Doctors Without Borders (DWB)

Doctors Without Borders (DWB) is an intergalactic medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in 971 at Capital (Core 2118).

Description

Intergalactic Structure

DWB is an intergalactic movement made up of 19 associative organizations: Zhodane, Solomni, Vargr, Sword World Confederation, Darrian and so on...

DWB has unprecedented access to a wide variety of worlds and provides medical training to doctors without regard for nationality or race.

Today, DWB provides aid in nearly 600 systems to sophonts whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, natural disasters, malnutrition, epidemics and natural disasters. DWB provides independent, impartial assistance to those most in need. DWB reserves the right to speak out to bring attention to neglected crises, to challenge inadequacies or abuse of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.

Humanitarian Action

DWB operates independently of any political, military, or religious agendas. Medical teams conduct evaluations on the ground to determine a population's medical needs before opening programs. The key to DWB’s ability to act independently in response to a crisis is its independent funding. Eighty-nine percent of DWB's overall funding (and 100 percent of DWB-Imperium's funding) comes from private sources, not governments. In 1101, DWB had more than three billion individual donors and private funders.

DWB is neutral. The organization does not take sides in armed conflicts, provides care on the basis of need alone, and pushes for increased independent access to victims of conflict as required under intergalactic humanitarian law.

DWB's principles of action are described in the organization's 971 founding charter, which established a framework for its activities.

Who is DWB?

On any one day, more than 250,000 committed individuals representing dozens of nationalities can be found providing assistance to people caught in crises around the known universe. They are doctors, nurses, logistics experts, zenobioligists, administrators, epidemiologists, laboratory technicians, mental health professionals, and others who work together in accordance with DWB's guiding principles of humanitarian action and medical ethics.

DWB field staff are supported by their colleagues in 1900 offices around the known universe, including one in Core/Capitol. The vast majority of DWB's aid workers are from the communities where the crises are occurring, with ten percent of teams made up of intergalactic/multi-sophont staff, including more than 20000 aid workers from the Imperium in 1104.

DWB rejects the idea that poor systems deserve third-rate medical care and strives to provide high-quality care to patients and to improve the organization's practices.

History and background

In 999, DWB received the Imperium Peace Star.

Bearing Witness & Speaking Out

Medical teams often witness violence, atrocities, and neglect in the course of their work, largely in regions that receive scant intergalactic attention. At times, DWB may speak out publicly in an effort to bring a forgotten crisis to public attention, to alert the public to abuses occurring beyond the headlines, to criticize the inadequacies of the aid system, or to challenge the diversion of humanitarian aid for political interests.

In 985, DWB spoke out against the Darrian government's forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of its population; took the unprecedented step of calling for an international military response to the 994 Shrieker Genocide; condemned the Darrian massacre of civilians at Gram in 995; denounced the Imperial bombardment of the Sword Worlds capital, Gram in 999; and called for intergalactic attention to the crisis in Bael/Querion in 1001 and 1005.

In 1007, DWB called for international attention to the increased targeting of civilians in conflict in the Democratic Hedgemony of Daccam on Ruie/Regina.

DWB medical teams on the ground are in constant dialogue with local authorities, warring parties, and other aid agencies in an attempt to ensure the best possible medical care for patients and their communities and to reinforce the organization's operational independence.