Ms Frauke Ossig:

Acceptance is one of the essential points and it often makes MSF very different from other organisations. We strongly believe that acceptance through good programming and through programming that is relevant for communities is the best protection we can have. If we and our services are not accepted, then we are working in the wrong direction and we are missing our objective. This is why community engagement is important for us and we need to constantly redefine and adjust our programmes to the needs of the population.

With regard to the psychological impact, I am happy to say I strongly believe we are doing very well in terms of providing psychological supports to our team, and that is not just to our international staff members but to our national staff members as well, who are often a bit forgotten in the discussion. For us, it may be dangerous to go into several countries but for the majority of our staff, it is very dangerous to continue living in their countries because they are affected every single day, as are their families, while we are going in for a short period and then stepping out again. Often, we potentially have better protection just by being someone who is not from the local context and who is probably perceived as a bit more removed than our national staff could be. We have a team of psychosocial support units available to all of our staff, including national staff, with a 24-hour hotline in different languages, including in Arabic, so our staff can access that support.