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Christmas in Darfur

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 12:00:00 GMT

It’s going to be a funny sort of Christmas this year. Not because I’ll be working – if you’re a childless A&E nurse then you tend to find yourself working on Christmas Day (so that those with young families can spend it at home), and I’ve only had one “family” Christmas in the last six years. The reason that this Christmas will be particularly different for me is that I will be spending it working in Shangil Tobaya IDP (Internally Displaced Person) camp in Northern Darfur, Sudan.

Jill's Ethiopian Diary: Memories, good and bad.

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 11:00:00 GMT

I am nearing the end of my three month mission in Ethiopia in the Kambata and Tambaro regions on a malnutrition project. When I look back and reflect on the last three months there are many emotions and fond memories that I wish to hold on to for a very long time… and quite a few that I am sure I will remember, because it is important, but which are not happy ones.

Jill's Ethiopian Diary: Birth, barbecued maize and the weekly shop.

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Many more donkey and carts are seen on a daily basis now, laden with maize, cabbages, bananas and ginger going to and from markets. In most of the areas, there is now a visible reduction in the severe acute malnutrition admissions.

Essential healthcare amid the dust and desolation in Southeast Ethiopia

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Life in the Somali region of Ethiopia is tough. The rains have failed, food is running out and even the camels are dying of thirst.

Jill's Ethiopian Diary - Fighting the food crisis

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:00:00 GMT

The journey from Shinshicho to Hadero takes thirty minutes along a pot-holed dirt road.

On the boat

Fri, 30 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

“We’re going to try it.” That is the conclusion. Tomorrow we’re going to go out in a boat with the mobile team. For the first time expats will join one of the national teams to carry out medical consultations and distributions. We have no idea how the authorities will react now that foreigners are also going out into the field.

Nearly the end

Thu, 15 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Traumatised

Mon, 12 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Sunday, 12 May - Everyone on our team sees an average of more than 200 patients a day and many people are in shock or are experiencing trauma. There are confused people still searching for their families, children who have lost their parents, parents who have watched their children drown. In the evenings, I sit with my colleagues and everyone tells what they’ve heard and seen during the day. It is difficult for everyone. We are all tired and we sleep poorly.

Survival

Sun, 11 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Saturday, 11 May - We need to rent more boats. Every day the number of teams and amount of material grows and most places can only be reached by boat. I negotiate with a boat owner. He is a nice guy and is very glad to help us with our work. Just as all the other people here, he has a “I barely survived” story too.

Fear

Sat, 10 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Friday, 10 May - The weather got worse last night. Our team tried to sleep in the supply tent we had set up in the village earlier in the day. But in the middle of the night, it was no longer possible. Soaked to the bone and cold from the storm and rain, we ran to a nearby house.

Infection

Fri, 09 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Thursday, 9 May - The girl is seven years old. She has a big, ugly head wound from the moment a palm tree fell on top of her. Using unhygienic material, someone gave her emergency stitches. The wound is now terribly infected and she needs more medical help than our mobile team can offer. Her father is a fisherman and they lived in a house by the sea.

Rice

Thu, 08 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Skeletons

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Yangon

Tue, 06 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Radio News

Sun, 04 May 2008 19:00:00 GMT

Lost luggage

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Speaking out

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Sink or swim in the Dirty River

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Sad, disappointed, angry, but not shocked

Sat, 15 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Hard to say goodbye

Sun, 02 Mar 2008 12:00:00 GMT

If... if...

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Playing in the snow

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Welcome to Palestine

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 12:00:00 GMT

Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo

Thu, 01 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

A Bundle of Babies

Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Rain inside my collar

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In this diary entry Nicola meets strong women and suspicious men.

The Power of Positive Thinking

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT

I'm writing this from Tam, the traditional tribal area of the Bol-Nuer tribes. We are doing three weeks of outreach work here; it's isolated, there are very few trees and it's the hottest place I have ever experienced in the world!

Impossible Choices...

Fri, 06 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Condom stories

Sun, 01 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In this diary entry Nicola meets strong women and suspicious men.

A Town of Tukuls

Tue, 01 May 2007 00:00:00 GMT

In Sri Lanka's turbulent Jaffna Peninsula

Sun, 01 Apr 2007 00:00:00 GMT

"We did a totally crazy transfer today of a guy who had been shot through the neck..."

Back from Nepal

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

A Day in the DRC

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Benish Bibi

Tue, 02 Jan 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Unexploded ordinance wreaks havoc in Chad

Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Let me tell you about the Ade project I'm involved in. There's still plenty to do in our little frontier paradise. We're running a basic health care programme and a feeding programme for malnutrition.

From Galcayo Somalia ...

Sun, 01 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

But what you don't realise is tuberculosis carries a lot of stigma - like AIDS - so they won't tell you if the child has been in contact with someone with TB, especially if it's a senior member of the family.

Human resources in the humanitarian frontline

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:00:00 GMT

May 2006

Sat, 01 Jul 2006 00:00:00 GMT

A Flying Watsan in Sudan

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

It was a Thursday last March that the call came from MSF. "Can you leave for Sudan on Sunday. There's an outbreak of cholera there..."

Marburg Disease in Angola

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Lives Hanging in the Balance in Northern Kenya

Thu, 01 Jun 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Isaac

Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 GMT

"... When he first arrived he was too weak to stand and so to see him walking gives everyone hope."

In the ongoing crisis in Darfur

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

In Northern Uganda

Wed, 01 Feb 2006 00:00:00 GMT

Sandflies Sorghum and Stigma Tackling Kala Azar and HIV in Ethiopia

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The Helpless Attendant

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

"I start to feel scared. I want to pick him up and take him home. I'm sure that with all our fancy intensive care in the UK, he would be alright. The whole situation seems so unfair."

In Kashmir

Thu, 01 Dec 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Khabirs smile

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Khabir shows no emotion and I'm not surprised. What mental tools does a 5 year old have to deal with that kind of experience? The terror and pain of being buried alive with broken limbs is impossible to imagine.

Night and Day in Darfur

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Sherif was admitted this morning, severely dehydrated due to the diarrhoea, struggling to breathe and burning up with fever...

Letters from Angola

Tue, 01 Nov 2005 00:00:00 GMT

In Indonesia

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

The teams had to wait until a mosquito landed on their skin and then capture it by sucking it into a tube...

A Scotsman speaking Portugese... - Ch. 4

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

In Burundi

Sat, 01 Oct 2005 00:00:00 GMT

A Chicken Called Sally...

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 GMT

A Scotsman speaking Portugese... - Ch. 5

Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:00:00 GMT

I couldn't help thinking that it wasn't fair...

Mon, 01 Aug 2005 00:00:00 GMT

A Scotsman speaking Portugese... - Ch. 3

Fri, 01 Jul 2005 00:00:00 GMT

A Scotsman speaking Portuguese ... - Ch. 2

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Running an HIVAIDS Treatment Programme in a Conflict Zone

Wed, 01 Jun 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Feeding the children

Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 GMT

When I finished my nursing training in 1992, I knew I wanted to do this kind of work. Before joining Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) in 2001, I had already worked overseas in India and South America. This is my fourth mission with MSF. Previously I worked in South Sudan for 15 months, in Iraq for about 5 months, and then Kashmir for 7 months.

A Scotsman speaking Portugese... - Ch. 1

Sun, 01 May 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Postcard No. 4 - March 2005

Fri, 01 Apr 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Doctoring in Darfur

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 GMT

Letters from Chad

Tue, 01 Mar 2005 00:00:00 GMT

What I found most surprising was the contrast of reality with the typical images of refugee camps seen on TV.

In south Sudan

Sun, 02 Jan 2005 00:00:00 GMT

I marveled at the fact that people who had been through so much could smile and laugh and revel in life...

From Somerset to Sudan

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Postcard No. 3 - November 2004

Wed, 01 Dec 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Liberia - Diary of a Liberian aid worker

Thu, 23 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

A view from the frontline: Been a while since I picked up my pen but unfortunately can't be long as we're about to leave on another venture into the great unknown. I wonder what we'll find.

Postcard No. 2 - September 2004

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

EVERYTHING ON HOLD FOR NOW ALL OF US IN SHOCK

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Postcard No. 1 - August 2004

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Frigophobia in Sri Lanka

Wed, 01 Sep 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Hell on Earth

Thu, 01 Jul 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Where women give birth with their trousers on

Thu, 01 Jul 2004 00:00:00 GMT

As a female midwife I had an incredible insight into the lives of women in Afghanistan.

Hello from Pakistan

Thu, 01 Jul 2004 00:00:00 GMT

I am now in the town of Sadda, in the middle of the Tribal Areas of the North Western Frontier Province...

If you can walk dance...

Thu, 01 Apr 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Spring greetings from the MSF Project Coordinator in Kambia Town, Sierra Leone, (turn left at Piccadilly Circus and then it's sort of straight down all the way.)!

Letter from Kitchanga

Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 GMT

A Race Against Time - Battling Meningitis in Angola

Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Enormous Needs in Baraka

Mon, 01 Mar 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Medicine in the middle of nowhere

Sun, 01 Feb 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Drums of Silence

Fri, 02 Jan 2004 00:00:00 GMT

Hours ago the doctor examined a pregnant woman; her condition was worsening and she still had not given birth. Difficult births are alarmingly common in Sierra Leone, and the MSF clinical team in Magburaka are well-known for performing life-saving Caesarean section operations that are referred to the hospital.

Out of Somalia

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 00:00:00 GMT

In June 2003 I arrived in Nairobi, to set up a new project in Marere, in the Lower Juba region Southern Somalia.

Thin Girl with a Headscarf

Wed, 01 Oct 2003 00:00:00 GMT

Talking Football With Isaac

Tue, 01 Oct 2002 00:00:00 GMT

This article was first published in Hospital Doctor magazine.

Solveig Hamilton

Wed, 15 May 2002 00:00:00 GMT