Doctors Of The World UK

About the charity

Doctors of the World UK is an international humanitarian aid organisation with a network of volunteer healthcare professionals providing medical care in both developing and developed countries around the world.  It helps the community’s most vulnerable to access the healthcare they need. Based upon our experience of delivering care, we campaign tirelessly to make health a human right, giving a voice to vulnerable people all over the world. We advocate for the legal and policy changes needed to ensure sustainability.

Our overseas volunteers are dedicated to increasing access to healthcare services for victims of extreme poverty, natural disasters and conflict.  We provide three types of healthcare projects with a commitment to sharing our skills and training local people. These can be defined as:

• before a crisis: as soon as the cyclone hit Myanmar (Burma) in May 2008, we were able to call upon our team that was already running an ambitious and successful HIV/AIDS programme in the country. Our staff relocated to provide emergency medical care for the victims of Cyclone Nargis.
• during a crisis: we use our contacts in the field to respond quickly to emergencies like the earthquake in Haiti and the conflict in Colombia. 
• after a crisis: such as in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where we have a project rebuilding local healthcare systems which were destroyed by years of civil war.

Here in the UK we run Project:London, a free clinic run by volunteers, based in East London.  It helps excluded groups access mainstream NHS services.

Doctors of the World UK is part of the Médecins du Monde network, which is made up of 14 organisations in Argentina, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.  As an organisation we operate in almost 80 countries.

In its member countries, the international network has more than 200 domestic projects targeted primarily towards communities who are excluded from healthcare services, including vulnerable migrants.  Globally, we have the strongest presence in Africa but our work in the rest of the world is expanding rapidly as needs in other communities emerge.