Stories & News

Prue Coakley began working with MSF in 2010, after her master’s degree in international development ignited her interest in global health. She has completed 15 assignments with MSF, starting first in field admin which involved finance and HR responsibilities. After several assignments in this position, she trained in project coordination and progressed to project coordinator on a project in Chhattisgarh, India in 2013.

Dr Monica Costeira from Portugal is a paediatrician in MSF’s project in Mazar-i-Sharif in Balkh Province of Afghanistan. Following a four month assignment, she reports on the gaps in access to paediatric and neonatal healthcare for mothers in northern Afghanistan and describes the strength and resilience of families and children at the Mazar-i-Sharif Regional Hospital.

In August 2023, MSF launched medical services at Mazar-i-Sharif Regional Hospital in Balkh Province in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Health, aiming to reduce paediatric and neonatal mortality rates in the northern provinces.

Herat Province in western Afghanistan has been hit by three powerful earthquakes as well as innumerable aftershocks of varying strengths. Earthquake survivors share their stories.

Following on from the earthquake that hit Herat in western Afghanistan on Saturday, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) head of programme, Yahya Kalilah, shares an update on the current situation.

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. 

Ban will only worsen the already dire humanitarian crisis in the country.

After Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) condemned the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA)’s decision in a press release on 29 December 2022, some of the organisation’s female employees voiced their fears for the future and their frustration.

Kabul, 30 December, 2022 - After months of continuous restrictions placed on the female population of Afghanistan, limitations placed on their participation in everyday life, access to education, and most recently even the right to work for non-governmental organisations, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) strongly condemns the Islamic Emirate’s erasure of women from social life in the country.

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.