MSF brings efforts to Lone Star State

The smell was so pungent, the heat and humidity so suffocating, it was as if workers had bottled them both straight from the Third World countries they serve.

Saturday I went on a tour in Houston sponsored by the non-profit organization, Doctors Without Borders, created in 1971. “A refugee camp in the heart of the city,” as it was tabbed, was a mock-up of what one would look like in third-world countries such as , where volunteers tend to people who have been displaced from their native lands due to wars and political disputes.

Held in downtown Houston, I drove down there with Sue Weill, a mass communication professor at Texas State, and Maira Garza, a Texas State student and the editor-in-chief at the University Star. George Record, a surgeon from Connecticut, lead our group around the set-up for about an hour, describing what various tents are used for and what problems refugees face. Medicins Sans Frontieres, or MSF as the organization is known around most of the globe, made it an emphasis to the audience that there are 33 million refugees uprooted by wars, and it is a continuing struggle to meet their daily needs. Others are classified as IDPs, or internally displaced people. These refugees are still tended to my MSF, but often are not allowed the same rights that true refugees have when entering another country, as they were not technically forced out of their home nations.

The exhibit did a good job with its objective: raising awareness of the struggles these people face and what can be done to help MSF’s efforts. Many people on the tour were attentive throughout, asking questions and focusing on Record’s presentation of information at each tent.

MSF separates its tents and care into areas such as food rations, bathrooms, surgical areas, medicine and isolated areas for those with diseases such as cholera. The detailed tents and facts provided wake-up calls to people unaware of these problems.

One tent measured the circumference of a child’s arm to check for malnourishment. If the quick arm test looked bad, the child is suspended in a diaper-like contraction connected to a scale. Another tent dealt with cholera, or diarrhea, which can be fatal if not treated. Those severely afflicted can do nothing more than lie on a cot on their backs while they get re-hydrated, excreting through a cutout in the cot where a bucket is waiting underneath.

The event was well-organized and provided a ton of information, from large photos of women carrying 20 liters of water on their head to details in the tents that included toys, land mines and even boxes of protein bars with 600 calories each, meant to quickly tackle malnourishment. A final tent on the tour housed posters, information packets and ways to sign up and stay in contact with MSF if thinking of volunteering and donating.

I left feeling quite ignorant to the problems others face. With the exhibit being completely free, anybody that has the chance would find it beneficial to attend. MSF, which runs an extremely complete and informative web site, knows how to garner support, as its total of 3.3 million worldwide private donors can attest to. Maira and I will be part of a panel discussion Wednesday talking about the trip. If interested contact Sue Weill in the Mass Communication department.