access to healthcare

"It's like working with your eyes closed": Delivering babies in Yemen's civil war

Years of brutal civil war have pushed Yemen's healthcare system to collapse. From a maternity ward in the battle-scarred city of Abs, MSF midwife Tamara takes us through the challenges of welcoming new life into this unstable world.

08 Feb 2021 / 4 minute read

Albert Viñas

Emergency Coordinator

Ethiopia: "If hospitals can't be accessed, then people die at home"

Hundreds of thousands of people have fled violence in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Getting access for our emergency teams has been challenging, but Albert Viñas has just got back. He shares what he found...

29 Jan 2021 / 7 minute read

Steve Hide

Project manager

Guns, cocaine and conflict: Getting healthcare to communities in rural Colombia

In the remote communities of Colombia's Pacific coast, the peace process has made few inroads. MSF's programme director in the country joins a medical team as they travel upriver to communities still in the grip of armed conflict.

18 Dec 2020 / 13 minute read

Avra Fialas

Communications

The surprise of meeting Mandro

A story about a forgotten disease and forgotten people, living through a forgotten conflict

28 Jul 2020 / 7 minute read

Maura Emelina Lainez Vaquiz

Doctor

The power we have over our bodies: How COVID-19 is affecting family planning in Honduras

For women and girls living in the city of Choloma, widespread violence and poverty mean that access to family planning services is absolutely critical. However, COVID-19 restrictions have closed clinics and cut off vulnerable patients. MSF doctor Maura shares this powerful and passionate report.

20 Jul 2020 / 7 minute read

Vera Schmitz

Nurse

Fighting an epidemic in a pandemic

Paediatric nurse Vera Schmitz is in DRC, where an MSF team are striving to vaccinate children against a deadly measles epidemic in the shadow of COVID-19

05 Jun 2020 / 7 minute read

MSF staff registering patients ready for consultations in the village of Kuemdoum

Stephen Bitrus

Nurse

Learning to count in Nuer: Teaching basic healthcare in remote South Sudan

In depths of the Sudd - a vast South Sudanese swampland - access to healthcare can be extremely limited. Nigerian nurse Stephen shares his story of reaching cut-off communities with a grassroots approach to saving lives.

27 Mar 2020 / 6 minute read

Neglected people will be the worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic

Jonathan Whittall

Advisor

COVID-19: What the coronavirus pandemic can teach us about universal healthcare

As COVID-19 spreads to countries around the world, people everywhere are taking steps to protect themselves and their families. But for some, this isn't an option. MSF Director of Analysis Jonathan highlights the health inequalities exposed by the global pandemic and the lessons we must take away from it.

20 Mar 2020 / 4 minute read

Vathy refugee camp on Samos was built for 650 people but currently hosts about 8,000

Valeska Cordier

Communications

Greek refugee crisis: "How could this ever become normality?"

The horrific conditions in refugee camps on the Greek islands have made headlines around the world. But, nothing can prepare MSF communications specialist Valeska for what she finds when she visits two camps on Samos and Lesvos...

11 Mar 2020 / 8 minute read

“I cannot even look our patients in the eyes anymore”

Having fled conflict and instability, thousands of asylum seekers are now detained in dangerous conditions at Moria camp on the Greek island of Lesbos. Communications specialist Anna meets three mothers, trapped in Moria and struggling to care for children with chronic health conditions.

27 Feb 2020 / 8 minute read

TB in Ukraine: How we’re empowering patients with “self-administered therapy”

Patient support advisor Olga explains how a new approach is helping tuberculosis patients cope with a difficult drug treatment

24 Feb 2020 / 3 minute read

A surgical intervention underway at L'Arche de Kigobe trauma centre in Bujumbura, Burundi

Kariantti Kallio

Anaesthetics

Machete wounds and other injuries at an MSF trauma centre

At the L'Arche de Kigobe trauma centre in Burundi, anaesthetist Kariantti is called into emergency surgery after an influx of patients with violent trauma injuries. He also shares some good news about two young burns patients...

17 Feb 2020 / 3 minute read

access to healthcare

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