Feel Good Friday - Doctors Without Borders

Another Friday with people around the world impacted by conflict and natural disasters. Another post about an organization doing something to help. Today we focus on Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières, also known as MSF. 

Founded in 1971 by a group of doctors and journalists in France, MSF provides “independent, impartial medical humanitarian assistance to the people who need it most.” 

What started as a group of a few hundred volunteers 50 years ago has grown into an international movement of more than 63,000 staff providing over 10 million medical consultations in more than 70 countries and territories every year. This short video gives a great overview of their work as told by the people who do it.

MSF provides care where the needs for their expertise are greatest regardless of race, ethnicity, religion, or politics. Nearly 25% of their projects are dedicated to assisting people living in conflict. In the current Israel-Gaza war, MSF offered support to Israeli hospitals treating large numbers of casualties following attacks by Hamas militants. They are also treating people at the MSF-supported Al-Awda hospital in Gaza. You can find the latest updates at this link.

MSF aid workers respond to natural disasters like the recent earthquakes in Afghanistan and Morocco. Because they have a worldwide network, they are often the first group to deploy rapid, lifesaving medical care. This network can also be activated during an outbreak of infectious disease. MSF will set up temporary facilities to treat patients, run mass vaccination campaigns and improve water and sanitation services to help prevent the spread of disease.

Finally, MSF teams work with refugees and internally displaced people to conduct rapid needs assessments and provide services such as vaccination; primary care and mental health counseling; nutrition support; and clean water and sanitation. Because MSF is financially independent they are able to reach communities in need without restriction and directly provide high quality medical care.

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the state of the world and unsure of how you can help, supporting an organization like  Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières is one way to make an impact. You can get involved by fundraising, joining a college chapter of MSF or volunteering. You can also make a donation and spread the word on social media. Like the MSF Facebook page, subscribe to their YouTube channel follow them on Instagram @doctorswithoutborders. 

Feel Good Friday - International Refugee Assistance Project

No matter your thoughts on the situation in Afghanistan, there are thousands of Afghan refugees who can use some help. That’s why today’s Feel Good Friday is focused on the International Refugee Assistance Project. 

Founded in 2010, the International Refugee Assistance Project (IRAP) is “the legal advocacy organization for refugees and displaced people in need of a safe place to call home.” 

From offices in New York, Washington D.C., Amman, Lebanon, and Berlin, IRAP organizes both lawyers and law students to “develop and enforce a set of legal and human rights for refugees and displaced persons. Mobilizing direct legal aid, litigation, and systemic advocacy, IRAP serves the world’s most persecuted individuals and empowers the next generation of human rights leaders.” 

Work focused on the people of Afghanistan is being prioritized and includes providing legal resources for Afghans, petitioning the State Department for the immediate evacuation of Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants, and encouraging people to take action such as signing this petition and contacting your elected officials to encourage them to bring as many people to safety as possible.

The other areas of focus for IRAP include: family reunification, helping clients navigate private sponsorshippathways for refugees, protecting the integrity of the US asylum system, expanding legal protections for climate displaced people, and protecting and expanding U.S. refugee resettlement.

 As they explain in their 2020 Annual Report, in the last 11 years, IRAP has:

• Provided legal aid to more than 30,000 individuals
• Assisted more than 14,000 people through our artificial-intelligence-powered chatbot, which helps individuals navigate refugee resettlement and visa options
• Led the passage of 12 provisions of bipartisan U.S. congressional legislation, opening and improving pathways to safety for over 173,620 people
• Leveraged the courts in cases that could maintain pathways to safety for more than 339,000 individuals 

If you’d like to support IRAP and the people they support, there are several ways to do so. In addition to the actions listed for Afghan refugees, you can also make a donation and help other people learn about IRAP by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @IRAP and Instagram @refugeeassistance.

If you’re looking for more organizations that support refugees. Check out these previous Feel Good Friday blogs on the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Rescue Committee.

Feel Good Friday - MedGlobal

I learned about MedGlobal from a friend who is currently volunteering with them in Bangladesh and decided to make them today's Feel Good Friday organization.

Founded in 2017 by physicians experienced in humanitarian medicine, MedGlobal is dedicated to "creating a world without healthcare disparity". As explained on their webiste, they do this through providing "sustainable healthcare services to the refugees, the displaced and the most vulnerable in crisis areas and low resources countries worldwide by deploying diverse short term volunteer medical missions and partnering with local organizations." They venture where many other NGOs choose not to go.

Since their founding, volunteers have donated 20,080 hours to conduct 365 operations and 69,678 patient consultations in 11 countries.

In 2018, MedGlobal sent volunteers on 84 medical missions to provide care in Yemen, Sierra Leone, Syria, Lebanon, Greece and Bangladesh. They conducted over 340 surgeries and 46,000 consultations, all while upholding their core values of diversity, cultural competence and professionalism. You can watch a short video of their 2018 impact here.

Some of the current programs include: reducing infant mortality among Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh with training for birth attendants; providing healthcare to Venezuelan refugees in Colombia and running 6 medical missions in war zones in Syria to address to address the humanitarian crisis.

If you've got the necessary skills and a willingness to travel, you can volunteer on a medical team or operations and creative team. If that's not an option, you can still support the work of MedGlobal by making a donation and spreading the word on social media. Like their Facebook page, follow them on Twitter @MedGlobalOrg and watch their vlog for the latest stories from the field.

Feel Good Friday - RAICES

Over the past few weeks, many of you may have seen or contributed to the social media fundraising campaign by the Refugee and Immigrant Center for Education and Legal Services, also known as RAICES. Having learned about them during this recent fundraiser I'm making them our Feel Good Friday origination for today.

Founded in 1986, "RAICES is the largest immigration legal services non-profit in Texas, focusing on underserved immigrant children, families and refugees." In response to the current situation of immigrant families being separated at the border, RAICES crowdfunded $20 million which they brought to Washington DC earlier this week to cover bail bonds of migrant mothers who have been detained. You can read more about their efforts to #ReuniteEveryChild in this article from The Hill.

On a daily basis, "a diverse staff of 130 attorneys, legal assistants and support staff provide consultations, direct legal services, representation, assistance and advocacy to communities in Texas and to clients after they leave the state." These services include assistance with residency, citizenship, asylum, DACA and family reunification. Education and outreach programs focus on immigrant accompaniment and refugee resettlement.

The list of accomplishments from 2017 is impressive:

• closing 51,000 cases free of charge
• serving
• 7,000 mothers and children in family detention
• 680 DACA applicants
• 6,000 unaccompanied children
• resettling over 300 refugees
• training 642 volunteers

RAICES has offices in Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston and San Antonio. There is a selection of know-your-rights workshops that you can request for your organization as well as several educational videos on the website.

If you'd like to support the work of RAICES, the easiest way for most of us to get involved is to make a donation. For any readers living in Texas, you can join the Accompaniment Network or sign up to become a volunteer.

Everyone can stay current on the work of RAICES and the status of their bail bond offer by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @RAICESTEXAS.

Feel Good Friday - International Rescue Committee

For those of you who have been following the Feel Good Friday posts for the last four years, you've probably noticed they are becoming less random and more topical. In response to the recent executive order to suspend refugee resettlement in the United States, I'm profiling the International Rescue Committee (IRC).

The shortest description from their website explains, "The International Rescue Committee helps people whose lives and livelihoods are shattered by conflict and disaster to survive, recover and regain control of their future." You can watch a short video to see their work in action or see President and CEO, David Miliband, being interviewed on the Daily Show here.

It was in 1933 that the "American branch of the European-based International Relief Association (IRA) was founded at the suggestion of Albert Einstein to assist Germans suffering under Hitler." Who knew? Maybe you, but certainly not me. You can read the full history of the organization here.

More recent IRC efforts have focused on Syrian refugees, Nepali earthquake survivors and uprooted families in Burundi. In 2015 alone, more than 23 million people benefitted from IRC programs, helping them gain access to primary care, clean drinking water, job skills training, legal assistance and more. IRC's work focuses on economic wellbeing, education, health, power (as in, know your rights) and safety.

IRC has 29 offices around the US that support newly arrived refugees by providing immediate aid, including food, housing and medical attention. As explained on the website, "refugees are men, women and children fleeing war, persecution and political upheaval who have crossed borders to seek safety in another country. Most eventually go home when it's safe, some stay in temporary refugee settlements, and a tiny fraction resettle in a third country, such as the U.S." In 2015 the U.S. helped resettle 9,961 newly arrived refugees and we have pledged to resettle 110,000 refugees in 2017.

There is no need to fear refugees coming to the U.S. since they are vetted more than any other group seeking entrance. Most are referred for resettlement by the UNHCR (profiled in in this FGF post from Sept, 2015). Detailed information about refugee vetting, resettlement and the current situation can be found at this link.

If you want to support refugees, both those coming to the U.S. and worldwide, but are not always available for an impromptu airport protest, check out the how to help page and stay in the social medial loop by liking the IRC Facebook page and following them on Twitter @theirc.

Feel Good Friday - UNHCR - The UN Refugee Agency

These days there is a lot of news of refugees from Syria and other countries trying to make their way towards Europe and meeting with varied amounts of resistance and success. Since it's Feel Good Friday, we're going to take a closer look at the The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, more commonly known as UNHCR.

As explained in the "About Us" section of their website, UNHCR "was established December 14, 1950 by the United Nations General Assembly. The agency is mandated to lead and coordinate international action to protect refugees and resolve refugee problems worldwide. Its primary purpose is to safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees. It strives to ensure that everyone can exercise the right to seek asylum and find safe refuge in another State, with the option to return home voluntarily, integrate locally or to resettle in third country. It also has a mandate to help stateless people."

While they may be most well known for their emergency preparedness and assistance to people fleeing wars - they have teams of people and stockpiles of food ready to be deployed at a moments notice - this is just one of many services they offer. Others include advocacy on behalf of refugees, providing alternatives to camps and guidance for countries accepting asylum seekers and migrants, and helping refugees with repatriation and resettlement.

Violence and economic hardship are not the only reasons people put their lives at risk to relocate. "In 2013, 22 million people were displaced by disasters brought on by natural hazard events." That's why the UNHCR also focuses on climate change and minimizing the environmental impact of refugee operations.

Being such a well-established organization, their website is full of statistics, resources and videos. They post new videos on their website every few days and most are under 3 minutes long. If you want to see something inspiring, rather than depressing, watch this video of immigrants being welcomed in Austria.

If you want to make a difference, there are various ways you can get involved - donating money, volunteering time or supporting UNHCR online by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @Refugees.