Stories from the Field

Stories from the Field

Staff Stories
Bihar: "I try to bring hope to patients living with kala azar-HIV co-infection"
Kala azar is one of the most dangerous neglected tropical diseases in the world. It is spread to humans by bites from infected female sand flies and attacks the immune system. While cases of the disease are declining steadily, kala azar-HIV co-infection is fast becoming a serious threat. After…
September 18, 2018
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Bihar: "I try to bring hope to patients with kala azar-HIV co-infection through counselling"

Stories from the field

  • Staff Stories
  • October 08, 2018
Palestine: "Nothing can prepare you for this"
The last six months have been the most difficult I have experienced in my 15 years with MSF in Gaza. And that’s compared to the wars of 2008, 2012 and 2014.  For me, a doctor from Gaza, living and working here all my life, I feel like I know our limits in terms of what Gaza can endure. It’s been…
Palestine: "Nothing can prepare you for this"
  • Staff Stories
  • September 18, 2018
Bihar: "I try to bring hope to patients living with kala azar-HIV co-infection…
Kala azar is one of the most dangerous neglected tropical diseases in the world. It is spread to humans by bites from infected female sand flies and attacks the immune system. While cases of the disease are declining steadily, kala azar-HIV co-infection is fast becoming a serious threat. After…
Bihar: "I try to bring hope to patients with kala azar-HIV co-infection through counselling"
  • Patient Stories
  • September 18, 2018
Zoya's story: "I have returned from the brink of death"
As well as suffering a lack of awareness and social stigma, kala azar-HIV co-infected patients are also prone to other infections, relapse more often and are at a greater risk of death. 39-year-old Zoya shares her story of recovery after being treated for kala azar and HIV at Doctors Without…
Zoya's story: "I have returned from the brink of death"
  • Staff Stories
  • September 17, 2018
DRC: "With the new Ebola outbreak, we knew we had to act fast"
An experienced nurse, Patient Muhindo Kamavu was one of four experienced MSF nurses who were the first on the ground alongside the Ministry of Health to respond to the Ebola outbreak declared on 1 August in Mangina, Nord Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. A veteran of both Ebola outbreaks this…
DRC: "With the new Ebola outbreak, we knew we had to act fast"
  • Staff Stories
  • July 11, 2018
DRC: “Congolese health staff have shown an amazing commitment to fight Ebola”
Miriam Alia, an MSF vaccination expert, has just returned from Equateur province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Miriam worked as a medical referent in the area of Itipo, the epicentre of the recent outbreak. She explains how MSF took part in the ring vaccination against the disease and…
DRC: “Congolese health staff have shown an amazing commitment to fight Ebola”
  • Staff Stories
  • July 04, 2018
National Doctors’ Day: “Treating the most vulnerable in the most critical situations”
1 July is observed in India as National Doctors’ Day. To mark the occasion we asked three MSFers how they became doctors, and what it means to be a doctor without borders.     Shazeer Majeed  As a kid, I grew up listening to people say I had to be a doctor like my father. I joined M.B.B.S. just…
National Doctors’ Day: “Treating the most vulnerable in the most critical situations”

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“He would come home drunk, beat me, pee on my face and threaten to abuse me in worse…
  • Patient Stories
  • February 21, 2018
Bangladesh: Forced from home
More than 688,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Cox's Bazar, a district in southeast Bangladesh, since late August 2017, after fleeing violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar. They joined several other thousands who had made the same journey in previous crises. The refugees – from a minority Muslim…
Bangladesh: Forced from home
  • Patient Stories
  • December 27, 2017
“He would come home drunk, beat me, pee on my face and threaten to abuse me in worse ways.”
A thin framed Kamla looked around through her meek sunken eyes, unsure whether she was at the right place, wondering whether she should share her experience or not. This was the first time she was visiting MSF’s Umeed ki Kiran clinic on the recommendation of our health educator. It was the friendly…
“He would come home drunk, beat me, pee on my face and threaten to abuse me in worse ways.”
  • Patient Stories
  • July 08, 2017
Mosul, Iraq: “I buried them in the garden”
Covered in dust, four-year-old Ahmed* sits on his father`s lap outside the MSF hospital in west Mosul. The boy devours a biscuit that’s just been handed to him, covering his face in chocolate. For the moment, Ahmed seems distracted from the horrors he`s survived, including the death of his two…
  • Patient Stories
  • April 20, 2017
Nigeria: Testimonies of forced return
Nigerian refugees in Cameroon are being forcibly returned to northeast Nigeria. In March 2017, three of them told MSF staff their stories.   Mayara*, 35 years old, 16 March 2017 I am originally from a village, not too far from here, but fled to Kolofata in Cameroon more than one year ago…
Photo: Malik Samuel/MSF
  • Patient Stories
  • April 04, 2017
Syria: “I watched my son dying in my arms”
As fighting intensifies to control the city of Raqqa, the city’s residents are once again caught in the middle. During six years of war, they have suffered bombing, fighting, persecution and public beheadings. Thousands have risked their lives to cross checkpoints and minefields to reach safer…
MSF staff entering the Meshta Nour hospital, Kobane, Syria. Photo: Jamal Bali/MSF
  • Patient Stories
  • March 24, 2017
Tuberculosis: Actions speak louder than words
Swaziland has the highest rate of new cases of tuberculosis in the world. Multidrug-resistant forms of the disease are on the increase.  For many DR-TB patients like Winile, treatment is a long and gruelling two-year journey involving between 15 to 25 toxic tablets every day and daily…
Winile, 39, XDR-TB patient & HIV-positive, received a sign language qualification. She became deaf due to the side effects of the treatment. Matsapha clinic, Manzini Region, Swaziland. Photo: Alexis Huguet/MSF

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  • Staff Stories
  • September 17, 2018
DRC: "With the new Ebola outbreak, we knew we had to act fast"
An experienced nurse, Patient Muhindo Kamavu was one of four experienced MSF nurses who were the first on the ground alongside the Ministry of Health to respond to the Ebola outbreak declared on 1 August in Mangina, Nord Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo. A veteran of both Ebola outbreaks this…
DRC: "With the new Ebola outbreak, we knew we had to act fast"
  • Staff Stories
  • July 11, 2018
DRC: “Congolese health staff have shown an amazing commitment to fight Ebola”
Miriam Alia, an MSF vaccination expert, has just returned from Equateur province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Miriam worked as a medical referent in the area of Itipo, the epicentre of the recent outbreak. She explains how MSF took part in the ring vaccination against the disease and…
DRC: “Congolese health staff have shown an amazing commitment to fight Ebola”
  • Staff Stories
  • July 04, 2018
National Doctors’ Day: “Treating the most vulnerable in the most critical situations”
1 July is observed in India as National Doctors’ Day. To mark the occasion we asked three MSFers how they became doctors, and what it means to be a doctor without borders.     Shazeer Majeed  As a kid, I grew up listening to people say I had to be a doctor like my father. I joined M.B.B.S. just…
National Doctors’ Day: “Treating the most vulnerable in the most critical situations”
  • Staff Stories
  • June 08, 2018
Democratic Republic of Congo: Fighting Ebola on the ground, a race against time
Paul Jawor, an MSF water and sanitation expert, has just returned from Equateur province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Paul was working in and around the remote village of Iboko, where cases of Ebola have been confirmed. He explains the challenges MSF teams are facing on the frontline…
Democratic Republic of Congo: Fighting Ebola on the ground, a race against time
  • Staff Stories
  • May 07, 2018
Fighting a forgotten disease in Bangladesh
Kashmir-based medical doctor Samreen Hussain recently returned from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, where she worked as part of a Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) team providing medical care to Rohingya refugees from Myanmar. In this piece, she describes the challenges posed by the…
Diptheria: Fighting a forgotten disease in Bangladesh
  • Staff Stories
  • April 28, 2018
Jharkhand: “I was a teenage mother with the same story”
In Jharkhand, an Indian state known for its diverse tribal communities, the number of people that are malnourished is persistently higher than the national average. Since June 2017, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been treating severe acute malnutrition in the town of…
A mother looks on as her child is measured with a MUAC tape for symptoms of malnutrition at Pusalota health centre.

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