International humanitarian organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders) yesterday launched a photographic exhibition in Taipei, to pave the way for its pending establishment of a branch in Taiwan and to encourage more young doctors to join the organization.
The exhibition features a timeline of some of the organization’s humanitarian efforts since its foundation in France in 1971.
On display are images of humanitarian crises caused by epidemic disease and natural disasters from around the world, including Haiti’s 2010 earthquake, Japan’s 2011 earthquake and ensuing tsunami that led to the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear disaster and the Ebola outbreak in West Africa that has killed more than 10,000 people since March last year.
“What we would like to do is present to Taiwan the challenges we have been facing and how our workers overcome these challenges,” Medecins Sans Frontieres Hong Kong executive director Remi Carrier said at the opening ceremony of the exhibition at the city’s Eslite Bookstore’s Dunnan Branch in Taipei yesterday afternoon.
Carrier said the organization has been receiving enormous support from Taiwanese, with more than 40,000 Taiwanese Facebook users having shown support via messages and financial donations.
In a nod to Taiwan’s role in Medecins Sans Frontieres’ global operations, Carrier said the organization’s international office in Geneva has decided to set up an office in the nation that would expand its global reach — particularly in Asia.
According to the organization, it has recruited six Taiwanese doctors and one administrator.
Among them is surgeon Raymond Soong (宋睿祥), who was the first Taiwanese recruit in 2004 and has since participated in aid missions in Liberia and Yemen.
Soong said he give up a relatively lucrative career as a doctor to join the organization. He made up his mind to be a part of the group 18 years ago when he visited its first photo exhibition in Taiwan.
“I was a senior-year medical student back then. I was utterly shocked by what I saw at the show … but was excited to realize there was another path to choose other than being a doctor in Taiwan,” Soong said.
Soong said frustration is an inevitable side effect of working in the frontline of a chaotic environment.
“You have to make do with whatever equipment you’ve got on hand and be creative, but at the end of the day, you still cannot change the fact that the lives you’ve saved will never outnumber the ones lost,” he said.
The exhibition runs through June 21 and admission is free.
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