Ann Taylor who spoke to the club this week has worked for MSF for over twenty years as a project manager and administrator.
She started in the construction industry and is not a doctor but been part of over twenty missions in various parts of the world, including some as head of mission.
These have included time in Nepal, the Philippines, South Sudan (and other parts of Africa), Georgia, Fiji as well as Gaza and the West Bank She is still excited and challenged by the work.
She acknowledges that MSF which was set up 45 years ago is not very known in New Zealand compared to the Red Cross but she says it is very prominent and well supported in Europe.
One difference from the Red Cross, she noted, was that MSF does not take money from any government and tries to work at arms length from governments in countries where it operates. Funds come from companies and individuals, she said.
MSF is there to relieve suffering but emphatically, “we are not a development agency.”
Her role as an on the ground co-ordinator or later as head of mission was to make sure that MSF were able to do their work and had the supplies and equipment they needed. MSF had about 7 000 ex pat team members working around the world of whom about thirty percent were medical staff. They were always supported by large numbers of locally recruited staff.
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