Doctors Without Borders Review

I think this may be the first time -- and probably the last -- when I will review a charitable organization but Doctors Without Borders (a/k/a Medecins Sans Frontieres or MSF) is really in a class by itself.  The ranks of well-meant international rescue organizations are full of earnest groups who collect money, buy things and then just send the stuff off, hoping it will fall into the right hands.  In the case of Doctors Without Borders, dedicated medical professionals actually travel into distressed areas (sometimes where angels fear to go), tackling emergency medical work around the world, including refugee housing, food distribution, water treatment, medical care and vaccinations, therapeutic feeding, and treatment of cholera and other deadly diseases in more than 80 countries (over 20 of which are in conflict).  Some doctors even give up their personal vacation time to put themselves in deadly danger, sometimes at the cost of their own lives.

I'm not the only one who thinks these guys (and gals!) are great -- in 2007, 92% of MSF's income was contributed by more than 3.8 million individuals and other private sources from around the world.  This kind of support enables MSF to operate independently and respond at a moment's notice to urgent emergencies, often in places that are otherwise forgotten.

In 1999, MSF was awarded the International Nobel Peace Prize "in recognition of the organization's pioneering humanitarian work on several continents."  (The proceeds of this prize were used by MSF to establish a Neglected Disease Fund designed to "support pilot projects worldwide that facilitate clinical development, production, procurement and distribution of Neglected Disease treatments.")  

In 1998, MSF received the Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize, a $1 Million Award which is the World's Largest Humanitarian Prize.  Doctor John McGill, President of MSF USA, accepted the award and said that some of the money would be used to expand the organization's rescue work in the southern Sudan. 

One Small Example

Between May and September of 2008, MSF treated 28,000 malnourished patients in southern Ethiopia.  One of them was Sheleme, the little four-year-old girl in the picture above.  When her mother brought her and her twin sister, Kutuba, into MSF's stabilization center in Kuyera, Sheleme's face, legs, and feet were swollen because she was extremely malnourished.  Neither girl had an appetite, a symptom typical of their condition.  After nine days of treatment, Sheleme's swelling had disappeared and both girls had regained their appetites, recovered enough to return home with their mother, along with a week's supply of nutritional, ready-to-use food.

MY VIEWPOINT:

Like most people, I am blitzed constantly by organizations asking for help.  I have picked out a few whom I focus my attention on.  For two of these groups, I have automatic donations made from my checking account every month.  (The Humane Society is the other one.)  My gifts aren't big but as long as there is a breath in my body, Doctors Without Borders (a.k.a. Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) will always get something every a month from me because when I go to bed tonight, I know there will be a doctor out there somewhere -- maybe in a dark, dangerous place -- brightening the corner where he or she is.