MSF annual activity report 2017

Crises in 2017

2017 was particularly notable for three major crises: the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh, the cholera epidemic in Yemen, a country already ravaged by three years of conflict, and the Battle for Mosul in Iraq.

From 25 August, the Rohingya population was targeted by the Burmese army, the police and local militias in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. Following the violence, almost 693,000 Rohingyas fled the country to neighbouring Bangladesh. MSF has significantly increased its presence in the region, with expanded operations to cover access to safe drinking water, sanitation facilities and medical care for the displaced population. In such densely populated areas, the risk of epidemics spreading remains high.

In Yemen, continued fighting over the past three years has created a humanitarian crisis affecting 11.3 million people. From April 2017 to February 2018, more than a million suspected cases of cholera were identified. 2,258 deaths were recorded in that time. MSF admitted more than 100,000 patients to 37 Cholera Treatment Centres. Children under the age of 15 accounted for nearly 40% of all suspected cases identified, as well as around a quarter of all deaths. In December, a new epidemic took hold, this time, diphtheria. In this country, where the healthcare system has entirely collapsed, epidemics simply follow one after the other.

From October 2016 to July 2017, Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, was the scene of a fierce struggle to retake control of the city from Islamic State (IS), with a devastating impact on the civilian population. Many civilians were either killed or wounded in the city or during their escape, by explosions, bombings and gunfire. MSF teams have worked tirelessly near the frontline to provide a trauma response to victims of the violence.

MSF has also been supporting the most vulnerable in many other situations, including the conflict in Nigeria, the upsurge in violence in the Central African Republic, the influx of refugees in Lebanon, to name just a few. MSF provides assistance based on the medical needs of local people, regardless of race, religion, sex or political affiliation.

Migration policy: outsourcing European borders

In 2017, MSF continued to condemn the human toll of European migration policies, which are attempting to stop the flow of migrants by outsourcing Europe’s borders, regardless of the devastating effects on the lives and well-being of the thousands of people involved. MSF is particularly shocked by the collaboration between the EU and the Libyan Coastguard, which forces hundreds of men, women, minors and young children to return to living in inhumane conditions in detention centres, where they are deprived of their dignity and subject to mistreatment on a daily basis (forced labour, abduction and torture, sexual violence, humiliation and deprivation).

When European nations view the suffering of thousands of people as the price to pay for control over their borders, Europe is renouncing its own values by investing in solutions that lead to extreme violence against those abandoned by any other form of protection

MSF Luxembourg

Currently, 24 employees are working within the association, raising awareness throughout Luxembourg on humanitarian issues, raising the funds needed to pay for interventions and supervising MSF volunteers in the field, as well as setting up dozens of operational research studies led by the LuxOR unit.

In 2017, LuxOR (the operational research unit based in Luxembourg) continued to support more than 60 different medical and humanitarian aid projects through their research. Members of the LuxOR team travelled to 11 different countries to support field data collection and analysis, whilst also responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases. To further strengthen their research capacity, the unit has supported five operational research training programmes in Ethiopia, India, Kenya, South Africa and Sri Lanka, as well as a specialist course on issues related to water, sanitation and hygiene organised in Luxembourg. Working closely with colleagues from the medical department in Brussels, LuxOR has contributed to publishing 99 scientific papers in leading scientific journals on 15 different topics.

Annual report LuxOR

The Luxembourg association brings together 99 members, 57 volunteers, 9 members of the Board of Directors and more than 25,000 active donors who allow MSF to continue its important work.

The support of our donors

Thanks to the generosity of a growing number of people in Luxembourg, MSF can continue to carry out its vital work. In 2017, Luxembourg donors supported MSF’s operations to the tune of €6.5 million. We thank them for the generosity they’ve shown, allowing us to maintain our independence and continue to care for the people in greatest need.

“Our willingness to advance proper access to healthcare for the most vulnerable in our world, often in places where the survival of entire populations directly depends on the humanitarian aid we provide, remains very strong, whatever difficulties we may encounter along the way. Regardless of what we faced yesterday, today or tomorrow, we refuse to abandon those in need of humanitarian, neutral, impartial and independent medical assistance. 95% of funding for our work comes from private donors; we need the ongoing support of the people of Luxembourg”, concludes Dr Guy Berchem, President of MSF Luxembourg.

Annual activity report 2017 MSF LUXEMBOURG

International Activity Report 2017

Header photo : an injured Rohingya boy sits on his bed at MSF's medical facility in Kutupalong, in Bangladesh. © Antonio Faccilongo