July 's 'Gifts From the Universe' Project:

Doctors Without Borders!

Changing Lives from Border to Border one DOLLAR at a Time

"This is the largest amount ever raised for Doctors Without Borders on the Firstgiving website! Many congratulations! Thank you again. We are very grateful for all your efforts on our behalf!"
- Charlie Kunzer, Doctors Without Borders

Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists, dedicated to bringing quality medical care to people caught in crises regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. MSF provides assistance when catastrophic events occur, such as armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, exclusion from health care, or natural disasters. More than half of MSF's programs are for people affected by armed conflict or internal instability. In such cases, MSF provides medical care to people who are caught in war zones and who may be injured by gunshot, knife, or machete wounds, bombings, or sexual violence. The organization provides surgical care in 25 countries, including the Democratic Republic of Congo, Haiti, Nigeria, Chechnya, and in northern Iraq, Iran, and Jordan for Iraqi civilians.

On any given day, close to 27,000 doctors, nurses, logisticians, water-and-sanitation experts, administrators, and other qualified professionals can be found providing medical care in international teams made up of local MSF aid workers and their colleagues from around the world. In 2006, MSF medical teams gave more than 9 million outpatient consultations; hospitalized almost half a million patients; delivered 99,000 babies; treated 1.8 million people for malaria; treated 150,000 malnourished children; provided 100,000 people living with HIV/AIDS with antiretroviral therapy; vaccinated 1.8 million people against meningitis; and conducted 64,000 surgeries. MSF is neutral. The organization does not take sides in armed conflicts, provides care on the basis of need alone, and pushes for increased independent access to victims of conflict.

MSF rejects the idea that poor countries deserve third-rate medical care and strives to provide high-quality care to everyone! Eighty-nine percent of MSF's overall funding (and 100 percent of MSF-USA's funding) comes from private sources alone, not governments, so it's up to us, the people, to help make a difference.