Al Tuam, Gaza Strip – Jan 21 2009
Inhabitants are slowly coming back to their heavily damaged or totally destroyed homes.

Al Tuam, bande de Gaza – 21 janvier 2009
La population retourne lentement dans leurs foyers durement touchés ou totalement détruits.

Quibdo, Colombia – November 2004
Quibdo, situated in the province of Choco in Colombia, borders both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans and is a junction for drug transports from South America. Most of the inhabitants are displaced persons trying to escape the violence in the countryside. MSF is working to improve health care in the areas by increasing the quality of care for the population in Quibdo.

Quibdo est une ville colombienne, située dans la province de Choco, au bord des Océans Pacifique et Atlantique. Elle est un véritable carrefour pour le transport des drogues en Amérique du Sud. La plupart des habitants de Quibdo, des personnes déplacées, tentent de sortir de la violence qui règne dans les campagnes. MSF travaille à l’amélioration de la qualité de soins dans cette partie de la Colombie.

Galgadud, Somalia – May 2006
The one-day old chief lies in his bed at the MSF hospital in Guri El, Galgadud region, in southwestern Somalia. The country has been without a functional government, heathcare, and schools since 1991. There is a high level of violence in the area with regular clashes between different clans.

Yerevan, Armenia – April 2008
Jacob B., 71, lives with his three children in Malatia; a neighborhood in Yerevan. His wife died three years ago. Ever since her death, things have gone worse for Jacob. Apart from being diabetic, he also suffers from multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB).

Since September 2005, MSF has been providing treatment to patients with this type of TB. Before that, there was no treatment for these types of resistant strains in Armenia due to the complexity of the therapy involved. The treatment lasts at least two years, including several months in a hospital.

Somali Region, Ethiopia – March 2006

This image from 2006 shows southeastern Ethiopia where cattle have over-grazed the soil. Human wood-gathering for domestic fuel use further eroded land and desertified the area. Subsequently, cattle died in a devastating drought and their carcasses littered the land. Cattle are the only source of income for these local herdsmen.

Farchana, Chad – June 2004
A newborn baby is brought to the MSF medical center for examination. Today, more than 200,000 refugees from Darfur, Sudan, are living in refugee camps in eastern Chad. MSF has been in Chad since 1981, and has been helping refugees in eastern Chad since the current Darfur refugee crisis started in 2003.

Kashmir, Shanglipola, India – August 2005.
During the last decade, the population of Indian Kashmir has been witness to and victim of violence. The impacts on physical- and mental-health, and socio-economic functioning is alarming, leading to anxiety, fear, exhaustion and suicidal thoughts. As a result, MSF teams offer psycho-social healthcare.

Kibati Camp, Goma, DRC – November 26, 2008
A Congolese woman, displaced by recent fighting, cooks at the Kibati camp in Goma, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Civilians on both sides of the front lines are being killed, raped or abducted by both Tutsi rebels and government troops, despite a lull in fighting.

Busia District, Kenya – 2007
Busia is situated on the Kenyan border with Uganda, where MSF runs an HIV/AIDS treatment project in the main district hospital and nine rural health centres. In addition to the clinical services within these facilities, the project provides a system of home-based care which involves over 140 volunteer community health workers, and runs a comprehensive information and education programme in cooperation with local community groups, schools, and transport and sex workers. It is estimated that over 10,000 people from the district are in urgent need of treatment. The project began providing anti-retroviral therapy (ART) in July 2003 by treating 1,850 patients; 140 of them being children.

Hlaing Thar Yar, Myanmar (Burma) – 2006
This region was populated in the 1980s, after poor people were expelled from the downtown of the capital city of Yangon. This area used to be rice fields and swamps and remains constantly wet – even more so in the rainy season.

MSF has worked in Myanmar (Burma) since 1992. Provisions for healthcare are inadequate, with 80 per cent of people living in malaria risk areas and thousands going without treatment for conditions such as tuberculosis (TB) and HIV/AIDS.

Nasir, Sudan – April 2008
A girl in the tukul she shares with her brother, who is a teacher at the local school.

Kalikot, Nepal – March 2008
Ranjana (6) and her father (60). Ranjana was playing outside close to a place people were burning waste. Her skirt caught fire and Ranjana burned her back. The village where Ranjana lives is seven hours walking distance away; her mother, Belspura Yogi, carried her to the hospital in a bamboo basket.

At the moment this picture is taken she has been there for seven days – her bandages are changed daily. In the first days, the little girl was constantly crying quietly but after a while her father took her outside and she stopped crying.

Huddur, Somalia – 2006
A water catchment in Huddur, southwestern Somalia. The country has been without any government, health care facilities, or schools since 1991. There is a high level of violence in the area, with regular clashes between different clans. The water catchment in Huddur is heavily polluted by animals and by people washing clothes. Still, the children are swimming in the water and the villages are using it for drinking water.

A young boy’s feet in the rain in Sangwe, Katanga province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Two babies with severe malaria in Gerihun clinic, Sierra Leone. They are waiting to to be taken by ambulance to Gondama Hospital near Bo. Malaria is endemic in Sierra Leone and is the number one killer, with children under five and pregnant women the most vulnerable.

In the Gondama Referral Centre, children under five represent 75 percent of the total admissions, 92 percent of these children are there because of malaria or related complications. Every month an average of 7,000 confirmed cases are treated with an increase up to 10,000 during the peak malaria season.

Zawadi, 18, was pregnant and about to give birth when fighting in her region broke out and she had to hide in the forest.  On the evening of November 25, 2008, her labour began and she took the roads to find a functioning health facility in which to deliver her baby.  It was midnight when she finally arrived at Rutshuru Hospital – too late for her child, who died. Zawadi’s life was in danger as well, but after being treated by the MSF emergency teams, she recovered in bed.

Every month, thousands of Zimbabweans escaping dire situations and in search of a better life, cross illegally into South Africa by swimming across the Limpopo river and climbing fences near Beitbridge. Their intention is to find a job in Johannesburg in order to sustain their families facing desperate economic situations in a deteriorating Zimbabwe.

Evelyne Frauman arrived a week ago in Western Kasai, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). She is responsible for water and sanitation during the current Ebola emergency.

Ebola is a highly contagious and deadly viral disease, transmitted between people through contact with body fluids (blood, vomit, diarrhea). Health staff and family members are at serious risk of contracting the disease due to their proximity to patients. As a result, it is very important they wear protective gear: donning a special suit, double-layered gloves, goggles and a hood are part of a daily dressing ritual, which you can read about in Evelyne’s “Ebola Blog”.

In the last 10 days, medical staff at Al Shifa Hospital have performed more than 300 surgeries.

Cyclone Nargis survivors in a temple turned into a makeshift refugee center in the town of Labutta, Irrawaddy Division, Myanmar (Burma). Despairing survivors await emergency relief, a week after 120,000+ people were feared killed as Cyclone Nargis roared across the farms and villages of the low-lying Irrawaddy delta region. The storm was the most devastating one to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people were killed in neighboring Bangladesh.