Läkare i Världen / Médecins du Monde Sweden is a humanitarian relief organisation that supports vulnerable populations through preventive and curative actions in Sweden and abroad.
We work with groups affected by conflict, acute poverty and natural disasters. Other vulnerable groups include sex-workers, drug users and ethnic minorities. Our goal is to assist those without access to other forms of assistance.
We emphasize that access to health care is a fundamental human right. One of our tasks is to report on human rights abuse when and where they occur in our area of operations. We disseminate information regarding these abuses and seek redress through media campaigns and advocacy work.
Médecins du Monde organise three types of projects: humanitarian relief in emergency situations, reconstruction and long term development. At the same time we cooperate closely with the target group, consulting them throughout the process in order that our projects are recipient-driven rather than imposed upon the target population.
There are 12 national delegations within the MdM network : Argentina, Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Canada, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the USA. We also have representation offices in Mexico, the UK, the Netherlands, Germany and Japan. Together we operate over 150 projects in 120 countries.
The goal of our long term projects is that they become locally owned as well as sustainable, with the community concerned assuming responsibility for the continuation of the project in its later phases. Our other central goal is to leave the community concerned with better health indicators than existed when we first arrived.
A worsening health situation in an area is often linked to criminal activity and human rights abuse. Läkare i Världen is committed to exposing such abuses and bringing them to the attention of the public.
Läkare i Världens activities are supported by volunteers, donations and institutional support from donors. Many of our volunteers are health care professionals, with doctors, nurses, mid-wives and those with international field experience forming the majority. However people from other professions are welcome to join. The organisation does not support any political party or religion.
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