Medecins Sans Frontiers : Doctors Without Borders

“Silence has long been confused with neutrality, and has been presented as a necessary condition for humanitarian action. From its beginning, MSF was created in opposition to this assumption.

“We are not sure that words can always save lives, but we know that silence can certainly kill."

Dr. James Orbinski, then-President of the MSF International Council, accepting the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of MSF in 1999.

Where and when you are born into this world is all up to luck. There are the lucky few who are born into luxury, privilege, and prestige. Some are born in the slums of India, some into communist North Korea (China, Vietnam, Cuba, Las), or in developing countries such as Africa, Haiti, Guinea. But many of us are born healthy, living a comfortable life, and have more power to change the world than we realize. 

Being born and raised in communist and developing country, Albania, I am well aware of the struggle between life and death that the 805 million of people in the world (about 1 in 9 people on earth) have on a daily basis that they call life. Many people do not know level of suffering people live with around the world.

 I am very passionate in helping those that were not as lucky as me and my family to have had the chance to escape that kind of life. Having won the lottery to come to America with my parents and older brother is a memory that will forever be engraved in my mind and heart. Leaving family and friends behind made me realize at a very young age how blessed I was and am. I believe that I was given this opporatunity for a better life so that I could use this to help others who weren't (aren't) as lucky as I was (am).

To accomplish these goals I intend to join 'Medecins Sans Frontiers' or as we are more aware of it as 'Doctors without Borders' when I finish medical school.

According to MSF USA website:  

 

MSF's first office was in Paris created by French Doctors. Today there are 19 national offices including 9 branch offices around the world.

United States first MSF office was established in 1990 and located in New York  because of its proximity to the UN and media. This US office is now managing programs in Sudan, South Sudan, Chad, and Ethiopia. (Its primary goal was to expand their international fundraising, recruitment, and advocacy).

To this day MSF's biggest challenges lie in (1) finances (2) Human Resources and (3) Operations.

(1) there is great difficulty in maintaining a sustainable funding during unpredictable economic climate. Improving quality of their programs that rely largely on funding for drugs, vaccines, and emergency food aid. Also new emergencies need necessary reserves in order to respond which can be limited with low funding.

(2) There is always need for experienced, committed field staff that can work as coordinators which also includes the task for keeping them in the program. It is also tremendously difficult to find qualified edical staff that can work on a range of medical issues (i.e. emergency surgery, rehabilitation, maternal & pediatric care, tropical diseases, chronic care, and mental health)


(3) The need to constantly reinforce MSF's neutrality to all parties in order to keep their teams safe. ( Throughout the past 10 years there have been humanitarian aid workers who have been directly targeted making it more difficult to work in certain high risk areas) - Security.

Speaking out to gain access to populations- this includes gaining access to people who are cut off from assistance in armed conflicts due to insecurity, gov. bureaucracies, and other blockages that are not always easy to negotiate.

Access to appropriate resources- such as medications, vaccines, and therapeutic foods to treat malnutrition.  Outdated diagnostics and treatments make medical assistance in challenged settings difficult and expensive. (Not to mention that policies, pricing, and politics pose as barriers for procuring vital medical supplies)

Improving research and development of neglected disease would help save more lives and would make it easier to treat patients with a more efficient use of their resources. 

MSF wants to be where conditions are the worst and places where others are not going. Although there is much suffering, terror, and tragedies, at the end of the day I always and will forever believe in people. It is those who decide that they can change the world who usually do.

With google+ you can follow MSF's missions, goals, and most recent achievements: (https://plus.google.com/u/0/106768880479641755584/posts )

Some of these include : DRC: the normalization of rape, Ebola: new needs and strategies, and Cameroon: refugees treated for malnutrition

• Some Facts & Statistics on World Hunger:

  Some 805 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That's about one in nine people on earth.
  
   
  The vast majority of the world's hungry people live in developing countries, where 13.5 percent of the population is undernourished.
  
   
   Asia is the continent with the most hungry people - two thirds of the total. The percentage in southern Asia has fallen in recent years but in western Asia it has increased slightly.
  
   
   Sub-Saharan Africa is the region with the highest prevalence (percentage of population) of hunger. One person in four there is undernourished.
  
   
  Poor nutrition causes nearly half (45%) of deaths in children under five - 3.1 million children each year.
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  One out of six children -- roughly 100 million -- in developing countries is underweight.
  
  
   
   One in four of the world's children are stunted. In developing countries the proportion can rise to one in three.
  
  
   
   If women farmers had the same access to resources as men, the number of hungry in the world could be reduced by up to 150 million.
  
  
   
  66 million primary school-age children attend classes hungry across the developing world, with 23 million in Africa alone.
  
  
   
  WFP calculates that US$3.2 billion is needed per year to reach all 66 million hungry school-age children.
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  (Link: http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats)
   *I do not own these images, they were found on various tumblr sites. Please let me know if any are yours and I will give you credit for them. Thanks so much!