Stories From Patients & Staff

Amid the ongoing Israeli bombardment and incursions across southern Lebanon, countless families have been uprooted, many seeking refuge in the coastal city of Saida. 

Dr Graham Knottenbelt is an anaesthetist from Auckland (Tāmaki Makaurau) who specialises in paediatric anaesthesia. He has recently completed his third assignment, in South Sudan, which marked a welcome return to Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) after assignments in Sri Lanka and Democratic Republic of Congo in 2002-2003.

Dr Trudy Rosenwald, who has worked as a mental health activity manager with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in Bangladesh, explains the connection between physical and mental health.

Following the heavy airstrikes over the weekend and the past week, MSF teams in Lebanon have been working around the clock to support people in shelters with water trucking, psychologist first aid, and donations of non-food items in and around Beirut. Many shelters are now overwhelmed in what is being described as the largest wave of displacement in Lebanon’s history.

As the conflict in Sudan continues, a cholera outbreak is sweeping across several states of central and eastern Sudan, bringing yet more risk, death and misery to people already bruised by the country’s brutal war. 

Cholera adds an additional challenge to the crisis amidst mass displacement, insecurity, and difficulties accessing medical care amid a humanitarian response that is far below what is needed. 

In this first part of a two-part series, MSF staff at a hospital in Myanmar's largest city, Yangon, talk to Shinjiro Murata, general director of MSF Japan, about the complex challenges of delivering healthcare to people in Myanmar.

Microbiologist Candice Lynch explains the importance of being flexible when working with Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF), the challenges she faced, and her advice for other medical scientists interested in working overseas. 

Dr Tejshri Shah, General Director of MSF and a paediatrician specialising in infectious diseases, recently returned from North Kivu, an eastern province of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the country at the epicenter of the current mpox epidemic in Africa. 

Obstetrician-Gynaecologist Shanti Hegde is currently in Blantyre, Malawi, on her 16th assignment with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). Malawi has the second highest cervical cancer rate in the world, with over 4,000 women falling sick with the disease every year. Shanti is working on MSF’s cervical cancer program to improve early prevention, diagnosis and treatment. She kindly spoke to us about her role in this project, and what keeps her coming back to MSF.