Women displaced by war or natural disasters have the same health concerns as women anywhere—they need access to family planning services and a safe place to deliver babies. But women’s specific health needs are often more acute while they are on the move, and it’s typically difficult or impossible to access high-quality medical care on their journey.

Over the past few weeks, our teams have been working to scale up our response to the unfolding humanitarian crisis in northwestern Syria, where millions of people—many of them displaced by conflict—are trapped between the Turkish border and advancing Syrian government forces. We know that, in moments of crisis, women often fare the worst—so we’re doing everything we can to bring essential maternity care and other health services to Syrian women.

Whether it’s conflict zones or refugee camps, hospitals or rural health posts, we go wherever women need our care. This Sunday is International Women’s Day, and we’re celebrating the stories of our woman patients and the women that make that care possible:

Iraq
When midwife Abla arrived in the Syrian refugee camp in northern Iraq, she began delivering babies almost immediately.

She had no equipment, no help. Babies were born on tent floors. And Abla was living in the camp herself—she had fled her home in Syria, too.

But then Doctors Without Borders opened a maternity clinic in the refugee camp. Abla became a midwife there, and even gave birth to her own baby at the clinic. "The best part of being a midwife is the appreciation from the mothers,” Abla said. "They stop me in the camp when I pass, and they say to their children: ‘This is Abla, she’s a good midwife and she delivered you.'"

Malawi
Vanessa received a vaccine from Doctors Without Borders that could protect her from cervical cancer.

Alongside her classmates at Lisawo Primary School, in rural Malawi, Vanessa was vaccinated against human papillomavirus (HPV)—a common cause of cervical cancer. In Vanessa’s community, cervical cancer accounts for 40 percent of all cancers diagnosed in women.

Vanessa’s school was just one part of an extensive Doctors Without Borders vaccination campaign: Our teams immunized more than 8,500 nine-year-old girls like Vanessa.

South Sudan
Poni Betty is Doctors Without Borders’s only female mechanic.

And she’s a critical part of our team: Because she maintains our fleet of vehicles, we’re able to get medical aid out to the remote areas where it is urgently needed.

Poni is inspiring other women to join her. “I’m encouraging ladies to join the mechanics,” she said. “What a man can do, a woman can do.”