Stories & News

Rachel Coyle, who works as the midwife supervisor at Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)'s Mother and Child Hospital (MCH) in Taiz Houban, southern Yemen, shares her experience in delivering twins while reflecting on the persistent challenges of Yemeni pregnant women and mothers as they strive to access essential maternal healthcare services.

Peter Clausen completed an electrical apprenticeship after school, he then went on to study journalism and work for the ABC in North Queensland, before completing a Masters in Disaster Management. He is an experienced MSF project coordinator and progressed to head of mission over his eight assignments. He first worked in Yemen in 2013, followed by projects in Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Afghanistan, Iran, Tanzania, and most recently Ukraine in 2022 and again in 2023. 

Over the past three years, there has been a substantial increase in the number of children admitted to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) hospitals in Yemen for measles. In the first half of 2023, the number of measles patients received in MSF-supported facilities has nearly tripled, at almost 4,000, compared to the whole of 2022.

Jessie Watson, a finance and HR manager from New Zealand, has worked on four assignments with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in South Sudan, Bangladesh, Yemen, and Ukraine. When not on assignment she lives in Dipton, Southland, working remotely. She spoke to us about her time on assignment with MSF. 

In the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) Trauma Centre in Aden, Yemen, nurse Anis AbdRaboh Dayan has been witness to the brutal toll of gun violence and civil war on adults and children.

‘These children don’t know anything different’: Meet the Geraldton woman running a hospital in war-torn Yemen.

In 2022, MSF teams around the world continued to respond to crises, old and new. While COVID-19 was not the emergency it was in previous years, new challenges arose. The war in Ukraine escalated in February; the political, humanitarian and economic crises in Haiti deteriorated severely; cholera emerged on an exceptional scale in several countries. 

Rising childhood malnutrition in Yemen is causing preventable deaths, especially of children under the age of five. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has been responding to seasonal and annual peaks across the country, in Hajjah, Al-Hudaydah, Saada, and Amran governorates.

Conflict in Yemen has been ongoing for more than six years. Marib, located in northeast on the edge of large deserts, is one of the active frontlines. The oil and gas rich area is located at a crossroads between the southern and northern regions, and is considered a key strategic location to control for the warring parties.