Doctors Without Borders (MSF) carries out an evaluation of 2014, a year in which the organisation had to make an “exceptional” effort to give response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa, and other crisis caused by the conflict and the violence. The presentation of the 2014 Activities Report took place at the Cultural Centre La Nau of Universitat de València, in the 20th anniversary of the opening of the MSF office in the city of Valencia.
The press conference had the interventions of Antonio Ariño, vice-principal for Culture and Equality of Universitat de València; Mila Font, delegate of Doctors Without Borders in Valencia; Víctor Fernández, doctor of the Emergency unit, just back from Yemen, who has also worked in Syria, Somalia, Haiti, and Philippines; and David Romero, engineer with experience in MSF projects in Congo, Yemen, Colombia, and South Sudan.
“2014 was a year with more and more complex crisis, exceptionally hard for billions of people, which also required an exceptional effort for MSF and, specially exceptional in the demonstration of solidarity of the civil societies”, indicated Mila Font, delegate of Doctors Without Borders for the Valencian Community.
The biggest Ebola epidemic of history affected deeply some countries of West Africa, undermined its healthcare systems and claimed the life of 11.000 people. “This epidemic brought us to the limits of our capacity. We face unprecedented challenges in front of the passivity of the international community”, she emphsised.
Besides, by the end of 2014, the number of refugees and internally displaced people registered by the United Nations was close to 60 billion, the highest since World War II, result of a world more and more convulsed and violent affected with conflicts, which causes the flight of billions of people that try to safeguard their lives.
In 2014, MSF-Spain was present in 21 countries where it carried out 80 projects. In many of them, it had to readapt its labour to reach a bigger impact, as the case of Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan or South Sudan where the rapid response teams attended to the populations on the move to provide emergency medical aid in the temporary settlements. The logistic challenges in such precarious contexts are many, “for example, in the case of the vaccines, the big challenge is to maintain the cold chain when there is limited access to electricity”, pointed David Romero, engineer that works for MSF in Congo.
The same way, MSF knew how to adapt in a strong way to growing difficulties to work in highly dangerous contexts as Yemen or Syria. “The biggest difficulty is to access to those who most need us, civil population trapped in very violent conflicts, where they are the direct target of the bombs”, warns Víctor Fernández, doctor of MSF.
At a local level, from the office in Valencia 80 awareness activities (meetings with members, talks, projections, exposures, and other events) have been launched; specially the activities with university students have increased, being particularly significant the collaboration with Universitat de València, with which have been organised 18 initiatives in 2014, in which more than 1.300 students have participated.
Financial Resources
Even though the context is still marked by the deep economic crisis, the generous response of society allows that the private funds continue guaranteeing the economic independence and the independence of action of Doctors Without Borders. This translates into almost the 90% of the funds of the organisation being of private source, not institutional.
The balance sheet shows that the expense of MSF Spain reached in 2014 the 120.671.859 billion euros (a 4,73% more than in 2013): the bet on the optimisation of the resources got to place in a 83,8% the expenses destined to the social mission of the organisation (humanitarian aid and testimony) and to maintain in a 16,2% the expenses to the administration and attracting funds.
In relation to the incomes, they proceeded in a 89,8% from private sources (members, private donors, firms, heritages, and own funds of MSF), and in a 10,2% from institutional funds (essentially ECHO and the Swedish government), making a total of 148,8% billions of euros, a 28% more than in 2013.
MSF ended 2014 with 425.493 members and active collaborators at a state level. In the Valencian Community, the year closed with 33.186 members and collaborators. The contributions during 2014 reached the quantity of 5.196.426 euros. At a local level, Valencia is the city that gives most support, with almost 10.000 members and collaborators.
To these private funds, it is necessary to add those of 280 Valencian local firms and entities that contributed with a total of 187.854 euros.
Human Resources
From the Valencian Community have been 27 people who have worked in 2014 in some of the 80 projects that have been carried out in 21 countries. At a global level, 398 full time posts for international staff and 3.667 for national staff have been generated.
What is Doctors Without Borders
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is a medical-humanitarian international organisation that gives aid to populations in precarious position, to victims of natural or human disasters, and of armed conflicts, without discrimination on race, religion, or political ideology.
The independent and impartial presence of the organisation in the situations of crisis allows for carrying out an immediate and temporary action of assistance to the people most in need, taking on risks, confronting the power, and using the testimony as a means to lead to changes in favour of the populations.
Close to the 90% of the incomes comes from the contributions of 5 millions of members and collaborators in the whole world (more than 425.000 in Spain). This allows for deciding where and when to intervene, according to the necessities of the populations and not to political, economic, or military interests.
In 2014, they carried out 1.335.398 external consultations; they hospitalised 60.060 patients; treated 335.000 people with malaria and 46.700 children with severe malnutrition, and vaccinated against measles approximately to 262.000 people, among other actions. For this, they have a total of 4.065 workers in field (the 90% of the national staff) and 330 people in headquarters.
The “2014 Activities Report. Challenges, dilemmas, achievements, and failures of our action” is available at : http://www.msf.es/memoria/2014
VIDEO, REPORT, AND PHOTO GALLERY: http://we.tl/nGTwRybkoA (Until 4th August)
Last update: 29 de july de 2015 14:44.
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