The organization that I chose for my Charity Pitch is Doctors Without Borders. It known as Médecins San Frontières but is known in English as Doctors Without Borders. It is a non-profit organization that seeks to provide lifesaving medical humanitarian care anywhere in the world and spread awareness about the injustices they see. They work in more than 70 countries around the globe and are committed to educating people about disease prevention and treatment. They take action in countries where the government often falters and provides displaced victims of tragedy with assistance.
It began in France in 1971 by a group of doctors who wanted to fill in the gaps that the Red Cross could not fill during major disasters. Originally, they were made up of 300 volunteers made up of doctors, nurses and other staff with 13 founding doctors and journalists. They could not decide whether they wanted to be a large structure group or a small centered guerilla one, but mostly everyone agreed they wanted to succeed where Red Cross failed. After 1980, they expanded to include more than 30,000 volunteers across the world and as of 2014, they have treated over a hundred million patients-with 8.25 million outpatient consultations.
Their mission statement is to ensure that “all people have the right to medical care regardless of gender, race, religion, creed, or political affiliation, and that the needs of these people outweigh respect for national boundaries.” Due to the Syrian missile crisis in 2018, there are a huge number of wounded displaced peoples in need of assistance in Syria. DWB evaluated the damage and ran support hospitals and health centers in displacement camps. They also distributed maternal healthcare, treatment for non-communicable diseases, relief items and improved water and sanitation systems.
Doctors Without Borders also provides news coverage of current events taking place in the world. You can read stories about the patients that are recovering, or the state of hospitals run by the different DWB branches. They cover stories such as the medical emergencies in Hong Kong or the vaccinations of thousands of girls in Malawi, Africa. DWB speaks out to the public about human rights violations especially when the government is involved as it is part of their defining principals on neutrality.
I think this organization is amazing because of its dedication to helping people regardless of their background. I think a lot of aid can be biased towards a specific group of people meanwhile those who need it more are put on the back burner. This group helps all people equally and does not turn their back on people in need. They enter these war-stricken places hoping to do good even if the conditions there are not entirely safe. I believe that their courage to make a difference despite the danger is one of the reasons why DWB means a lot to me.
Overall, I believe this organization deserves funding because they are doing honest work in a world where people are constantly being pushed from their homes due to political warfare. They will travel to what seems like the edges of the earth to provide aid and they never turn anyone away. Doctors without Borders is amazing due to the fact that they create hope where despair reigns.
Refrences: Doctors Without Borders - USA, www.doctorswithoutborders.org/.
By Zaria Miller
The expansive growth of this organization across its history speaks as a testament to the goodwill and intent of their volunteers. Healthcare is seen as a privilege not a right, leaving the impoverished in all countries most susceptible to disease and sickness. Furthermore, governments cannot be trusted with ensuring that medical care distributed to their patients is always in their best interests and without malicious intent. For example, the Tuskegee Syphilis study that was performed on 400 Black men during the middle of the 20th century. Doctors WITHOUT BORDERS on the other hand do not respond directly to one national government or authoritarian regime. Their volunteers can address global medical needs wherever they are called upon, and not only in times of natural catastrophe. Their reporting of global healthcare issues also rasies public awareness about the international initiative to ensure everyone access to quality modern healthcare. Their work is honest, noble, and surely it is in high demand. Their organization deserves the support of individuals and the international community.
ReplyDeleteWhat I find most striking about this organization is its willingness to go to remote and dangerous areas. “[Its volunteers],” according to you, “enter … war-stricken places hoping to do good even if the conditions there are not entirely safe.” This, to me, is remarkable. They are well aware of the fact that they are putting their lives at risk by doing so. Yet, they chose to overlook that for apolitical and altruistic purposes. They know that they are doing the right thing, and that is what matters the most.
ReplyDeleteSeveral years ago, as you said in your charity pitch presentation, Doctors without Borders was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. That just shows how much impact this imperfect organization has had and is still having on war-stricken countries. “Between 2009 and 2018 [alone], [its] teams conducted over one million outpatient consultations and over 460,000 emergency room consultations [in Kabul, Afghanistan].” These, by the way, were done free of charge. They attend to these many patients without expecting anything in return. This organization, I thought, must be very rich for doing such a thing. It is definitely controlled by the top 1 percent—at least that is what I thought at first. But after going through its website, I found out that Doctors without Borders is not a perfect organization. Its administration sometimes finds it difficult to balance its yearly revenue and expenses—especially when an emergency occurs. One of this organization’s biggest challenges, in fact, is “having the necessary reserves to allow [it] to respond to new emergencies as they occur.” Do not get me wrong, this organization does have lot of endowment. Its revenue in the year 2011 alone was $191.4 million. Still, this organization is not flawless. It still depends on philanthropists like us. Together, we can make a difference.
REFERENCES:
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/countries/afghanistan
https://www.doctorswithoutborders.org/what-we-do/faq-our-work