The status of expatriates

Those who take part in Médecins du Monde’s humanitarian programmes sign either :
a "volunteer contract" which gives them the following status :
Regardless of the length of the contract, Médecins du Monde takes responsability for:
• transport from home to wherever the mission is based
• accommodation during the mission
• Living costs and food via a “per diem” (sum paid to the volunteer once on mission) varying between 300 and 645 Euros depending on the cost of living in the country and the type of programme.
• A monthly allowance of 800 Euros (all posts) or 915 Euros (coordination posts) paid into the volunteer’s home account.
• All volunteers are covered by social security. Terms may vary according to the length of the contract and the volunteer’s country of origin.

^{(1) Ill health and accidents at work are covered by social security, as long as the volunteer has declared their mission.}

The volunteer may take two days of leave per month from their mission (which are not leave days in the terms of the host country’s regulations) as long as the mission is to last at least six months.
a paid contract : As part of its programme to develop the loyalty of its coordinators and officers, Médecins du Monde has, in the last few years, opened certain paid posts (30 posts in 2006)
.

Anaesthetist Marie Boulo participated in the emergency mission in Java in 2006 :

" Now that I have been back for a few days, I have been thinking again about this mission - my first emergency mission in Indonesia. I was very apprehensive when I left, and was particularly scared of not being able to do everything possible for those who needed treatment. This is always the worst fear for anyone giving treatment, whether they are working in a very sophisticated intensive care unit, like mine in France, or by the side of the road during an emergency shift.
The situation was, however, generally positive.
I am one of the doctors that arrived at the scene in the first few days after the earthquake. My anaesthetist colleague (Francoise) had arrived the previous day with the surgeon (Gerard). The emergency team had already shown them the hospital where we would be working. It is a small regional hospital, on one floor and partly open-air. The wounded were everywhere, in the corridors, lying on mats or on the floor. Luckily, it wasn’t raining and families were able to watch over their loved ones under shelter. We took over a small room adjacent to the operating block in which Pascal, our logistician, brought us everything we needed to do our job. A surgical team is nothing without a minimum of equipment. The boxes contained all we needed to dress the numerous wounds suffered by those who were buried under their houses when the quake struck.
The wounded were mostly the elderly who weren’t able to leave their houses quickly enough. Their wounds already showed secondary infections due to inappropriate treatment given in the first few days by, so we were told, medical students. Many of the ill had been given anti-inflammatory drugs which had aggravated the infections. The most serious cases, those I had been worried I wouldn’t be able to help, were probably already dead as a result of the lack of transitional care on the way to hospital. SAMU is still a very French luxury. Our daily work consisted of taking care of patients with festering wounds that jeopardised their prognosis. Some patients returned several times to our little operating theatre for dressings or amputations under general anaesthetic. The equipment I had been given to do my job as anaesthetists was basic but wholly sufficient for the kind of work we were doing…"