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Spotlight on non-governmental organizations focused on public health and related issues • Doctors Without Borders, aka Médecine Sans Frontières (MSF): provides medical care to people in crisis, serving affected communities on the ground during and in the immediate aftermath of war, natural disaster, epidemic, and famine. MSF operates in nearly 60 countries around the world and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. • Human Rights Watch: a leading global watchdog group investigating and calling attention to human rights violations. • Malaria No More: works to eliminate malaria, applying a business-style operations approach to delivering solutions such as bed nets, medicines, and insecticides to populations in need. • OXFAM: founded in 1995, Oxfam International is a confederation of 14 member organizations focused on issues of poverty and injustice. The name “Oxfam” comes from the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief, founded in Britain in 1942. • Partners In Health (PIH): takes a partnership and solidarity-based approach to strengthening health care services in underserved communities and providing a preferential option for the poor in health. Then-Harvard medical student Paul Farmer and others founded PIH in 1987. Farmer and the work of PIH—first in Haiti and later in several other countries—were the subject of Tracy Kidder’s widely read book, Mountains Beyond Mountains. • Project HOPE: founded in 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is well known for the SS HOPE, which was the world’s first peacetime hospital ship. Project HOPE now provides medical training, health education, and humanitarian assistance in more than 35 countries.
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