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This Pride Month, hear from LGBTQI+ Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) patients who received the comprehensive care they needed to thrive.
Yuli* crossed an ocean and multiple borders to find the care she needed as a Black transgender woman. Along the way, she faced numerous challenges, from bullying and aggression based on her gender identity, to an extended detention in a men’s jail. Even when she managed to seek asylum in Greece, she struggled to find health care and services that were right for her.
"When you come to a new country that is not your culture, not your language, and you need to show your body at the hospital, they don't understand exactly, they don't know anything about you,” Yuli says. “I know that the Greek medical system is very good. But the problem is the gender. We are trans, and mostly we are Black."
Then she heard about MSF’s Day Care Clinic in Athens, which currently offers a wide range of services focusing on sexual and reproductive health, non-communicable diseases, and mental health. There, she found the compassionate care and inclusive community she had been looking for since her journey began.
Gustavo* was forced to flee his home for fear of being killed. His long search for safety would see him cross through Guatemala and into Mexico. He found little relief on his journey, especially as a person who openly identifies as gay, contending with threats of extortion, hunger, and sexual violence all along the way.
After a brief stay in a shelter in Tapachula, Gustavo heard about MSF's Comprehensive Care Center in Mexico City, known by its Spanish acronym El CAI. El CAI provides specialized care to people who have experienced torture or extreme violence, including sexual violence. With the care and safety provided by MSF’s staff in El CAI, Gustavo was finally able to look forward to the future.
In Beira, Mozambique, MSF is working closely with the LGBTQI+ community and anybody who faces stigma and discrimination to ensure they feel safe accessing medical care. Many people feel uncomfortable seeking the health care and counseling they need. Because of this, preventable and treatable health issues, like sexually transmitted diseases, result in more health complications. That’s why MSF’s community clinic in Beira has made peer-led health promotion for LGBTQI+ people and other stigmatized groups a priority.
Norce, the owner of a local barber shop, was a regular patient at the clinic. In addition to receiving medical services, he would also listen to the talks given there and occasionally ask for advice. Realizing the impact he could have as a well-known and trusted member of his community, Norce volunteered to become a peer educator to ensure that others could benefit from the tips he received from MSF staff.
Now, along with a fresh haircut, he can support his LGBTQI+ customers with advice and direct them to MSF’s local clinic where they too can receive the specialized care they need to remain healthy.
These are just a few of the many examples of comprehensive, compassionate care MSF teams provide to patients in more than 70 countries around the world—regardless of who they are, whom they love, or how they identify.
This email was sent from the U.S. section of Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), an international independent medical humanitarian organization that delivers emergency aid to people affected by armed conflict, epidemics, natural and man-made disasters, and exclusion from health care.
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