What we do

Doctors Without Borders brings medical humanitarian assistance to victims of conflict, natural disasters, epidemics and healthcare exclusion.

Our focus

Learn about the crises our teams respond to, and how we adapt to provide the highest quality medical care in some of the world’s most challenging contexts.

War and conflict

Armed conflict causes injury, displacement, sexual violence, and death, but it also continues to impact people’s lives and health long after the front lines have shifted. War devastates health systems, hampers access to medical supplies, and disrupts vaccination and other disease-prevention efforts, heightening the risk of outbreaks.

In conflict zones, MSF does not take sides. We provide medical care based on needs alone and work to reach the people most in need of help. Nearly one-fourth of MSF’s projects are dedicated to assisting people living in conflict.

Natural disasters

Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, and major storms can force people to flee their homes and cut off access to safe water, health care services, and transportation, affecting the lives of tens of thousands in a matter of minutes. When minutes matter, MSF’s network of aid workers in more than 70 countries around the world are often the first to deploy rapid, lifesaving medical care. We keep pre-packaged supply kits to launch rapid responses as quickly as possible.

Epidemics and pandemics

Millions of people around the world still die each year from infectious diseases that are preventable or treatable. Those at highest live in poverty or other precarious conditions, with limited access to health care and vaccinations.

During an outbreak of an infectious disease like cholera, measles, yellow fever, or Ebola, MSF teams react swiftly to provide lifesaving vaccines, treatment, and epidemiological services. From setting up temporary facilities to treat patients to running mass vaccination campaigns to improving water and sanitation services to help prevent the spread of disease, MSF teams adapt our emergency responses to the unique needs of communities.

Refugees and internally displaced people

More than 82 million people—or 1 in 95 worldwide­—have been forcibly displaced from their homes, fleeing conflict, persecution, natural disaster, or other hardships. On the move and in camps they are often forced to live in precarious conditions, cut off from essential services including health care.

When people are displaced, MSF teams conduct rapid needs assessments and work closely with affected communities to provide services including vaccination; primary and mental health care; nutrition support; provision of shelter, drinking water, and latrines; and more.

How MSF is responding to the war in Ukraine

On February 24, Russia launched a large-scale military operation in Ukraine that rapidly escalated into a war across most of the country. Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is stepping up its medical humanitarian response to the deepening humanitarian crisis in Ukraine and in neighboring countries, where more than 4.1 million refugees have fled.

MSF staff in Ukraine are assessing humanitarian needs, delivering urgent medical supplies, providing training to hospitals on how to manage mass casualty incidents, and preparing to expand activities. On March 6, MSF’s first shipment of emergency medical supplies was delivered to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health in Kyiv, and subsequent shipments have arrived since then. We supply surgical kits, trauma kits, and other basic necessities, including for hospitals in areas farther east where they are especially needed. 

We are working with medical facilities in many parts of the country to help meet current needs and prepare for what might come next.

An urgent need for medical supplies

So far the most urgently needed supplies are surgical, trauma, emergency room (ER), and intensive care unit (ICU) equipment and drugs. But a broader picture of other key medical items is coming into focus as the conflict continues, including insulin for diabetes patients and medicines for patients with other chronic diseases such as asthma, hypertension, or HIV. Transportation of some of these essential supplies will require the added complexity of a cold chain. We are exploring more ways to safely move medical supplies within the country.

Caring for displaced people

Many displaced people are now sheltering in Lviv and other towns in western Ukraine. Many have have left their homes with only what they could carry. Local volunteers and civil society organizations are working hard to help them, but conditions are harsh, with available accommodations already past capacity. MSF is donating a large supply of cold weather items including sleeping bags, warm clothes, and tents to civil society organizations supporting displaced people. 

Central and Northern Ukraine

On March 13 and 14, an MSF surgical team visited the 750-bed Okhmatdyt pediatric hospital in central Kyiv to begin providing training and advice related to trauma surgery and the management of mass casualty events. In Bilal Tsverka, about 50 miles south of Kyiv, an MSF team is leading a two-day training on managing mass casualties and donating supplies to health facilities in the region. In Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, we provided medical supplies to a regional hospital and a maternity hospital. In Kharkiv, northeastern Ukraine, we are preparing to run mobile clinics in subway stations where people are sheltering. Another MSF team is planning to provide mass casualty trainings for hospital workers.

Southern and Western Ukraine

We have assessed the needs in health facilities in Uzhhorod and Ivano-Frankivsk and are establishing a network to provide medical donations, including in frontline areas. We are carrying out trainings related to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear risks for health professionals in Ivano-Frankivsk and have carried out a mass casualty training at the main referral hospital in Mukachevo.

A team has started running mobile clinics along the border with Hungary, where displaced people are gathered. The needs include mental health care and continuity of care for patients who were on treatment for medical conditions before they were displaced.

In the southern cities of Odesa and Mykolaiv, we have donated medical supplies to hospitals preparing to accept wounded.

In Lviv, teams have donated medical supplies to health facilities and are providing mass casualty training to hospital staff. On April 1, nine people—including children—in serious but stable condition were transferred from a hospital in Zaporizhzhia, in southeastern Ukraine, to major referral hospitals in Lviv on a dedicated two-car medical train that MSF developed together with the Ukrainian Railways.

In and around Zhytomyr we have donated trauma-related supplies and conducted mass casualty training in seven hospitals. We have also been able to move a considerable part of our tuberculosis (TB) supplies from Kyiv to Zhytomyr, where we were previously running a TB program.

In Vinnytsia Oblast, we are working with local hospitals to help them prepare for mass casualties, exploring how we can provide water and sanitation support, and making donations of medical supplies. In Nemyriv district, we have started supporting psychological care for people with mental health conditions and are planning to support physiotherapy for war-wounded patients.

Dnipro and Eastern Ukraine

Just before the war began in late February, MSF surgeons with experience in war zones provided training remotely to surgeons in key hospitals in eastern Ukraine that have since received many wounded people.

In Dnipro, an MSF team has conducted mass casualty trainings in hospitals and donated medical supplies to the regional hospital, helping prepare for future needs. In Kramatorsk, we have donated supplies to seven hospitals with the highest needs. In Orikhiv, we have donated first aid and surgical kits, and have provided mass casualty training for medical staff.

The humanitarian crisis in Mariupol is growing more and more desperate. The city in southeastern Ukraine remains surrounded by Russian military forces and subject to repeated artillery and aerial bombardment. Residents shelter in basements. Shops are closed. Food and clean water are difficult to find. Pharmacies have run out of medicines. People are lying dead in the streets. Gas and electricity have been off for days, in sub-zero temperatures. People are making fires to cook food and keep warm. Many ceasefire attempts have failed, trapping people inside the city and preventing humanitarian aid from entering. Civilian and medical infrastructure has been damaged, and communication is extremely limited. An MSF staff member from Mariupol shared his personal story of surviving under intense bombardment and being forced to flee.

MSF is calling for safe passage for those willing and able to escape across war-affected areas inside Ukraine, regardless of the existence of humanitarian corridors or temporary ceasefires. People who stay behind must not lose their civilian status: Warring parties must do everything in their power to prevent harm to civilians at all times, in all places.

Moldova 
More than 387,000 people have crossed into Moldova from Ukraine since the war began. Moldova, which has a population of just 2.6 million people, now hosts the largest concentration of Ukrainian refugees per capita, according to the UN Refugee Agency (the source of refugee figures used on page).

At the Palanca border crossing, an MSF team is supporting Moldovan health staff on site and offering psychological first aid to refugees escaping the fighting in southern Ukraine. We also set up a health post near the border crossing in Otaci this week, offering similar services. Our teams in the capital, Chișinău, have provided psychological first aid to people in reception centers and are evaluating how to improve access to health care for refugees in hospitals.

Poland 
More than 2.3 million people have fled Ukraine to Poland so far. MSF initially donated non-food items to the Red Cross Lublin and to a reception point in Horodlo, near the Zosin border crossing. Our staff in Poland have assessed needs at border crossings, transit centers, and train stations, and are also supporting our emergency response in Ukraine.

Hungary
As of March 29, nearly 365,000 people having crossed as refugees into Hungary. While our initial assessments indicated that many of the immediate needs of refugees are being met, we have started working with the support of Hungarian doctors, in partnership with local organizations, to provide primary health care and psychological first aid.

Slovakia 
More than 280,000 people have crossed into Slovakia from Ukraine as of March 29. An MSF emergency team arrived in the country at the beginning of March to assess the medical and humanitarian needs. We have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Ministry of Health in order to import medical supplies and enable our possible work in the future. For the moment, critical medical and humanitarian needs in Slovakia are being met by local authorities and civil society groups. 

Russia 
MSF works with the health authorities in Arkhangelsk and Vladimir regions to reduce the burden of drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB) and improve treatment for the disease. More than 350,000 people have crossed to Russia from Ukraine as of March 29. MSF is currently exploring whether new medical humanitarian needs have emerged in border regions. Our team has visited Rostov and Voronezh and is heading to Belgorod. In Rostov, we donated food, hygiene kits, essential relief items and medicines to be distributed among displaced people.

Belarus
MSF continues to run its regular programs in Belarus, supporting the national tuberculosis program and hepatitis C treatment in prisons. Since 2021 we have also assisted people on the move stranded between Belarus and the European Union countries. MSF has carried out an initial assessment of the situation on the border with Ukraine and stands ready to assist with emerging medical and humanitarian needs. As of March 29, about 5,000 people have crossed into Belarus from Ukraine.

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