BURUNDI
Médecins Sans Frontière
MSF-B
1995-1996

I joined in Bujumbura a large team of MSF-Belgium which had some activities in the refugee camps of Ngozi but was also supporting three provincial hospitals and several small health centers.

The situation was evolving on a slow pace  as the movement of the Rwandese refugee had nearly stopped. But the confrontation between the army and the Hutus militia was escalating rapidly. The internally displaced people were in a very uncertain and miserable situation, very exposed, harassed from all side, out of reach for most of the relief agencies.

Among the very pressing task of dispatch and purchasing, I have managed to computarize the tracking of the purchase requests and I spent much of time in monitoring the security situation. Emergency plans were upgraded. The inter agencies co-ordination was reinforced.

The efficiency was remarkable and the commitment of the whole MSF team was very praise worthy.

I feel that the Nobel Peace Prize received by the MSF movement was well deserved indeed.

Albert Grela - Agriculture, M&E, Irrigation