Liben Region – December 2011
After they have been to the reception centre, refugees coming from Somalia are moved to a transit camp where they are supposed to stay for a week. Approximately 8000 people are now living in transit camps and the majority has been there for over 2 months, the poor living condition attributes to the deteriorating health status of these refugees. In the only health centre in the camp MSF provides primary health care, psycho social care, runs a nutrition program, and an out Patient Department.

A child has the circumference of his upper arm measured with a MUAC band by MSF health staff, at a health post in Dagahaley refugee camp, Dadaab, Kenya.
The Dadaab refugee camp complex in northeastern Kenya consists of three camps: Ifo, Hagadera and Dagahaley. It constitutes the largest refugee camp in the world with more than 370,000 inhabitants, and it is beyond full. But, thousands of Somali refugees continue to arrive every day, fleeing the violent conflict in their home country and the devastating effects of the drought and lack of food. Between June 6 and July 6, approximately 40,000 people arrived in Dadaab in search of humanitarian assistance and safety.

Abyei Administrative Area, Sudan – January 15, 2011
Childern play and swim on the banks of the River Kiir in the town of Madin Acheun. The town has an increased population as Southern Sudanese families have returned to Madin Acheun in Abyei Administrative Area from North Sudan under the returnee program.

Lubumbashi – February 12, 2011
Children’s fingers are marked with purple ink after vaccination by MSF and MoH teams, Kitulizo school.
Over the past six months a measles epidemic has been sweeping through the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is raising the alarm and calling for concerted action to halt the spread of the disease. “The measles epidemic is spiralling out of control,” said Gaël Hankenne, MSF head of Mission in the DRC. “Since September 2010, we have vaccinated more than 1.5 million children in response to the crisis, but the disease is spreading like wildfire. All parties involved in health in the DRC must now make this epidemic a national priority.”

Victims of the flood in Pakistan. Two weeks after the first floods hit Pakistan, the situation remains extremely dire for millions of people.
In addition to the scale up of medical activities, MSF teams continue to focus on providing affected families with basic items and drinking water in order to help them attain a minimal standard of living conditions and prevent the spread of diseases.

Ingushetia. June 2010
Residents of the ORS IDP (internally discplaced population) settlement. The situation in the three republics of the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation remains volatile. MSF has been providing support to hospitals and through clinics and has been raising awareness of the mental health problems caused by the conflict.

Children returning from a water distribution around the villages near Charsadda, Pakistan.
In addition to the expansion of its medical activities, MSF’s priority is to provide clean water and improve hygienic conditions in order to prevent the spread of acute respiratory infections, diarrhoeal diseases, and skin infections. MSF teams are getting ready in case of a waterborne disease outbreak, such as cholera, however the situation is under control at this point.

A woman walks in the rain in North Kivu Province, Democratic Republic of Congo, October 15, 2009.
In the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, long-standing conflict has pushed farmers off their land, forced family to flee violance continually, and robbed children of the nutritious foods they need to grow up and develop.

Watch the new #STRVD film from Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders: “CONGO: The Malnutrition That Shouldn’t Be”

Vilanculos – August 2009
Children playing in the beach. 17.000 children die in one year due to AIDS. Access to treatment is on the rise, at the end of 2008, 9393 children were on ART treatment and 48,000 in care. But it is estimated that 81.000 mozambicans will die yearly due to AIDS, leaving 400.000 orphans.

Iridimi, Chad – September 2007
A girl hangs the washing on a tree to dry outside the Iridimi refugee camp. The area around the camp is deforested by the refugees. Women have to go far away from the camp to find fire wood. Thousands of Sudanese have been forced to flee their homes due to the escalating violence in the Darfur region and are now living in temporary refugee camps in eastern Chad.

Owachi, South Sudan – August 2010
Students in a school of Owachi, a village by the Nile River, in the Upper Nile State. A 15-year-old girl has a greater chance of dying in childbirth than of completing her education.

Kitgum district, November 2 2009
Children playing near the camp for displaced people in Madi Opei.

El Geneina, West Darfur – November 2004
A little girl is running though the streets of El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state in Sudan.

Ingushetia, October 2003
Children doing gymnastics in one of the settlements for internally displaced people (IDP) coming from Chechnya. Many of the IDPs in Ingushetia were housed in spontaneous settlements, or kompaktniki. Often sub-divided warehouse spaces, former factories or roughly fabricated plywood containers, the kompaktniki were in a pitiful condition.

Quibdo, Colombia – November 2004
11 year-old Lydia lives with her mother and three sisters and brothers in the shantytown Obrero in the outskirts of Quibdo. The father has left them. Their home is a shed of two times two meters. Lydia takes care of the children when their mother works as maid. None of the children own an identity card that entitles to health care.

Las Casitas, Honduras – June 2001
Marcelino, 10, and Lidia, 6, are infected with the parasite causing Chagas disease. They live with their parents in a small, straw-roofed mud hut, high on a hillside, a two and a half hours walk from the nearest health centre.
Chagas disease, a rare parasitic ailment transmitted by small bugs, is endemic in the mountainous regions of central Honduras.

Nyori refugee camp, South Sudan – June 2009
Children washing clothes and cooking pots in the creek at Nyori refugee camp. The drinking water in the camp comes from boreholes drilled by MSF and UNHCR.

Complexo do Alemao, Rio De Janeiro – June 2008
Children play soccer in the street in one of Rio de Janeiro’s most notorious favelas, Complexo do Alemao.

Port-au-Prince, Haiti – June 2007
In December 2006, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) opened a project in Martissant; a deprived slum of Port-au-Prince, where armed groups are fighting among themselves to control the zone. The MSF facility provides emergency care to the local population, were no other health facilities exist in the whole neighbourhood. Patients wounded by gunshots, by machete, victims of car accidents and general casualties are seen every day by MSF doctors and nurses. Since the beginning of the project MSF has visited more than 1,000 patients. Patients in need of a second level of care are transferred to other MSF facilities of the city: the trauma centre of La Trinité; the Obstetric Care Hospital of Solidarité and the St. Catherine Hospital located in Cité Soleil.

Masisi, IDP Camp – February 2009
A young boy gets his haircut in an IDP camp near Masisi, North Kivu province. Consistent fighting in DRC has displaced the majority of the population at one time or another.