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Children's Nonfiction Homelessness & Poverty

Healing Our World

Inside Doctors Without Borders

by (author) David Morley

Publisher
Fitzhenry and Whiteside
Initial publish date
May 2008
Category
Homelessness & Poverty, Diseases, Illnesses & Injuries, Special Needs, Disasters
Recommended Reading age
12 to 18
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781554550500
    Publish Date
    May 2008
    List Price
    $14.95

Classroom Resources

Where to buy it

Description

When children are caught in civil wars, when earthquakes destroy homes and villages, when AIDS and other diseases shatter families and communities - the volunteers of Doctors Without Borders are there. Their mission is simple - to bring life-saving care to the world's neediest people and to speak out when the rights of the people in their care are abused or violated.

M�decins Sans Fronti�res, known in English as Doctors Without Borders and by its volunteers as MSF, is the world�s largest independent medical humanitarian relief organization. Every year, more than 3,000 MSF volunteers and 12,000 local men and women bring medical aid to people in more than 70 countries.

In Healing Our World, David Morley presents his own story and the stories of other MSFers who have volunteered in some of the most dangerous and forgotten corners of the world - the Congo, El Salvador, Chechnya, Bangladesh, Mozambique, Afghanistan, southern Africa. These are stories about healing and helping people, about making the world a better place - stories filled with sorrow and hope, anger and idealism, determination and passion.

  • The words and experiences - good and bad - of MSF volunteers who come from all over the world and every walk of life.
  • Information about MSF's history, how it selects its volunteers and decides where to send them.
  • Includes photographs from the field.

Excerpt:

About the author

For seven years, David Morley served as the Executive Director of the Canadian section of Doctors Without Borders. His work took him to refugee camps in the rebel-held areas of Congo, to earthquake-shattered villages in El Salvador, to the simple huts of destitute AIDS patients in Zambia.

David Morley's profile page

Editorial Reviews

"Morley fulfils his objective to let students know how the organization works, where it goes on missions, what it does there, and about the lives of the people the organization seeks to help. . . He does not gloss over the challenges but leaves the reader with a hopeful sense that individuals can get involved and help to make the world a better place."
Recommended.
CM Magazine

"In this admirable book about the aid agency Doctors Without Borders - called in Canada by its French name, M�decins Sans Fronti�res (MSF) - David Morley presents a clear, realistic picture of people working under extremely difficult circumstances to provide medical and other help where it is most desperately needed. . . Healing Our World is an inspiring book that could well change the lives of some readers."
Quill & Quire

"Teens with an active social conscience and an interest in humanitarian causes will be inspired when reading this book. The accounts of MSF volunteers who have worked in the field are particularly fascinating and heighten the interest of the book."
VOYA Book Review

"David Morley's Healing Our World: Inside Doctors Without Borders is as fine a way as any to give teenagers a sense of what's possible out there in the world of disease and poverty. . . this is a very practical book, one to kindle the interest not just of young activists, but of any teens leaning toward a career in health services."
Toronto Star

"Profoundly moving"
The Globe and Mail