Dear Friend,
The ride from Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF)’s office in Manila, Philippines, to the drop-off point is a short one. It’s filled with a mix of patient history updates, frequent pauses for car karaoke, and discussions on patients’ struggles to get their tuberculosis (TB) medication. We’re on our way to conduct home visits for a handful of patients and inform them about their TB diagnosis.
The Philippines has one of the highest incidence rates of TB in the world. In collaboration with the Manila Department of Health, MSF teams launched an active case-finding (ACF) project in 2021 to detect TB with an x-ray truck in the district of Tondo, one of Manila’s most impoverished areas.
As we drive, Arnel Bonga, an MSF outreach nurse sitting in front of me, points down a skinny street, past school children and a large gate, “That’s where I went to high school!”
The building he points to is minutes away from our next patient’s house.
Ninety percent of MSF’s nearly 68,000 staff around the world are locally hired, meaning they’re a part of the same community they’re treating. It wasn’t until I visited the project in Tondo that I fully understood the scope of this fact. For Arnel and so many of his colleagues, working in Tondo is personal. They’re not just treating patients or people in need; they’re treating their neighbors.
This is the work you are supporting. You’re not just putting scalpels into the hands of surgeons, or helping distribute clean water—although that is a vital part of our work. You are also powering patient-first, community-centric work. Our teams are able to provide compassionate care because of you.
Read my full story and find out more about MSF’s community-based TB care in Manila, Philippines—made possible by supporters like you >>
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