50 years of “Doctors Without Borders”: Help where the need is greatest

Wherever wars or catastrophes hit people, the “Doctors Without Borders” are also there, and have been for 50 years. But the helpers are not always welcome, sometimes they themselves become a target.

When the aid organization “Doctors Without Borders” was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in October 1999 for its groundbreaking humanitarian work, France’s then President Jacques Chirac recognized the staff as “people who in a way embody the progress of universal consciousness”.

13 doctors and journalists founded the Medicins sans frontier (MSF) in December 1979 in Paris. It was also their experiences from the Biafra war in Nigeria – the frustration of not being able to do more as doctors – that led the founders to set up “Doctors Without Borders”. And the desire to break the silence, talk about operations and better organize emergency aid.

Bernard Kouchner was there at the time. The founding of the organization, which he calls an “adventure” and an “epic” at the same time, was a “medical matter”. The aim was to understand “that medicine was not only reserved for rich people, not just for the typical, socially recognized victims”. But that there must be medical help for everyone, regardless of their origin, religious or political beliefs.

Use in all major crises

50 years later, the small French project has become one of the world’s most important medical aid organizations, with around 64,000 employees in 88 countries and deployments in almost all major crises of our time – whether back in Cambodia, the genocide in Rwanda, the Bosnian war or Ebola. Outbreaks, the corona pandemic and natural disasters.

Doctors Without Borders’ greatest success? The President of MSF France can think of a few, but above all the mission in 2005 after the earthquake in Pakistan. It was then that “Doctors Without Borders” used inflatable operating tents for the first time to perform trauma surgery. That, says Mégo Terzian, was certainly one of the most important missions for him and his colleagues.

In addition to the many successes, there were also setbacks. “Doctors Without Borders” recently failed to set up humanitarian aid in the north of Ethiopia, says Terzian. The organization had a strong presence there at the beginning of the war. However, after three employees were murdered, they had to withdraw. Terzian thinks it is an “absolute defeat”.

The areas of application are changing

After half a century, not only the logistics and methods of “Doctors Without Borders” have changed. The areas of operation are also different, for example on the refugee routes in Europe, on the Polish-Belarusian border, on Lesbos or in the Mediterranean.

At the same time, the security context is different today than it was then, and the committed doctors are the targets of terrorist attacks, reports Terzian. However, the organization itself has not changed: “The commitment, motivation and determination of the young people who join us will always remain our strength.”

50 years of Doctors Without Borders – that is also 50 years of commitment to humanity.