Stories & News

Obstetrician-gynaecologist Jared Watts has completed three assignments with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), working in Nigeria, Syria and more recently Sierra Leone. He spoke to us about his experience and how the role of an obstetrician-gynaecologist varies compared to working in remote Western Australia.  

Pregnant women from refugee communities in Malaysia have limited access to adequate maternal healthcare services, such as antenatal and postnatal care, skilled birth attendants, emergency obstetric care, and family planning services, leading to a high rate of maternal mortality. 

Arunn Jegan is the advocacy coordinator at Médecins Sans Frontières Australia and has previously worked as a head of mission and emergency coordinator.

Arunn has been with MSF since 2016, having done nine field placements in Bangladesh, Yemen, Syria, Venezuela, South Sudan and Tajikistan. 

The overturning of the constitutional right to abortion in the US this week, enshrined since the Roe vs Wade ruling of 1973, has brought attention to the issue of access to safe abortion care worldwide and how this essential service needs safeguarding from political debate.

Nurses and midwives are the backbone of Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) multidisciplinary teams. They also fulfill diverse and critical roles in health promotion, patient education and community care. 

Throughout 2020, MSF is celebrating the efforts of nurses and midwives and highlighting their daily contributions in and alongside MSF projects.

Australian Hazel Singh worked on an assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Nairobi, Kenya, in 2019. She reflects on her role as a Human Resources Manager, helping staff in our projects to improve their skills, knowledge and experience.

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.

It has been one month since the attack on the maternity wing in Dasht-e-Barchi Hospital. Here, Melbourne-based Dr Katherine Franklin reflects on how the tragic event conflicts with memories of her time working in the project in 2016. 

In the days following the attack to Dasht-e-Barchi hospital in Kabul, it has become clear that what happened in Kabul on 12 May was a deliberate assault on a maternity hospital with the purpose of killing mothers in cold blood. MSF Head of Pogrammes in Afghanistan Frederic Bonnot was there on the scene and shares his harrowing story.