Not tacitly help, but treat and testify – that is still the motto of the Médecins Sans Frontières, in German Doctors Without Borders. The aid organization founded in Paris celebrates its 50th birthday on Wednesday. Its story is more political than the 1971 Charter suggests. Because from the start it was clear: in many cases, anyone who wants to testify can hardly avoid taking sides.
Bernard Kouchner made no secret of it. In December 1971, one of the founding fathers of the Médecins Sans Frontières, the Red Cross had sent him to Nigeria at the end of the 1960s as a doctor-to-be. A bloody civil war raged there after separatists proclaimed the independent Republic of Biafra in the south-east of the country. Kouchner experienced atrocities up close. “After that of the Jews, the Biafra massacre is the largest massacre in modern history,” he wrote at the time. To adhere to the Red Cross statutes such as “neutrality” and “impartiality” seemed to Kouchner inhuman.
The charter of the Médecins Sans Frontières, drawn up by 13 journalists and medical professionals, also obliges “to maintain complete independence from all political, economic or religious powers”. But with the motto of treating and witnessing, the organization emancipated itself more and more from the original statutes in practice. In operations such as the Lebanese civil war or the Rwandan genocide, their representatives took a public position.
Despite some confessions, it should remain apolitical
Kouchner, who later made it to French Foreign Minister under President Nicolas Sarkozy and is now 82 years old, seemed to be right. The clear language was not detrimental to the awareness of the organization: in 1999 the Médecins Sans Frontières were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
To this day, the Geneva-based organization continues to be a mouthpiece for people in need. She also takes sides in the discussion about EU migration policy. The Médecins Sans Frontières do not want to see themselves as a political organization. As the largest organization for medical emergency aid, they are active in around 70 countries and have always been active in regions affected by natural disasters such as earthquakes. Health crises also call the 65,000 members on the scene today. You helped in the Ebola crisis and are particularly active in the corona pandemic in countries where the health system is failing or does not exist.
With 1.9 billion euros in donations, the Médecins Sans Frontières raised around the same amount of money as the Red Cross and twice as much as the Oxfam aid organization last year. Government grants are practically negligible, 97 percent of the sums come from individual donors and private institutions such as companies and foundations.
The Médecins Sans Frontières are organized in sections. Of these, there are 21. Members of the organization are – not surprisingly – mainly doctors and nurses. But other professional groups are also being sought for projects. Anyone who commits from Germany usually receives an employment contract that is subject to social insurance and a gross salary of just under 1650 euros per month.
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