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About Us

How we work

See what triggers an intervention and how supply and logistics allow our teams to respond quickly.

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How we're run

Discover our governance and what it means to be an association. Find a quick visual guide to our offices around the world.

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Reports and financials

Read through our annual financial and activity reports, and find out about where our funds come from and how they are spent.

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Accountability

Read the policies, reports, and plans on how we address issues like racism and reduce our carbon footprint, ensuring our actions align with the highest ethical standards.

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What we do

Médecins Sans Frontières brings medical humanitarian assistance to victims of conflict, natural disasters, epidemics or healthcare exclusion.

View all topics Activities by country
Featured Gaza Israel war Cholera Refugees, IDPs and people on the move

Where we work

In more than 70 countries, Médecins Sans Frontières provides medical humanitarian assistance to save lives and ease the suffering of people in crisis situations.

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Featured Palestine Bangladesh Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

MEDSF Websites

A Global Network
Our offices around the world
Our offices around the world
Other Sites
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Access Campaign

We set up the MEDSF Access Campaign in 1999 to push for access to, and the development of, life-saving and life-prolonging medicines, diagnostic tests and vaccines for people in our programmes and beyond.

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CRASH

Based in Paris, CRASH conducts and directs studies and analysis of MEDSF actions. They participate in internal training sessions and assessment missions in the field.

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UREPH

Based in Geneva, UREPH (or Research Unit) aims to improve the way MEDSF projects are implemented in the field and to participate in critical thinking on humanitarian and medical action.

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ARHP

Based in Barcelona, ARHP documents and reflects on the operational challenges and dilemmas faced by the MEDSF field teams.

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MEDSF Analysis

Based in Brussels, MEDSF Analysis intends to stimulate reflection and debate on humanitarian topics organised around the themes of migration, refugees, aid access, health policy and the environment in which aid operates.

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MEDSF Supply

This logistical and supply centre in Brussels provides storage of and delivers medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MEDSF missions.

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MEDSF Logistique

This supply and logistics centre in Bordeaux, France, provides warehousing and delivery of medical equipment, logistics and drugs for international purchases for MEDSF missions.

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Amsterdam Procurement Unit

This logistical centre in Amsterdam purchases, tests, and stores equipment including vehicles, communications material, power supplies, water-processing facilities and nutritional supplements.

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Brazilian Medical Unit

BRAMU specialises in neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue and Chagas, and other infectious diseases. This medical unit is based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

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MEDSF Medical Guidelines

Our medical guidelines are based on scientific data collected from MEDSF’s experiences, the World Health Organization (WHO), other renowned international medical institutions, and medical and scientific journals.

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Epicentre

Providing epidemiological expertise to underpin our operations, conducting research and training to support our goal of providing medical aid in areas where people are affected by conflict, epidemics, disasters, or excluded from health care.

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Evaluation Units

Evaluation Units have been established in Vienna, Stockholm, and Paris, assessing the potential and limitations of medical humanitarian action, thereby enhancing the effectiveness of our medical humanitarian work.

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LGBTQI+ Inclusion in Health Settings

MEDSF works with LGBTQI+ populations in many settings over the last 25-30 years. LGBTQI+ people face healthcare disparities with limited access to care and higher disease rates than the general population.

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LUXOR

The Luxembourg Operational Research (LuxOR) unit coordinates field research projects and operational research training, and provides support for documentation activities and routine data collection.

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MEDSF Academy for Healthcare

To upskill and provide training to locally-hired MEDSF staff in several countries, MEDSF has created the MEDSF Academy for Healthcare.

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Humanitarian Law

This Guide explains the terms, concepts, and rules of humanitarian law in accessible and reader-friendly alphabetical entries.

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MEDSF Paediatric Days

The MEDSF Paediatric Days is an event for paediatric field staff, policy makers and academia to exchange ideas, align efforts, inspire and share frontline research to advance urgent paediatric issues of direct concern for the humanitarian field.

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MEDSF Foundation

The MEDSF Foundation aims to create a fertile arena for logistics and medical knowledge-sharing to meet the needs of MEDSF and the humanitarian sector as a whole.

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DNDi

A collaborative, patients’ needs-driven, non-profit drug research and development organisation that is developing new treatments for neglected diseases, founded in 2003 by seven organisations from around the world.

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MEDSF Science Portal

Our digital portal dedicated to sharing the latest medical evidence from our humanitarian activities around the globe.

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Noma

Noma is a preventable and treatable neglected disease, but 90 per cent of people will die within the first two weeks of infection if they do not receive treatment.

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TIC

The TIC is aiming to change how MEDSF works to better meet the evolving needs of our patients.

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Telemedicine

MSF's telemedicine hub aims to overcome geographic barriers for equitable, accessible, and quality patient care.

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Sweden Innovation Unit

Launched in 2012, the MEDSF Sweden Innovation Unit deploys a human-centered approach for promoting a culture of innovation within MEDSF.

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Hong Kong Homeless Primary Healthcare Project Closing

Hong Kong

An MEDSF team member explains the importance of eating fresh food to maintain good health to a man experiencing homelessness at an MEDSF mobile clinic. Hong Kong, August 2024.
© MEDSF

MEDSF finished activities in Hong Kong in December 2024.

MEDSF teams returned to Hong Kong in August 2023 to provide free basic healthcare to people experiencing homelessness.

Over 16 months, we partnered with local non-governmental organisations in the Yau Tsim Mong and Shum Shui Po districts to increase the health literacy of people experiencing homelessness and connect them to health services. The project concluded in December 2024.

Before this most recent project, MEDSF teams had responded to outbreaks of coronaviruses in Hong Kong, notably SARS in 2003 and COVID-19 in 2020. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, MEDSF teams provided face-to-face and virtual health promotion sessions with vulnerable people less likely to be able to access information, such as refugees, and those on the front line, such as street cleaners.

We also created a website to help people manage their stress and worry, which included tips and tools on how to cope.

MEDSF medical teams and outreach workers had also assisted people experiencing homelessness, by providing free medical consultations, and arranging temporary shelter and distributing food and water where needed.

Our activities in 2024 in Hong Kong SAR

Data and information from the International Activity Report 2024.

3

3

Staff in 2024 (full-time equivalent)

€0.4 M

0.4M

Expenditure in 2024

2003

2003

Year MEDSF first worked in the region
MEDSF in Hong Kong SAR in 2024 Between August 2023 and December 2024, Médecins Sans Frontières (MEDSF) ran a basic healthcare project for people experiencing homelessness in two districts of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR).
Hong Kong IAR map 2024
Country map for the IAR 2024.
© MEDSF

MEDSF provided free basic health screening in Yau Tsim Mong and Sham Shui Po districts during this period and identified two major challenges regarding access to healthcare for people experiencing homelessness. The services available were not designed with their daily reality in mind, and people in this situation understandably tended to prioritise other critical concerns before health.  

MEDSF therefore initiated partnerships with local NGOs to deliver patient-centred care. Our teams provided basic health screening, health promotion sessions, and psychosocial support. We also worked on capacity building with local partners to ensure continuity of care for people in the programme after December 2024.  

 

in 2024

500

5

mental health consultations provided in group sessions

96

96

individual mental health consultations
 
Hong Kong Homeless Primary Healthcare Project Closing
Hong Kong

MEDSF completes healthcare project for people experiencing homelessness in Hong Kong

Project Update 17 Jan 2025
 
MEDSF has started an intervention for the outbreak of COVID-19
Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic

Supporting preparedness efforts to fend off coronavirus

Voices from the Field 14 Feb 2020
 
MEDSF has started an intervention for the outbreak of COVID-19
Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic

Providing materials, engaging communities in the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak

Project Update 14 Feb 2020
 
MEDSF has started an intervention for the outbreak of COVID-19
Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic

MEDSF update on COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak

Project Update 14 Feb 2020
 
Access to medicines

WTO sacrifices access to medicines before Hong Kong ministerial meeting

Press Release 12 Dec 2005
 
Hong Kong

SARS protection supplies donated to Hong Kong hospital authority

Project Update 10 Apr 2003