Médecins Sans Frontières’ have ended their mental health program after 18 months in the Kilinochchi district of north Sri Lanka. Their front line officials were on hand to providing counselling for those people who were suffering from the psychological trauma created by conflict and resettlement. Offering one-to-one counselling as well as group sessions, the team helped over 7000 children, parents, teachers and community members.

Their timely departure coincides with the local Ministry of Health committing to developing better community based psychosocial services. The Ministry, alongside the Sri Lanka College of Psychiatrists, have been trying to raise awareness of mental health issues since early 2011. Médecins Sans Frontières has now trained ten psychological support officers and ten field assistants to continue their work in the Kilinochchi general hospital. They have also helped develop community-based psychosocial services in eight schools,  and provided guidelines to further develop mental health projects in the north of Sri Lanka.

Médecins Sans Frontières’ country manager in Kilinochchi, Michel Plouffe, said -

We hope that these promises will be realised and that tangible projects will follow, as mental trauma due to conflict, and ongoing stress related to resettlement, will need long-term structural support.

Médecins Sans Frontières will continue to work in Mullaitivu district hospital in Sri Lanka. Here they will be providing support to the emergency unit and providing mental health care for the local people. Let’s hope that all their good work continues to bear fruit and that the local authorities continue to offer relief for those people suffering from mental health problems in Sri Lanka

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Tragic news from the frontline in Somalia, where two Médecins Sans Frontières staff members have been killed in the Hadan District. The deaths will see the poverty charity end all activities in the area due to fears for the safety of it’s staff, including the closure of two separate 120-bed medical facilities.

Philippe Havet and Dr. Karel Keiluhu were caring for malnourished children and treating measles and cholera, were killed by gunmen in Mogadishu. Médecins Sans Frontières now see the risks of further attacks too high, so are removing their staff for the safety and security reasons. This awful tragedy follows on from the kidnapping of two colleagues in December 2011.

Médecins Sans Frontières General Director, Christopher Stokes, said -

It is hard to close health services in a location where the presence of our medical teams is genuinely life-saving every day, but the brutal assassination of our colleagues in Hodan makes it impossible for us to continue working in this district of Mogadishu.

Médecins Sans Frontières has been almost 200,000 Somaliains in Hadan, vaccinating 67,228 children against measles in the process. Having worked in Somalia continuously since 1991, it is a real tragedy that their work will no longer continue in this district due to these unnecessary killings.

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Medicine San Frontieres are still working hard on the frontline of Somalia, where millions of people are still desperately in need of food, clean water, medicine and shelter. Below is a video of their hard work during September 2011 -

Even though charity workers are working tirelessly on the ground in Somalia, they still need your help to reach all of those people who are so desperately in need of help. It’s thanks to your donations that Medicine San Frontiere can continue to try and help the world’s poorest people, please give generously if you can, every dollar counts.

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"Please note, any prices mentioned in the Charity Gifts blog are correct at the time of posting. Please check the relevant website for the latest pricing information."

Médecins Sans Frontières are currently working overtime in the poverty stricken country of Somalia as the nutritional crisis expands further across this drought stricken land. Currently running a total of nine medical programs within Somalia, the ground force team certainly seem to have their work cut out for them.

Some of the medical programmes were put into place by Médecins Sans Frontières representatives in Somalia when they first entered to help the country in 1991. Patient numbers have obviously increased  over the last four weeks as the effects of malnutrition really begin to take a strong grip upon the inhabitants of this now barren desert.  Up to four hundred children a day are being admitted as outpatients in Marere in southern Somalia, with other medical clinics in Guriel, Dinsor, Galcayo and Galgaduud report significant increases of patients under five years of age.

With much of Somalia inaccessible to the international community due to conflict, it is really important that these areas that these areas are reached somehow to help the people caught in the crossfire. Médecins Sans Frontières are desperately trying to reach clear agreements with those in control for safe passage to attend to the worst affected parts of Somalia. Until this has been granted, it is simply too dangerous to enter and provide the medical assistance that is so desperately required.

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Médecins Sans Frontières Australia has commended the UN AIDS Summit meeting’s proposed plan to try and treat up to 15 million people with AIDS in the next 4 years. Though this figure is seen as an admirable target, their are concerns that unless new funding is found, alongside more affordable drugs, this target may be completely unachievable.

New research has shown that HIV treatment is also a good form of prevention, with a 96% reduction in the risk of transmission of HIV from one person. So, by expanding treatment, this could also help reduce by more than half the number of new infections by 2015. To do so though, an additional $6 billion must be found each year until 2015, and if it is, up to twelve million infections and  seven million deaths could be averted by 2020.

Policy/advocacy director of Médecins Sans Frontières, Michelle Childs, said -

Without affordable medicines, access to treatment cannot become a reality. Over six million people are on treatment today, largely because generic production drove the price of the first generation of AIDS medicines down by 99% since 2000. This success can only be repeated with newer and more potent medicines if barriers to-low cost drug production are removed. But countries are making promises to treat AIDS in one meeting and working hard to keep prices out of reach behind closed doors in other meetings. This double-speak has to stop.

Médecins Sans Frontières currently provides treatment to some 170,000 people living with HIV/AIDS in 19 countries across the globe.  More affordable medicine must be high on governments agendas to help the battle against more cases. If free trade agreements can be negotiated between the US, the EU and developing countries, further barriers can be broken in the search for affordable new medicines to stop and treat the AIDS epidemic that is prevalent in many third world countries.

HIV/AIDS Policy Advisor for Médecins Sans Frontières, Sharonann Lynch, said -

By agreeing to expand HIV treatment to 15 million people in four years, governments are committing to take the latest science that treatment is prevention and turn it into policies that save lives and can stop the virus. The clock starts now – everyday, we need to get more people on treatment than the day before.

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Medicins San Frontières Australia has a new interesting way for followers to find out how their life saving work is going across the globe through their series of podcasts available online. This innovative medium is a great way for people to hear first hand accounts of what is actually taking place on the frontline of some of the world’s disaster zones.

Medicin San Frontières is currently working on the ground in Chad, where a long drought followed by heavy rain has destroyed crops and cut off villages. Medical teams in the affected areas are expecting a huge increase in patients as roads become usable, with diseases such malnutrition, malaria and diarrhoea rife.

Médecins Sans Frontières medical coordinator in Chad, Oscar Niragira, said -

We did an assessment in a flooded village called Kishena, about ten kilometres from Kerfi. There we found that people struggling to find food had started to eat wild kinds of cereal found in the bush which they wouldn’t eat normally. We also found that many of the wells had been flooded or destroyed during the rains and people had to drink from dirty water sources. They were using unboiled water from the wadis for everything: drinking, cooking and washing.

> > Click here to listen to Chad Crisis podcast

Médecins Sans Frontières has so far treated more than 27,000 malnourished children with many more expected in the coming weeks.

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"Please note, any prices mentioned in the Charity Gifts blog are correct at the time of posting. Please check the relevant website for the latest pricing information."