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
  • December 11, 2018
Yemen: “When you add it all up, you’re looking at a devastating situation for the people of Yemen…
Four years into the recent conflict, Robert Onus, MSF’s former head of mission in Yemen, describes its impact on people across the country.   How has the war affected people in Yemen?  “One can really see how, year on year, the effect of the war has decimated so much of Yemeni society. Public…
Yemen: “When you add it all up, you’re looking at a devastating situation for the people of Yemen”
  • Staff Stories
  • October 20, 2018
Yemen: “Some pregnant women and sick children arrive so late, we can’t save them”
Gisela Vallès is the medical team leader at the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospital in Abs, the capital of the district of the same name in northern Yemen. Increased fighting in the region in recent weeks is causing new waves of displacement. Gisela explains…
  • Staff Stories
  • October 11, 2018
DRC: “Ebola is about human beings and trust”
Hilde De Clerk is one of MSF’s most experienced Ebola doctors and has been managing outbreaks of Ebola and similar viruses for more than 10 years. Hilde has just returned from North Kivu, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where the latest outbreak of Ebola has proven hard to control.…
DRC: “Ebola is about human beings and trust”
  • 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"

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  • Patient Stories
  • March 08, 2018
Delhi: Bringing medical care to victims of sexual and domestic violence in one…
Shailja was three months pregnant when she first came to Umeed Ki Kiran, a community-based clinic run by Doctors Without Borders / Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in North West Delhi’s densely populated Jahangirpuri area. She looked anxious and confused. Like a lot of women from this area, she had…
  • 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
  • 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
  • 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"
  • 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

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How my first assignment with MSF changed me
 
Jharkhand: “I was a teenage mother with the same story”
 
Uttar Pradesh: "Hepatitis C is more than a disease"
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