Although I read this book back in March, it’s been a difficult to write up a review post on this fascinating and eye-opening book. Over the past few years, I’d heard several instances of the NGO aide group called Doctors Without Borders & been fascinated by the stories of heroics and helping. Hope in Hell: Inside the World of Doctors Without Borders was on my Amazon list for year & I finally received it through PaperbackSwap, but it sat in my TBR pile for about a year before I finally got up the nerve to tackle such a tough and heart-breaking book that tells stories from the more war-ravaged regions and disaster-struck areas.
There are a few chapters about the history of the group more widely known around the world as Medicines Sans Frontiers (MSF), but the majority of the book depicts the various types of outreach the group does through individual stories of volunteers in various countries. I thought the quote from the Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech in December of 1999 “For MSF, this is the humanitarian act: to seek to relieve suffering, to seek to restore autonomy, to witness to the truth of injustice, and to insist on political responsibility.” was a great summary of group’s mission statement.
The majority of their work takes place in either war zones or following natural disasters that create a humanitarian crises where food & medicine are needed to prevent the imminent death of tens of thousands. They have warehouses of pre-packed supplies ready to move when a natural disaster situation strikes. Many of their missions may be short term to re-establish basic services that the government is unable to provide, but there are several places they have nearly permanent branches as the government remains unable to provide basic health and food services for years on end.
Unlike many other NGO’s, MSF receives the majority of its funding from private donations and isn’t beholden to the countries/governments or the U.N. to make decisions or follow rules. This has often made them a target for criticism in situations like Iraq or Afghanistan, where they are refusing to take a political side in the wars & administering aide to those who are fighting on both sides.
Reading the stories of the doctors, nurses and other volunteers making due with the most basic and rudimentary of tools to provide meals, perform basic health tasks and delivery sanitation services to prevent (further) disease outbreaks was humbling to see them accomplish so much with so little. The focus of the organization is to have national staff assisting as much as possible and have the volunteers organizing and supervising them so that they are empowered to have the skills themselves when the volunteers and/or MSF leave the region. The book is filled with numerous stories of the atrocities that come with war or genocide, but hearing how it forever changed the volunteers lives was convicting to me. It’s so easy to get stuck in our small little world with all of our problems forgetting how many people out there are in much worse situations- often without any food or even basic healthcare.
I really do believe that organizations like this one and many other non-profits are playing an invaluable role in impacting suffering worldwide in ways that really make a huge difference to large groups of people. While the book is both sad for the horrors witnessed, the redemption is found in the volunteers who are striving to alleviate suffering in the face of such difficult situations.
GOOD NEWS OF THE DAY: Slowly working out the details, but I think we can pull of a 10 day Peru trip in July.
