"The Conflict"
CONGO | SIBERIA | AFGHANISTAN

Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC):

Maria Kantilli, a nurse, and her boyfriend Peter Rietveld, a logistician, both Dutch, voyage into a remote, barely accessible area of DRC by motorbike, searching for signs of cachexia, a rare wasting condition which produces, in the words of locals, “living skeletons” – severely emaciated people. Maria and Peter are on an “exploratory mission,” a short project meant to roughly assess the needs of the local population and determine whether MSF should respond with a medical intervention. In this case, the people Peter and Maria meet have been without medical care for many years, isolated by armed conflict, lack of infrastructure, and pure physical distance. (read more about the DRC)

Siberia (Russia):
Laura Lobera, a doctor from Spain, and her colleague, Wibke Haas, a nurse from Germany, are on a pilot project in Siberia tackling cases of multi-drug resistant tuberculosis (TB). Any patient who abandons the TB treatment without finishing it risks contracting and spreading this especially lethal strain of the disease. MSF has already been providing TB treatment to prison populations in the region, but unlike prisoners, Laura and Wibke’s patients are free to travel at will. When one of their patients vanishes, Laura and Wibke have to track him down and convince him to resume treatment. (read more about Siberia)

Afghanistan:
Canadian ER doctor Bruce Lampard has been assigned the task of rehabilitating a hospital and providing medical support and training to the staff in Qal’eh-ye Now, a small rural town in Afghanistan. The hospital, which has been in disrepair for 10 years, is staffed by a small, untrained group of Afghan health workers, and lacks clean water and sanitation. In the course of a few days of work, Bruce tends to a dangerous stab wound and a young boy in danger of paralysis. (read more about Afghanistan)