From the Executive Director
 
The new design of this “Borderline” will, I hope, help to draw your attention to three humanitarian crises through different perspectives. The fighting between the Nigerian military and Boko Haram in Borno State in the northeastern of the country has been ongoing for the past several years. Our teams on the ground witness the nutritional crisis in the region continuing as a repercussion of the widespread of displacement due to the fighting. As of today, our teams still don’t have access to the majority of Borno state because of the insecurity. At the same time, people continue to flee the violence and only have limited access to food, water, and healthcare, having to rely on external assistance.  
 
A few countries to the east on the same continent, South Sudan continues to be plagued with conflicts. Neighbouring Uganda has become the refuge for hundreds of thousands of South Sudan refugees. The border camp was originally expected to accommodate 40,000 people but is now already overwhelmed with 270,000 refugees, becoming one of the largest refugee settlements in the world. The Photo Feature presents the struggles that the refugees have endured throughout the journey and the new challenges in the settlement area.
 
On the other side of the world, in Asia, Afghanistan remains one of the most dangerous places in the world for women to give birth. While any maternal death will definitely be headline news in Hong Kong and many other developed countries, there are 4,300 women who die due to complications during pregnancy or childbirth in Afghanistan. That’s more than 10 deaths every day1. In Khost which is one of the provinces most severely affected by the more than a decade-long conflict, MSF is running a maternity hospital, providing free medical care for the women and newborn babies. An anaesthetist shares her second-time field assignment in this hospital in the Frontline Sharing.
 
Confronted with this suffering, MSF has committed to provide life-saving medical care to people in need. And we are always driving to improve the quality of care that we provide in these difficult settings. Technology has allowed us to provide better diagnostic tools, for example. The new section MSF Knowledge shares our experience of using new smartphone technology to help diagnose cerebral malaria – a very common disease in places where we work and one which can be deadly if not treated – in situations where resources are limited. 
 
All these activities could not happen without the help of our committed supporters in Hong Kong and worldwide. In return, MSF wants to be transparent about the use of those donations. As discussed in the MSF-Hong Kong section, the way we use donors’ money, including the expenditure on fundraising, is closely linked with our principles. We hope you will continue to support our mission and our principled approach, and that even more people will join us.
 
Rémi Carrier, Executive Director, Médecins Sans Frontières Hong Kong
 
 
1Maternal mortality country profiles, World Health Organization: http://www.who.int/gho/maternal_health/countries/en/

 

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