Stories From Patients & Staff

In a society where epilepsy is feared in many ways, Médecins Sans Frontières psychosocial worker S Wonka Reeder Senior is a passionate advocate for a holistic treatment approach that helps young people stay in school in Monrovia, Liberia. 

When Mary*, a 15-year-old school student in Monrovia, Liberia, started having epileptic seizures last year, it was frightening and confusing for her and everyone around her. The Médecins Sans Frontières-supported epilepsy treatment program at Star of the Sea Health Centre has helped her family and community understand the condition so that Mary can draw on their support to stay in school. 

Akeela, an Outreach Counsellor with MSF since 2020, lived in the village of Mir Gul Hassan Manju Shori Barun Naseerabad which is around 5 kilometres from Dera Murad Jamali (DMJ) in Balochistan, one of the areas hardest hit by monsoon rains and extreme flooding that left one third of Pakistan underwater. After losing her home, she is now responding to the emergency on the front line.

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.

Agy Agy, 28, is a logistics supervisor with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique.

Over the past 10 years, successive governments have reduced Australia’s aid budget, decreased its refugee intake, and failed to provided a solution for hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers held in limbo.

As Australia prepares to go to the polls, Médecins Sans Frontières Australia's Executive Director Jennifer Tierney discusses the need for ethical and humane refugee policies—and the political will needed to secure them. 

Working in the Central Mediterranean since 2015, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) teams continue to bear witness to an unacceptable and preventable loss of life on Europe’s borders. 

Australian communications manager Eloise Liddy and Belgian psychologist Hager Saadallah both recently worked on board our search and rescue ship, Geo Barents. 

Nurse Jacob Coleman, from Brisbane, was recently working with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as part of a team responding to COVID-19 in Mosul, Iraq. He shares his experience working in the intensive care unit (ICU), advice for other nurses, and his belief in equal access to healthcare for all people. 

Sasha, a long-time staff member of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from Mariupol, Ukraine, describes life in the city as it was encircled and bombarded by Russian forces. For security reasons, he is using only his first name.