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Dar es Salaam, June 2019 – For the first time in Tanzania, Médecins Sans
Frontières/Doctors without Borders (MSF) will bring together stories portraying the determination and resilience of its patients and staff in a photo exhibition to mark the organisation’s enduring solidarity with populations in need.
“Photos give the abstract concept of solidarity real substance by putting human interaction at the centre”, said Vincent Rico, MSF’s Country Director in Tanzania.
“Direct medical assistance is at the core of what we do, allowing us to work alongside populations and helping us bear witness to our patients’ remarkable and inspiring stories”.
Captured over the course of MSF’s 25 years of medical work in Tanzania, these photos offer a glimpse of the organisation’s activities in the country. During these years MSF has supported the Tanzanian authorities in providing urgent medical assistance to refugees. At the same time, MSF has run specific programmes to support the Tanzanian population, for instance by responding to a cholera outbreak in the south eastern Mtwara district in 2003, and providing specialised care for HIV in the Makete region in 2005, among others.
Today, MSF
is focusing its services in the Nduta refugee camp, in Kigoma region, where it is the main healthcare provider, running a 150-bed hospital, managing multiple health posts, and carrying out health promotion through a large network of community health workers. The exhibition shows MSF staff providing care to adults and children living in the camp and in the villages surrounding the camp, both in the health posts and in the hospital.
“As a neutral, impartial humanitarian organisation, MSF provides medical assistance based solely on needs”, added Vincent Rico. “While recognising the specific needs of refugees, we strongly believe in orienting our assistance programmes in a way that also supports vulnerable Tanzanian host communities who have shown remarkable generosity in welcoming people fleeing danger”. To showcase MSF’s global solidarity, the exhibition also curates photos that highlight the organisation’s work in responding to a number of emergencies across the world including the Mediterranean crisis in Europe and the Ebola
epidemic in West Africa and D.R. Congo.
The 40 photos in the exhibition will be on show at the Alliance Française Exhibition Hall from 13 June to 15 June, and will be open to the public. Most of the photos presented at the exhibition were taken by MSF staff.
About MSF Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is an international, independent, medical humanitarian organisation that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural disasters and exclusion from healthcare. MSF offers assistance to people based on need, irrespective of race, religion, gender or political affiliation.
Our actions are guided by medical ethics and the principles of neutrality and
impartiality.Thousands of health professionals, logistical and administrative staff – most of whom are hired locally – work on programmes in over 72 countries worldwide.
