On its 40th anniversary, the Spanish NGO Médicos sin Fronteras (MSF) inaugurated yesterday, at the cultural centre La Nau, the exhibition ‘40 Años de Acción Humanitaria Independente’ (40 years of independent humanitarian action). It reviews the history of this medical and humanitarian organization as well as the principles which have guided its work. 30 pictures showing communities living in precarious circumstances, victims of armed conflicts, forced displacements, endemic, epidemic illnesses and nature disasters make up the exhibition, which can be visited until February 26th.
As the exhibition shows, MSF was founded in 1971 by a group of doctors and journalists. They felt both fustrated: the former because they were not allowed to testify on the genocide against the Igbo in Biafra (1968), and the latter because they were unhappy with the way the floods victims in East Pakistan (the current Bangladesh, 1970) were treated. They defended an independent medical action away from politic or economic interests, which would go were the people would need treatment or give testimonies of their situation.
Nowadays, MSF is one of the main independent humanitarian NGO’s in the world. Unfortunately, the current crisis it is living through recalls the earliest emergency actions it was part of when it was created. The goal has been always the same: to proctect life, to relieve suffering and restore people’s dignity. They work with principles such as independence, neutrality, non discrimination, professionalism, innovation and transparency.
The exhibition is made up of 30 pictures covering MSF’s history. They include some of the sceneries where the organization has helped over the four last decades.
These pictures allow us to remember conflicts like the one in Afghanistan, the Lebanon, Palestinian territories, Irak, Colombia, Bosnia, Chechnya, Somalia, Darfur and Congo, among others.
Witnesses of these hard situations were the photographers Sebastião Salgado, Juan Carlos Tomasi, Bruno Stevens, Bruno Barbey, Olivier Jobard, Roger Job, Eric Bouvet and John Stanmeyer, and agencies like Gamma, Magnum, Cosmos, Moment, Sipa Press and VII. All contributed to fight against politic and media oblivion.
Last update: 1 de february de 2012 08:13.
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