Home Site Map Contact Us Donate E-mail Newsletter xml  
Condition Critical

South Africa

You are viewing all content tagged South Africa.  You can also read an overview of MSF's work in South Africa.

November 5, 2009 | Special Report

HIV/AIDS: Punishing Success?

Today, the good news is that four million HIV-positive people are alive on antiretroviral therapy (ART). The bad news is that MSF teams working to treat HIV/AIDS are witnessing worrying signs of waning international support to combat HIV/AIDS.

August 10, 2009 | Voice from the Field

South Africa: "If they keep it inside, it destroys them"

The Simelela center was set up to offer medical care, the collection of forensic evidence, counseling and follow-up care for victims of sexual violence in the rape-ravaged township of Khayelitsha.

“We did a lot of work to raise awareness. We went door-to-door, held marches, and put on puppet shows for children at schools and crèches. We told them, ‘Speak up and break the silence about rape’. Married women or girlfriends who had been imprisoned in their own bedrooms told us what happened to them."

July 20, 2009 | Press Release

Sub-Optimal Treatment Threatening Survival of HIV/AIDS Patients

Cape Town, July 20, 2009 – Stagnation in HIV/AIDS funding and the high cost of new medicines are putting the lives of thousands of poor patients at risk, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today at the 2009 International AIDS Society conference in South Africa . Patients needing new drug regimens will return to AIDS “death row.” While the lack of access to antiretroviral treatment for seven million people remains unaddressed, inadequate financing now further threatens treatment scale-up.

July 20, 2009 | Special Report

HIV/AIDS Treatment in Developing Countries

Over three million people living with HIV/AIDS in the developing world receive antiretroviral therapy (ART). However, the medicines and diagnostic tools available are inadequate to respond fully to their needs. In addition, seven million people are in need of treatment and are still waiting for access.

June 2, 2009

Zimbabweans Struggle in the Shadows of South African Society

Despite the fact that many Zimbabweans risk their lives to flee Zimbabwe, the South African government has historically characterized them as ‘voluntary economic migrants’ and aggressively deported them. Until recently, approximately 17,000 Zimbabweans were deported each month by South African authorities, according to United Nations and South African Department of Home Affairs figures.

June 2, 2009 | Press Release

Zimbabwean Nightmare Of Neglect Continues In South Africa

Johannesburg/Brussels/New York, June 2, 2009 – Violence, sexual abuse, harassment, appalling living conditions, and a serious lack of access to essential healthcare define the desperate lives of thousands of Zimbabweans in South Africa today, warned the international medical humanitarian aid organization, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF).

June 2, 2009 | Special Report

No Refuge, Access Denied: Medical and Humanitarian Needs of Zimbabweans in South Africa

Despite the fact that many Zimbabweans risk their lives to flee Zimbabwe, the South African government has historically characterised them as ‘voluntary economic migrants’ and aggressively deported them. Zimbabweans say they had little choice but to leave and thousands continue to cross the border every day, legally and illegally, as a matter of survival.

March 4, 2009

'I want to help people who, like me, have been failed by the law'

I live in Khayelitsha, a large township on the outskirts of Cape Town. I grew up in Eastern Cape with my parents and four older brothers.

March 4, 2009 | Special Report

Shattered Lives: South Africa

The levels of sexual violence in South Africa are alarming: it is estimated that a woman is raped every 26 seconds. Khayelitsha, a poor township on the outskirts of Cape Town, has one of the highest incidences of rape in the country. In Khayelitsha, survivors of sexual violence receive care at Simelela, a center offering comprehensive services that go far beyond basic medical needs in a unique partnership between MSF and numerous local partners.

December 19, 2008

South Africa: Responding to cross-border cholera outbreak

As a result of its worst cholera epidemic in recent memory, Zimbabwe declared a national emergency in early December. Cholera rapidly spread throughout Zimbabwe’s provinces and then into neighboring countries, particularly South Africa. According to the South African Department of Health, there have been more than 900 suspected cases. Recently South African authorities in the northern province of Limpopo declared Vhembe district, which borders Zimbabwe, a disaster area.

July 8, 2008 | Alert Article

Snapshot: South Africa

When violence aimed at foreign nationals broke out in Johannesburg and Cape Town, MSF provided medical assistance to people who sought refuge in police stations, community halls, and churches.

June 28, 2008 | Press Release

MSF Calls Upon South African Authorities to Immediately Stop Deportation of Zimbabweans

Brussels/Johannesburg/New York, June 28, 2008 — The international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) today expressed alarm at the deportation of approximately 500 Zimbabweans, including women and children, from a detention center in Musina, South Africa, at the border with Zimbabwe.

June 18, 2008

South Africa: One Month Later, Displaced Left Out in the Cold

One month ago, violence against foreign nationals in South Africa erupted in parts of Gauteng, Western Cape, and Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, leading to the displacement of more than 80,000 people across the country, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Initially, tens of thousands of people fled to police stations, community halls, churches, and mosques to seek shelter and safety. For three weeks, they lived in poor conditions and relied primarily on a patchwork of assistance from private individuals and organizations.

June 2, 2008 | Press Release

Relocation Process Exacerbates Trauma of Displaced People in South Africa

Johannesburg/New York, June 2, 2008 – The international medical humanitarian organization MSF today expressed alarm at the process of relocation imposed on people displaced by recent violence in Johannesburg, South Africa. After living in unacceptable conditions for up to three weeks, the people displaced are now being relocated by the South African government—without proper access to information about their rights and options—to sites that are unprepared and insecure.

May 20, 2008

MSF Treats Victims of Violence Against Migrants in Johannesburg

In response to recent outbreaks of violence against migrants in Johannesburg, South Africa, MSF is currently providing emergency medical care for wounded people seeking shelter in police stations, community halls, and other locations to which they have fled for safety.

April 11, 2008

South Africa: MSF Provides Health Care to Zimbabwean Migrants

In December 2007, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) began providing essential health services to Zimbabwean migrants in the South African border town of Musina, Limpopo province, and in central Johannesburg. It is estimated that more than one million Zimbabweans live in South Africa.

November 29, 2006 | Press Release

People Not Getting AIDS Treatment They Need to Stay Alive

New York,  November  29, 2006  - AIDS treatment in the developing world will not be sustainable unless international institutions get serious about the high cost of newer medicines, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) warned today.

April 29, 2004

Khayelitsha 2001-2004: Celebrating 1,000 people on antiretrovirals

Since May 2001, three HIV/AIDS clinics in the three day-hospitals in Khayelitsha have been offering antiretroviral therapy to people with AIDS who need treatment.

November 10, 2003 | Voice from the Field

Eric Goemaere, MD
Bringing Antiretroviral Therapy to South Africa

In Khayelitsha township, a poor area near Cape Town, Eric Goemaere, MD, head of MSF in South Africa, works with colleagues and local AIDS advocacy groups to bring antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to those who need it and to push the country's government to do much more.

February 12, 2003 | Open Letters

Open Letter to the South African Government

June 1, 2001 | Alert Article

From Despair to Hope: Providing Antiretroviral Therapy in South Africa

It took coming to South Africa as an MSF volunteer for me to understand that the horror of apartheid had not disappeared. A new scourge, AIDS, had appeared in its place.

March 12, 2001 | Press Release

International Petition Campaign Launched