Imagine an entire community of individuals, from doctors to massage therapists, that does not answer to any political entity or religion, yet still manages to collectively provide free healthcare services to millions of individuals in need every year. Medecins Sans Frontiers, or popularly known in the US as Doctors Without Borders, is an international NGO that does just that. The organization began in 1971 when a group of French doctors and journalists recognized the dire need for assistance in healthcare during times of war, famine, and flood in Nigeria and Pakistan. Since then, it has expanded and provides aid to over 60 countries in underserved regions across Central America, South America, Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia as well and developed a mission “to deliver emergency [medical] aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural or man-made disasters, or exclusion from health care.”(www.msf.org) Because Medecins Sans Frontiers recruits such a diverse group of volunteers, they are able to address a broad spectrum of health issues. Not only do doctors of all specialties volunteer with the group, but nurses, paramedics, EMTs, dentists, dental technicians, dental hygienists, optometrists, opticians, audiologists, podiatrists, massage therapists, mental health professionals, epidemiologists, and logistics experts all join Medecins Sans Frontiers in their mission as well. In total, there are over 27,000 individuals around the world assisting those in need through Medecins Sans Frontiers any given day of the year. Physicians and other health professionals often offer treatment for diseases that are prevalent in tropical areas like chagas and malaria. Treatment for illnesses that are widespread in developin... ... middle of paper ... ...y. One of their greatest achievements was their 1999 Nobel Peace Prize in the field of humanitarian work “in recognition of the organization’s pioneering humanitarian work on several continents.” (nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1999) Since then, Medecins Sans Frontiers has continued to expand the services they provide. Last year, they conducted 7.5 million outpatient consultations, delivered 110,000 newborns, treated 1.1 million for malaria, treated 200,000 malnourished children, provided 165,000 infected with HIV/AIDS with antiretroviral therapy, vaccinated 7.9 million against meningitis, and conducted 50,000 surgeries. Sources Cited www.msf.org http://charityreports.bbb.org/national/health/doctors-without-borders-usa-in-new-york-ny-783 http://www.ksghauser.harvard.edu/ http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1999/
The proliferation of crises around the world has led to a prominent increase in the amount of humanitarian aid needed. Humanitarian aid work represents not only compassion, but commitment to support innocent populations that have experienced sudden or on-going tragedies. Some of these tragedies include: malnutrition, genocide, diseases, torture, poverty, war, natural disasters, government negligence, and unfortunately much more. There is no doubt that these tragedies are some of the world’s toughest problems to solve as they are often complex, multifaceted and require diligence and patience. For this reason, being a humanitarian aid worker is more than a profession, it is a lifestyle that requires a sharp distinction between one’s work and
Angell, Marcia. "The Ethics of Clinical Research in the Third World." New England Journal of Medicine. 337.12 847-849. Web. 9 Feb. 2014.
“The only real nation is humanity” (Farmer 123). This quote represents a huge message that is received in, Tracy Kidder’s, Mountains Beyond Mountains. This book argues that universal healthcare is a right and not a privilege. Kidder’s book also shows the audience that every individual, no matter what the circumstances, is entitled to receive quality health care. In the book Kidder represents, Paul Farmer, a man who spends his entire life determined to improve the health care of impoverished areas around the world, namely Haiti, one of the poorest nations in the world. By doing this the audience learns of the horrible circumstances, and the lack of quality health care that nations like Haiti live with everyday, why every person has the right to healthcare no matter what, and how cost effectiveness should not determine whether or not these people get to live or die. Two texts that also argue this idea are Monte Leach’s “Ensuring Health Care as a Global Human Right,” and Darshak Sanghavi’s “Is it Cost Effective to Treat the World’s Poor.” Leach’s article is an interview with Benjamin Crème that illustrates why food, shelter, education, and healthcare are human rights that have to be available to everyone. He shares many of the same views on health care as Farmer, and the two also share similar solutions to this ongoing problem. Leach also talks about the rapidly growing aids epidemic, and how it must be stopped. Like farmer, he also argues that it is easier to prevent these diseases then to cure them. Furthermore, Sanghavi’s article represents many of the questions that people would ask about cost effectiveness. Yet similar to Farmer’s views, Sanghavi argues that letting the poor d...
Non-Profit organizations are a major mold in society in general, and they continue to help advance many of the social causes of our time. From the description, we know that employee and volunteer morale is quite low, and that is the fault of the senior management. In an organization, it is important that each individual knows that they are contributing to something larger than themselves. In many cases, employees seek to work somewhere where they can earn a living, but also where they can become a member of a team, and feel a sense of purpose. When they are not treated with respect or given the ability to make their own decisions, they lose engagement and become stagnant in their work. Volunteers look for much of the same thing; they are, after
...out sanitation, infrastructure, and hygiene can greatly reduce global health disparities worldwide. In addition, research is another fundamental necessary in ensuring human health quality for individuals. I admire the researchers who commit in finding answers to fight against chronic diseases occurring worldwide. I have significantly respect the researchers who work together in discovering new diseases and treatments affecting individuals globally and not only fulfilling one country’s needs. It is my desire to become one of those researchers in the next ten years contributing in global health and decreasing global health inequalities in order to provide health care equality for every human being living in the world. We need to work together, globally, and collaborate in order to end health inequalities and the pursuit of human equality in the sake of social justice.
There are many areas of the world where the most basic needs like clean drinking water, proper sanitation and medical care are just not available. When disaster strikes, the people living in these already disadvantaged areas are thrust into situations where death is almost always imminent. Reach Out WorldWide (“ROWW”) was started by a group of 6 men in California. They flew to Haiti and volunteered to help in whatever way they could after a massive earthquake devastated the country on January 12, 2010. While working in Haiti as medical aid volunteers, the group recognized the need for skilled people, supplies and urgency for a faster response when natural disasters strike.
"In nothing do men more nearly approach the gods than in giving health to men," this quote by Cicero perfectly describes what the Cuban medical system is attempting to create, a place in which doctors have a desire and drive to not only help people of wealth and stature but also to help those in vulnerable, poor, communities where payment may not be an option. The time in which doctors are compelled by greed and fiscal selfishness needs to end; Cuba is attempting to do this by instilling a new code of ethics to the doctors that graduate from Cuba's Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).
According to World Health Organization, the statics show that: - The world needs 17 million more health workers, especially in Africa and South East Asia. - African Region bore the highest burden with almost two thirds of the global maternal deaths in 2015 - In Sub-Saharn Africa, 1 child in 12 dies before his or her 5th birthday - Teenage girls, sex workers and intravenous drug users are mong those left behind by the global HIV response - TB occurs with 9.6 million new cases in 2014 - In 2014, at least 1.7 billion people needed interventions against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) (“Global Health Observatory data”, n.d.) B. A quote of Miss Emmeline Stuart, published in the article in
While maintaining environmental awareness, Medshare truly strives to provide healthcare to developing communities in need around the world. In addition to providing tools and equipment, Medshare strives to educate and send Medical Mission Teams to the countries that they work with in order to maintain consistent medical care for the people of that region. Alone, knowing that the work that we were doing held true significance behind the health of an individual I will never meet was incredible. The experience of working at Medshare was quite humbling, I am currently less than an hour away from the nearest hospital and have access to immediate care when necessary whereas the people that Medshare serves have limited if any access to medical assistance. As cliche as it may sound, I often overlook how fortunate I am to have access to educated healthcare professionals within the United States. Volunteering at Medshare simply furthered my longing to work in the medical field, while also opening my eyes to the work that I could potentially do internationally. Although the work that we did seemed so insignificant, but the impact that it will have on others lives is quite
The first reasons to think that foreign aid should be spend is that “Aid saves lives” which is clearly illustrated by the researches conducted. Compare 1990 to 2010, as a result of aid in vaccines and health, there was a decrease in number of children who died from illness of pneumonia and diarrhoea (BBC). For example, in Botswana, the foreign aid fund had provided a test of HIV for pregnant mothers and therefore decrease the amount of newborn babies which catches HIV. Furthermore, in Bangladesh, there is a 62% drop in death rate for the under five children, the aid fund allows the government to be able to afford “vaccines and trained the midwives”.
The biblical worldview is essentially the integration of fundamental biblical teachings to become a meaningful and unified response to the routine opportunities and challenges of modern life. An individual wholly inscribed into a biblical worldview projects a belief system that the core purpose of existence is to love and serve the Lord God alone. Essentially, a Christian worldview is formed in reference of the infallible living Word of God (Tackett, 2014). After a believer fully believes the living Word of God then allows it to form the basis of everything in their life. That implies, for instance, that when a believer chooses to pursue Romans 13 to respect people in authority then must take priority in voting and electing new leaders into power. A bible believing person should lead a life that portrays the biblical teachings and truths. As practical Christians our gut reaction should be limited to the biblical established truths (Wayne, 2014).
Red Cross, Josea’s feed the hungry and UNICE- what do they all have in common? They are all nonprofit organizations. Throughout the world, but especially in the United States nonprofit organizations are very important and a necessity for many cities. It has become one of the main focuses for a growing amount of majors and studies for many people. With more than 8 million employees and more than 80 million volunteers in the United States alone nonprofit are some of the most important job in recent times (Drucker). The importance of many nonprofit organizations could be the difference between many people’s lives and their deaths. The importance of nonprofit organizations is growing throughout the United States day by day. The fact that nonprofits are built solely on helping the people throughout your community and neighboring communities make nonprofits important based on that fact in itself. Nonprofit provide places to sleep when maybe a family has nowhere to go or somewhere to have a hot meal. This could be someone in your family, a close friend or even a distant neighbor but in all people are people and help is help so the reasons for nonprofit being important are ongoing.
Pitts and Koufopoulos (2012) argue that resources and capability are highly important internal factors that should be taken into account by the organization in order to obtain the successful performance in the long run.
London, England. The.. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine n.d., Session 5: The role of the state. in global health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, England. Ricci J.
In his article, John McCormick establishes that the number of NGOs present in the world today probably exists well into the six figures (P. 60). Assuming that the role of NGOs is to keep governmental organizations in check when it comes to environmental issues, it frustrated me to think that there actually could be such problems with environmental issues. Certainly hundreds of thousands of such organizations must be able to regulate the environment in an efficient manner so to keep the major problems in check, right? But I soon learned that the NGOs themselves, are often corrupt in their cooperation and may actually hinder the regulation of environmental standards.