An MSF doctor looks after refugees who just arrived at U2 camp in South Mosul, Iraq on 9 May 2017; Credit: © Giulio Piscitelli

Throughout 2017, Medecins Sans Frontieres teams worked in 72 countries, where they ran 463 different medical and humanitarian projects; 24 of those employees worked within MSF Luxembourg.

Last year was particularly notable for three major crises: the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh, the cholera epidemic in Yemen, a country already ravaged by three years of conflict, and the Battle for Mosul in Iraq. MSF has also been supporting the most vulnerable in many other situations, including the conflict in Nigeria, the upsurge in violence in the Central African Republic, the influx of refugees in Lebanon, to name a few. Indeed, the organisation performed 10,725,800 outpatient medical consultations and hospitalised more than 824,000 patients.

On a local level, 24 employees are currently working within the association, raising awareness throughout Luxembourg on humanitarian issues, raising the funds needed to pay for interventions and supervising MSF volunteers in the field, as well as setting up dozens of operational research studies led by the LuxOR unit (the operational research unit based in Luxembourg).

In 2017, LuxOR continued to support more than 60 different medical and humanitarian aid projects through their research. Members of the LuxOR team travelled to 11 different countries to support field data collection and analysis, whilst also responding to outbreaks of infectious diseases. Working closely with colleagues from the medical department in Brussels, LuxOR has contributed to publishing 99 scientific papers in leading scientific journals on 15 different topics.

The Luxembourg association brings together 99 members, 57 volunteers, 9 members of the Board of Directors and more than 25,000 active donors who allow MSF to continue its important work.

Thanks to the generosity of a growing number of people in Luxembourg, MSF can continue to carry out its vital work. In 2017, Luxembourg donors supported MSF’s operations to the tune of €6.5 million.