Our history

a boat drifted. On board were 2,564 Vietnamese refugees that no country was prepared to welcome. Desperate, they hoisted a banner: “We are threatened with famine and epidemics. United Nations, save us!” A group of doctors, including Bernard Kouchner, alongside academics and journalists, left on a hospital ship, named “l’Île de Lumière” (the Isle of Light), to care for and bear witness to the plight of these boat-people.

On 21 May 1980, Médecins du Monde was born. The organisation gave itself three objectives: to go whether others did not, to bear witness to the intolerable, and to work voluntarily. According to one of its founding doctors, the aim was first and foremost “to create a structure that was willing to respond to emergency situations, in the shortest of timescales, which is sometimes not possible for international institutions”.

In En Salvador, the situation was becoming increasingly serious. The stalked the country. The guerrillas did the same. Farmers fled the massacres. In order to help these internal refugees, Médecins du Monde organised a “plane for El Salvador”, full of supplies, medicines and clothes, and set up a refugee camp: Bethania.

there may have been high-quality medical care, but not everywhere and not for all. Fighting against this regime was an integral part of the fight for human rights. Founded to “care and bear witness”, Médecins du Monde began to work in the country in 1985, alongside the most oppressed peoples, in townships as well as in the most remote rural areas. In addition to healthcare, doctors provided training, and set up laboratories, running water and electricity in the clinics.

In the worst year, 1987–1988, some 30,000 political prisoners were locked up and tortured. While no one had access to the prisons, Médecins du Monde, with the help of a local anti-apartheid medical organisation, provided consultations for prisoners upon their release, in a secret location. When Mandela was freed in 1990, we began to train health workers, before the new government could create an equitable system for black South Africans as well as whites.

Médecins du Monde was the first humanitarian organisation to enter Romania. The surgical-medical team which entered Bucharest on 22 December discovered orphanages packed full of children, most of whom were infected with HIV. We supplied thousands of screening and confirmation tests, syringes and sterile needles, as well as paediatric medicines to fight against opportunistic infections. Missions carried out by psychiatrists revealed the tragic situation many children were found in, said to be “irreparable”, had been mistreated, attacked and rendered disabled due to lack of care.

Somalia was gripped by an unprecedented famine. The country became the stage for an experiment in the “New World Order” initiated by the US president, George Bush. This operation, a caricature of a humanitarian operation, constituted a textbook case of “stay or go”, an illustration of humanitarian aid being held to ransom, supporting a war effort despite itself. Due to the security conditions on the ground, NGOs, which struggled to access the population, had to surround themselves with armed guards. Despite this, Médecins du Monde tried to stay. We intervened in emergencies and supported the convalescence of a country which would have collapsed if the forces destroying it were left to their own devices. However, we were forced to leave the country just a few months later, for security reasons. Our teams returned in 1993, but the question raised its head again, should we stay or should we leave, not wishing to impose an undesired or useless presence.

The Rwanda crisis shed harsh light on a century where States became the murderers of their own citizens. The primary objective of Médecins du Monde remained to care, but analysing, understanding and reporting on the causes of suffering became our mission in Rwanda more than anywhere else. As the massacres raged on, few NGOs were present on site. Médecins du Monde immediately came to the aid of the victims of genocide. An emergency surgical team arrived in Rwanda only a few days after the massacres began.

When the situation stabilised, post-emergency missions took over in rural health clinics, building them up, and providing equipment and medicines. Work was also quickly organised to support children who had been left orphaned by the death or disappearance of their parents, and to take on the challenge of significant mental health needs. Finally, in 1996, our teams came to the aid of healthcare facilities which were overloaded by the massive return of refugees.

Médecins du Monde was forced to leave Kosovo when NATO decided to bomb the country. We established ourselves along the borders, in Macedonia, Albania and Montenegro, to treat refugees. We returned to the country with Kosovars as soon as we could, to treat victims who had remained on site. The position of Médecins du Monde is clear: air strikes are not sufficient to protect civilians; only close action driven by the need to intervene can ensure their security.

Médecins du Monde intervened to re-establish access to primary healthcare, to rebuild healthcare posts which had been destroyed, and to ensure epidemiological monitoring; actions which could be established quickly and easily as a result of our effective and responsive structure.

Syria has been consumed by an interminable war which spread to Iraq and left a growing number of civilians in its wake. According to UNHCR figures, nearly 13 million Syrians are in need of humanitarian aid. Violence, fear, the destruction of infrastructures and means of subsistence led to a massive exodus within Syria and towards neighbouring countries. Some 6.6 million people were displaced within the country, while 4.3 million became refugees outside Syria.

Air strikes on hospitals, violence against healthcare professionals and supply problems contributed towards the collapse of the Syrian healthcare system. Médecins du Monde continues to work to maintain access to care and provides constant support to Syrian doctors who help the injured and sick throughout the country.

To address the Ebola epidemic which struck West Africa in 2014, Médecins du Monde intervened in eight countries affected by or bordering the epidemic: Liberia, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Benin and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. We strive to respond to the two-fold challenge posed by Ebola: that of prevention, to avoid the propagation of a devastating epidemic, and that of supporting the already fragile healthcare systems, to help them deal with the epidemic while continuing to treat the population.