Medecins sans frontieres______________________________

Doctors without borders

“Put Your Ideals Into Practice.”

Recruitment slogan from the MSF / DWB website

Haiti 2010

Doctors without Borders is among the first relief agencies to arrive in Port au Prince

Syria 2012MSF deploys medical teams to region to provide treatment for victims of government violence

Public disclosure:Syrian government’s strategy of using medicine as a weapon of persecution

Arresting wounded peoplearrest and torture of doctors and health care workers

MSF Mission: The “Charter”

Volunteer association of doctors and health sector workers AIM: humanitarian/medical assistance to distressed populations…………advocacy

Principles:Assistance irrespective of race, religion, creed or political

convictionsNeutrality and impartiality in the name of universal medical

ethics The right to humanitarian assistance Respect for professional codes of ethics Independence from all political, economic or religious powers Voluntary commitment without compensation

MSF Mission: The “Charter”

Volunteer association of doctors and health sector workers AIM: humanitarian/medical assistance to distressed populations…………advocacy

Temoignage “the witnessing and shaming of humanitarian

abuses”

MSF Core Values: humanitarianism

medical ethics

organization absorbs and mirrors

values of individual members

organization enables individual members to act on and maximize the effects of their existing value commitments

Volunteerism

“MSF is an organization based on volunteerism. The volunteer not only gives freely of his/her humanity, but creates a link of solidarity from his/her own community to a population in need…It is the independent nature of the volunteer’s commitment that… ensures the organization’s continued dynamism.”

MSF Organizational Structure

Participatory governance: General Assembly Operational Sections Non-operational Sections Public Health Centers Training Facilities

Varying settings and modes of volunteer service

MSF Culture and Organizational

Socialization • Organization’s structure and functions built out of

volunteer members – training / expertise / commitments

• What is not needed… complex machinery of enculturation and socialization members’ existing ethical enculturation is harnessed by organization

1999 Nobel Prize • “Despite grand debates on world order, the act of humanitarianism comes down to one thing: individual human beings reaching out to their counterparts who find themselves in the most difficult circumstance. One bandage at a time, one suture at a time, one vaccination at a time.”

Dr. James Orbinski, International PresidentMedecins Sans Frontieres

“Ours Is Not A Contented Action”