sherif was admitted this morning, severely dehydrated due to the diarrhoea, struggling to breathe and burning up with fever...

Letters from Angola

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT

In Indonesia

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The teams had to wait until a mosquito landed on their skin and then capture it by sucking it into a tube...

A Scotsman speaking Portugese... - Ch. 4

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

In Burundi

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

A Scotsman speaking Portugese... - Ch. 5

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 GMT

A Chicken Called Sally...

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 GMT

I couldn't help thinking that it wasn't fair...

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 GMT

I was working in a refugee camp near the Sudanese border. MSF is providing medical care to people who have fled from the brutal conflict in the Darfur region of Sudan. Some of them have been living in the refugee camps since 2003, but it is still too dangerous for them to go home. Farchana camp, where I was based, is now home to about 17,000 refugees, many of whom had to flee their homes with absolutely nothing. MSF is running a health centre, taking care of malnourished children and has built facilities to provide clean water and good sanitation.

A Scotsman speaking Portugese... - Ch. 3

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Running an HIVAIDS Treatment Programme in a Conflict Zone

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

A Scotsman speaking Portuguese ... - Ch. 2

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

A Scotsman speaking Portugese... - Ch. 1

Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Feeding the children

Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 GMT

When I finished my nursing training in 1992, I knew I wanted to do this kind of work. Before joining Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in 2001, I had already worked overseas in India and South America. This is my fourth mission with MSF. Previously I worked in South Sudan for 15 months, in Iraq for about 5 months, and then Kashmir for 7 months.

Postcard No. 4 - March 2005

Fri, 01 Apr 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Letters from Chad

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 GMT

What I found most surprising was the contrast of reality with the typical images of refugee camps seen on TV.

Doctoring in Darfur

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 GMT

I am currently working as medical team leader in Garsilla in South Darfur. We have an international MSF team of 19 people in Garsilla and dozens of Sudanese staff working on three main activities: nutrition, health, and water and sanitation. I look after the medical side of things and my role is to manage the international medical team and help us keep focused on the reasons that we are there.

In south Sudan

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 00:00:00 GMT

I marveled at the fact that people who had been through so much could smile and laugh and revel in life...

From Somerset to Sudan

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Postcard No. 3 - November 2004

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Liberia - Diary of a Liberian aid worker

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

A view from the frontline: Been a while since I picked up my pen but unfortunately can't be long as we're about to leave on another venture into the great unknown. I wonder what we'll find.

Frigophobia in Sri Lanka

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Postcard No. 2 - September 2004

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Postcard No. 1 - August 2004

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT