Angelica Babiera | Contributor
Featured image: Friends of MSF York raise awareness with a walk across campus. | Courtesy of Richard Roche (Flickr)
Doctors Without Borders, officially known as Médecins Sans Frontières, or MSF, is continuing to raise awareness for patients in developing countries who have to travel long distances to get proper medical care.
Friends of MSF: York, the York student organization, along with supporters, spent two hours walking around Campus Walk and collected donations as part of a world-wide fundraiser event. MSF does this annually between the dates of September 15 and October 15, according to Amir Yazdanparast, president of Friends of MSF: York.
“We walked along Campus Walk for two hours in order to raise awareness about what is going on around the world pertaining […] to the issues of hospital bombings during the war, such as the Kunduz Hospital, and get donations in support of the [MSF].”
Yazdanparast says their main goal for York is to raise funds and awareness for the MSF organization: “You would be surprised to know how many people have not heard about [MSF], one of the leading humanitarian medical organizations around the world, in an educated community like York.”
MSF is an organization that mainly focuses on building new facilities and providing medical supplies and care in order to save more lives around the world, particularly in war-torn countries or those facing endemic diseases. MSF was founded in France in 1971 in response to the Nigerian Civil War.
The non-governmental organization actively provides health care, supplies and training in over 70 countries, including Chechnya, Libya and Rwanda.
According to an MSF video, the organization ultimately provides health care in conflict or war zones to anyone who needs it, whether they are rebels or civilians.
“As a York community, we contributed by playing a small role in such a huge event, but we still made [an] impact to save lives,” states Yazdanparast.
