Statements & Opinion

Taking care of your mental health is just as important as keeping your physical health in check. It requires careful attention and action. This is becoming increasingly difficult today, with the additional pressure of adjusting to the uncertainties brought on by the coronavirus pandemic. 

As the global coronavirus pandemic reshapes lives around the world, the health needs of children in low income settings continue to overwhelm already stretched health systems. The impact of COVID-19 on children is twofold: the direct effects of the disease itself, and the indirect consequences. 

The protests against police brutality towards black people in the United States keep on reverberating around the world and shining a light on the deadly impact of racism globally, including in Australia and New Zealand.  

So, let us start off this editorial by writing the most important three words you will read here—black lives matter. Full stop. They matter in South Sudan, South Africa, they matter in Australia, they matter in the USA. This is a fact without borders. 

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) promotes a working environment free of harassment and abuse. Our leadership has unequivocally committed to reinforce mechanisms and procedures to prevent and address abuse and harassment. All staff are expected to abide by the MSF movement’s Behavioural Commitments and our guiding principles as stipulated in our Charter.

The recent protests against police brutality towards black people in the United States have reverberated around the world and shone a light on the deadly impact of racism globally, including in Australia and New Zealand.

Earlier this week MSF has decided to end activities and withdraw from Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul, Afghanistan, following the brutal May 12 attack in which 16 women were systematically shot dead in the maternity ward. Among those killed were 15 mothers and an MSF midwife, Maryam Noorzad. The attackers also killed two young children and six other people present at the time of the attack.

As we adjust to differences in our lives that have been brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, many of us may be feeling anxious or losing sleep. The uncertainties that this pandemic has brought can be stressful, and it’s important to look after our mental health to make sure we are equipped to deal with the changes to our lives.

Raimund, a Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) psychologist, offers some simple tips for how to improve your mental health and cope with increased stress during the pandemic.

So what exactly is PPE, and what do we all need to know about how it should be used, and the impact of shortages? 

A consortium of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and academic institutes that advocate for universal access to sexual and reproductive health services are calling on the Australian Government to prioritise the needs of women and girls in Australia’s global response to COVID-19 in order to mitigate the detrimental effects the pandemic is having on their sexual and reproductive health and rights.  

The number of deaths occurring in the COVID-19 treatment centre that Médecins sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) runs in Aden, Yemen, speaks to a wider catastrophe unfolding in the city and the UN and donor states need to do more urgently to help the response.