MSF Médecins Sans Frontières

[Vebrithien]

I'm looking for a charity to make my Christmas donation to. I heard the radio advert for MSF Médecins Sans Frontières, about a maternity hospital in Afghanistan, and was heartened to hear them use the word 'women' to describe their patients.

A quick scan of their website (policies) shows they use the term 'sex' in describing the Equalities Act.

Has anyone found anything that suggests they have fallen down the rabbit hole? Or can I donate, on the understanding that they know what a woman is?

I can't answer yourquestion, but I have had a direct debit with them for years. I get a newsletter which shows them dealing with such awful things that I can hardly bear to look at it. I don't think they have any spare time to indulge in identity politics. They're doing brilliant work.

I also donate monthly to MSF. As above, their newsletter is informative and utterly harrowing. To answer your specific question, I haven't seen anything to ring any alarm bells.

Thanks for your question, OP. I am also looking for a charity that knows what a woman is. Shall be setting up a DD.

They are known for being a bit glam and media savvy, among NGOs (cough'medecinssansunderwear'), but I think they do good work.

DEC are running an Afghanistan focussed appeal right now. I expect UNHCR are probably doing one, too ...

yep - www.unhcr.org/spotlight/2021/12/afghanistan-on-the-brink/

From what I see they do good, practical, life-saving work, both of those orgs.

I donate to them. They were caught up in a sex scandal (sexual abuse of local populations in crisis areas they served - much like Oxfam), they seemed to handle it well in the end, fired a bunch of people, etc. but it’s very hard to tell from the outside if they’ve actually changed their culture or not.

There is a festival in Norfolk raising momey for them next year I think

There's O's Refugee Team founded by the author Onjali Rauf, who definitely knows what's what: www.osrefugeeaidteam.org/

I have a small DD to a similar charity called Mercy Ships. They bring medical care to African countries via their hospital ships. www.mercyships.org.uk/who-we-are/vision/

There are a few different fistula charities - def aware of ego their clients are. Unglamorous but life changing work done by all of them.