Supporting Doctors Without Borders at VANTAGE 2019
Thomson Reuters is proud to announce that this year’s 2019 VANTAGE Worldwide charity partner is Doctors Without Borders, known globally as Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). The goal during the conference is to raise $30,000 for MSF and $11,000 had already been raised by attendees on the first day and a fundraising run took place this morning.
During the conference, Dr. Maria Belen Ramierez Bourdages shared an experience during her time in the Sudan where a boy was suffering greatly from malaria and dehydration. She later learned from the father that he would have brought the child in sooner had he known that there was a “local” MSF hospital nearby but he couldn’t quickly find a bike available to travel the 60+ miles of pressed dirt paths. Fortunately, they were able to administer medical care in time to save the boy’s life.
Doctors Without Borders is active in more than 70 countries, saving lives threatened by violence, disease, malnutrition, exclusion from health care and catastrophic events. There are over 45,000 staff members, usually dedicating themselves for 9-12 months for each assignment. Nine out of ten staff members are locally hired and trained.
The organization was founded in 1971 in Paris by a group of journalists and doctors, and today is a worldwide movement of more than 43,000 people.
