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BelgiumEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Gaël Turine Brussels – November18, 2009 A kosovar family eats lunch at the soup kitchen organised by CIRÉ and Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen at the Saint-Roch church in Brussels. At this moment, more than 1,000 asylum seekers have nowhere to go and survive in the streets, with winter rapidly approaching. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 19, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 11. November 2009 asylum seeker Belgium Brussels family refugees Source Type: blogs

Mission to Mwenga: Day 2Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The term “sans frontières” took on its full meaning today, when our two MSF cars were the first to reach the town of Kitutu in many years. By chance, the temporary bridge in Kibe was completed by the Chinese workers just as we arrived in town. Instead of swapping our cars for motorbikes as we were [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 16, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

SudanEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Erik Refner 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. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 16, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 11. November 2009 children conflict Darfur running shadow street scene Sudan Source Type: blogs

The Face of CongoEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I will never forget her. I knew she was coming to the hospital today. When I was told that she had arrived, it crossed my mind that I should isolate her somewhere tranquil, away from the thronging crowd of patients. I am ashamed that I decided not to, since there were only six paediatric malnutrition patients [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 16, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

SudanEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Sebastiao Salgado / Amazonas Kassala, Sudan – 1985 A biblical looking scene, a mother with her children in search of food and shelter in the camp of Wad Sherifad, near the town of Kassala, which contained over 70.000 refugees at the time. In total, some 600,000 Ethiopians fleeing drought, famine and fighting in their country had found refuge in Sudan. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 13, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 11. November 2009 drought family kassala mother and child refugee Sudan Source Type: blogs

Mission to Mwenga: Day 1Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Today we set off for a one week evaluation to Kitutu, in Mwenga district, a place where MSF has never visited before. The aim of the assessment is to have a better understanding of the impact of the recent violence on the local population, and in particular the health needs. Since early this year, a military [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 10, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

CongoEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Michael Goldfarb Mweso, North Kivu – October 20, 2009 A woman carries a load of firewood with her child balanced on top as she walks along a dirt road in the village of Mweso in North Kivu Province. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 10, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 11. November 2009 baby conflict congo firewood kivu landscape North Kivu woman Source Type: blogs

Buckets of RainEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The pathologies are starting to weigh a little heavily on my heart. This week I discovered that the 15 year old girl with the massive necrotising ano-rectal cancer that, to me, had come to represent the suffering of the Congo, died whilst I was on holiday. I know that 15 year olds even in the western [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 9, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

IngushetiaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Eddy Van Wessel 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. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 9, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: Uncategorized camp chechnya children conflict ingushetia landscape Source Type: blogs

Post-Holiday BluesEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Am suffering a bout of post-holiday blues and re-culture shock that’s worse than the initial culture shock in March. In fact, had reverse culture shock on the plane over to holiday when I burst into tears at the sight of a boy with blond highlights (not because they were the horrific, bad taste, bleach blond [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 6, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

MSF vaccination used as bait in unacceptable attack on civiliansEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Kinshasa, 6th November 2009 – Seven Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) vaccination sites, where thousands of civilians had gathered, came under fire during attacks by the Congolese army against the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). MSF denounces this clearly unacceptable abuse of humanitarian aid for military [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 6, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

CongoEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Robin Meldrum Nyanzale, North Kivu – September 15, 2009 In Kikuku IDP camp near Nyanzale. Three days before this photo, the camp had been scene of a 4-hour gun battle at night. All the inhabitants of the camp fled down into the valley and, when they returned the next day, many found the few possessions they had brought with them to the camp had been looted. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 6, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 11. November 2009 camp conflict landscape shelter Source Type: blogs

Good-bye dear MaitikoulouEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Dear Maitikoulou, It is good to have been with you. After 4 months serving with MSF in your small village, I leave with a deep sense of satisfaction. There were sure tough times. I fell sick a lot which is unlike me. The isolation was challenging to cope with as well – I live in Toronto [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 5, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

EthiopiaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Eymeric Laurent-Gascoin Koysha Shewkare – July 2008 Koysha Shewkare, in the area of Wolayita (SNNP region), Kindo Didaye district. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 2, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 11. November 2009 Ethiopia goat landscape rain Source Type: blogs

Ready for a vacationEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Let me tell you about my day. Woke up at 5am. Lay in bed thinking about everything I had to do. Got out of bed at 5.30am, took a shower in our horrid bathroom that leaves me feeling dirtier after I’ve showered than before. By 6am am sat at the desk on the porch outside the [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - November 2, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

A girl who couldn’t breathe and two starving boysEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
As I am about to complete my mission this weekend and this blog, I thought I would finish where it always should start and end – the situation and struggle of our patients. Three seriously ill patients in the in-patient service here in Maitikoulou are Abasse, Angela and Ramana. Let me tell you about the struggle [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 30, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

Hortence and her 17 pieces of nifurtimoxEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Here in CAR the mission is now without nifurtimox. As I wrote about before, it is one of the key medications to treat sleeping sickness. We need this essential medication for this neglected disease. Hortence, a 10 year old girl, with the severe cerebral form of the disease needed just 1 ½ pills, twice, in order [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 29, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

Mpati Vaccination CampaignEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
This week’s highlight was the Mpati vaccination campaign. Mpati is a new camp for displaced people that has sprung up in the mountains. On Wednesday we were up at 5.30am, two hour journey there by jeep on mud roads, vaccinated 1,064 children against measles (big killer in Africa, especially in refugee camps) and gave them [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 29, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

PakistanEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Jodi Bieber North West Frontier Province – September 19, 2009 An infant dozes on a stretcher in a fan-cooled tent at the MSF run cholera treatment centre at the Mardan Medical Complex, in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, while older women peer into structure housing 12 of 65 beds. Between June and October 2009, MSF treated a total of 1 611 patients at the centre and about a third of the patients had to be put on intravenous rehydration immediately to save them. Young children remain most at risk of the diseases that is endemic to the region. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 28, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 10. October baby cholera medical facility pakistan Source Type: blogs

Hortence needs 1 tablet of nifurtimoxEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
A complicated story which I can best tell from the simple perspective of taking care of the patients is the need for MSF to obtain the right drugs in the right quantities at the right time. It is an important struggle being waged by many in MSF at levels far beyond this little village. One of [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 27, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

Lazy SundaysEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Am sat in the garden in my favourite spot in Mwseo, basking in the sunshine, and listening to the singing from the church across the road. It’s Sunday, almost midday. I’m going to try and describe my setting to you. The compound we live/work in is about 30 metres square, with two buildings. The front building [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 26, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

KenyaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Spencer Platt Dadaab, Kenya – August 22, 2009 A boy stands beside scavenging birds feeding of carcasses at a slaughter house in Dadaab, the world’s biggest refugee complex, on the border with Somalia. An estimated 5,000 people arrive monthly to the camps, which are operated by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). The camps have been in operation for since 1991 and are currently home to some 289,500 inhabitants. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 26, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: Uncategorized birds boy camp Kenya landscape refugees Somalia Source Type: blogs

An end in sightEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The end of my mission is soon at hand. One week to go. I will not miss the horrible smell of plastic and medical waste burning just beside our office. I will not miss the piercing daily sound of children crying as they receive their sleeping sickness medications. I will not miss the never-ending, relentless [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 24, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

MyanmarEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Anonymous Myanmar – November 2008 A woman and her child take some rest in the MSF clinic. MSF staff assists thousands of HIV patients: Services include counseling, testing, treatment of opportunistic infections, nutritional support, mother to child prevention, health education and most importantly antiretroviral treatment. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 22, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 10. October child HIV/AIDS medical facility mother sleeping Source Type: blogs

Last DaysEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Every 6 weeks the team in Tari get a weekend rest, so the project coordinator, the new logistician and the surgeon left me in charge for my last few days. Saturdays are always nice because we start at 9am, which permits an extra hour in bed. Because there is construction going on at the house, this extra hour in bed tends to be too noisy to sleep, but I had given the construction workers the weekend off too, so Saturday started nicely. The morning was not too busy and I decided to take the chance to do some “community relations” so I had a smoke with the hospital security guards outside the hospital g...
Source: MSF Blogs - October 21, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: chrish Tags: 10. October 2009 - The End Source Type: blogs

CongoEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Moises Saman Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo – September 2009 A dirt road leading to the Bulange IDP camp housing over 10,000 displaced people outside of Goma, North Kivu, DRC. According to the UN, more than 800,000 people have been displaced in North and South Kivu provinces as a result of military operations against the Rwandan rebel group Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) and local militia allies since January 2009. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 21, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 10. October conflict Democratic Republic of Congo displacement goma landscape North Kivu road Source Type: blogs

SomaliaEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Javier Roldan Jamaame hospital, southern Somalia – July 2009 The hospital was opened in March 2007. A 55 beds hospital, located nearly 30 kms North of Kismayo. Activities include Nutrition, maternity, general medicine and emergency care. In 2009, there was an average of 4 000 consultations and 140 admissions per month. In terms of nutrition an average of 260 kids have been treated every month in ambulatory while 90 more sever cases had to be admitted every month. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 20, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 10. October conflict hand hospital Somalia Source Type: blogs

CongoEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Michael Goldfarb Muheto, North Kivu – October 2009 A twelve-month-old boy weighing just five kilograms cries during an examination at an MSF feeding center in Muheto, North Kivu, DRC, October 15, 2009. The severely malnourished child, born in an IDP camp, returned to his home viallge with his mother only last week. She had been unable to feed him properly during their displacement. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 16, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 10. October camp conflict Democratic Republic of Congo displacement malnutrition Source Type: blogs

“Every time we talked among ourselves, they hit us with a machete.”Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Michel’s* story (13 years old) It must have been about midnight. Michel was sleeping soundly at home alongside his little brothers and his older sister. Four men came – they were armed but dressed as civilians. They tied Michel’s and his sister’s hands together and took them into the bush. “We found ourselves with around 20 other [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 14, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

Violence expands in Northern Congo, population in urgent need of assistanceEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Kinshasa, 14 October 2009 – One year after violence erupted in Haut-Uélé district, in northern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), attacks and clashes have now expanded to new areas, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee. Humanitarian organisations have failed to meet the massive needs that have resulted and an urgent response with greater [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 14, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

“I thought I’d never see you again. Is it really you?”Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
The story of Louis*, 54 years old, and his son Antoine, 16 years old Louis weeps on inspecting the frail body of Antoine, his 16-year-old son, who has just been through four months of captivity at the hands of armed men. “My child. Thank God. It’s so good to see you. Thank God.” Antoine’s abduction and Louis’ [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 14, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

PakistanEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Eymeric Laurent-Gascoin North West Frontier Province of Pakistan – May 2009 Patients in the waiting area of the Basic Health Unit, Peshawar district. MSF has been supporting basic health units and carrying out mobile clinics in areas where there is a high concentration of displaced people. Out patient clinics have also been set up in camps. In June, an average of 3000 primary health care and ante natal consultations were carried out each week in all MSF projects for the displaced in the region. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 14, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 10. October conflict displacement medical facility pakistan patient portrait Source Type: blogs

“I try not to think about it all anymore”Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Story of Pierrette*, 15 years old Pierrette does not know her exact age, but she shyly suggests “around 15”. She was kidnapped by armed men, and held captive for two months. She became what is known as a “forced wife,” given to a man to spend nights with him… “Two and a half months ago, I’d [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 14, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

Remarko comes to the HAT campEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
I am now in the 4th and last month of my mission in Maitikoulou. Certain truths have unfolded. The MSF Land Cruiser side-door mirrors are the best to shave with. There is little point in trying to sleep once the sun starts to rise around 5:30 AM, unless you go to bed too late. I’m [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 13, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs

DR CongoEmail this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Photo: Julie Rémy Niangara, Oriental Province, DR Congo – September 2009 Centre of Africa monument in Niangara facing the ruins of the ancient Niangara tribunal of first instance for Bas and Haut-Uélé. Which was feared and nicknamed Niangara ‘cata’ during the Belgian colonisation. (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 13, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Authors: brunodc Tags: 10. October africa conflict congo Democratic Republic of Congo landscape monument niangara Source Type: blogs

Four emergency transfers and five lives (Part Two)Email this article to a colleague. Save this article to My Clippings. Discuss or comment on this article.
Correction: in blog 19 I described 4 emergency transfers with five lives at stake. Sadly, I learned today that one of these patients died yesterday on October 11. And thus, three out of our five patients who were emergently transferred in the last week lived. Two patients died – one a newborn and the second [...] (Source: MSF Blogs)
Source: MSF Blogs - October 12, 2009 Category: Global & Universal Source Type: blogs