Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) is one of the world’s leading independent international medical relief organisations, working in more than 70 countries worldwide and with operational centres and national offices in 19 countries. Our mandate concerns emergency relief, and the principles we honour while carrying out our work are contained in the MSF Charter. We launch our operations in areas where there is no medical infrastructure or where the existing one cannot withstand the pressure to which it is subjected. For more than 50 years, we have been providing medical help to people caught in many kinds of catastrophes, including armed conflicts, natural disasters such as floods and earthquakes, epidemics of disease and malnutrition crises.