Brasília – Brazil is a growing donor and supplier of humanitarian resources worldwide, according to the non-governmental organization (NGO) Doctors Without Borders. In 2011, Brazilian professionals – including doctors, nurses, psychologists and pharmacists – took part in 122 foreign missions under the organization. There were 48 more missions than in 2009. The number of Brazilian donors also grew, from 42,200 in 2009 to 56,900 in 2011.
The figures were supplied by the international president of the NGO, the Indian infectious disease specialist Unni Karunakara, who is visiting Brazil to attend a meeting of the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, in Rio de Janeiro, on December 2nd.
“Brazilian doctors boast vast knowledge. For instance, they know how to treat illnesses such as Chagas disease and dengue fever,” said Karunakara. “Thus, these professionals are widely present in the NGO’s missions in tropical areas.”
The NGO’s managing director in Brazil, Tyler Fainstat, added that he was impressed with the participation of Brazilians in missions. “Brazil in 2011 is not the same as in the 1990s, access to anti-HIV medicine has turned the country into a worldwide reference. In our first 15 years here, there was nothing but demands [to service Indian populations, poor people or people living in the streets]. Now the country has turned into a provider.”
Karunakara stated that the funding of the NGO – whose budget was US$ 1.1 billion last year, 90% of which originated from individual donors – has been affected by the international economic crisis.
Doctors Without Borders has projects underway in approximately 65 countries, the main target being Somalia – which is now home to the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. As sectarian clashes cover a large share of the country, NGOs have trouble operating freely.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
