Stories From Patients & Staff

Myanmar is facing an acute humanitarian crisis since fighting escalated at the end of October 2023. The intensification of conflict has led to a lack of humanitarian access, a decimation of the healthcare system, and increasing fear of military conscription.

A new wave of fighting has gripped Myanmar over the past two months. Severe movement restrictions are preventing mobile clinics from running.

June to October is rainy season in Myanmar, the heavy and frequent rainstorms impact daily humanitarian activities, such as delivery of mobile clinics to refugee camps.  

Once, in villages within Rakhine State in western Myanmar, the Rohingya community lived, raising families and pursuing livelihoods. However, that existence was shattered on 25 August 2017, when a wave of targeted violence and persecution forced the Rohingya to flee their homes. 

What does it take to be selected for an international assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières? 

The Rohingya people are considered “stateless” under international law. But what does the term actually mean?

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) humanitarian affairs coordinator Gina Bark explains the concept of statelessness and what that means to an individual.

Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) spoke with five Rohingya people living in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, to understand how they see their lives five years since being forcibly displaced from Myanmar.

Representing the ages five, 15, 25, 45 and 65, together they span three generations of Rohingya living in the camps.  They are all current or former patients of MSF.

August 2021 marks four years since the 2017 campaign of targeted violence by the Myanmar military waged against the Rohingya in Rakhine State. The stateless Rohingya people have been subjected to discrimination and denied basic rights and adequate access to services, including healthcare. Approximately 900,000 refugees are now living in Bangladesh.