#doctorswithoutborders

Go check out our Indiegogo page where you can read all about this passion project, including some FAQs, pricing and how to donate, stretch goals for physical orders, and more: https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/focus-a-covid19-charity-zine

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Possible impetus for  #TakeYourDogToWorkDay? #FridayFunny #thebestmedicine 

Ian Cross is a doctor from the UK who is currently working at the MSF project in Kutupalong, Bangladesh. The project serves Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in neighbouring Myanmar. Here he tells the stories of two little girls who came for treatment at the clinic...

She didn't see the soldier who fired the shot. Her father was running from the village carrying her in his arms. Her arms were around his neck. The bullet smashed through her right forearm and entered her father's head, killing him instantly.

She didn't talk much about what happened next. She crossed the border in to Bangladesh with her mother and little brother. Her arm was too badly damaged for us to treat in our facility at Kutupalong, so we referred her to the Memorial Christian Hospital, a couple of hours away to the north. The surgeons began by fixing the forearm bones. I reviewed her when she returned to the clinic with her arm in a cast. She couldn't stretch out her fingers because the extensor tendons in her forearm had been destroyed by the bullet. 

After a month or so, she was ready for further surgery to reconstruct the tendons. She came to the clinic this morning, proud to show me the result. She could waggle her fingers. She was delighted. Her mother was so grateful for the treatment she received that she asked us to tell the world what had happened to her daughter. How can you be shot through the eye and remain alive? This little girl didn't see who shot her either.

The bullet entered her skull obliquely, in front of her right ear. The bullet traversed her eyeball and exited through the side of her nose. The eye was completely destroyed of course. The surgeons repaired a hole an inch across between her eye socket and the brain. The sight in her left eye is normal. Although she was unfortunate to have been shot, she was incredibly lucky to survive. 

These two little girls managed to reach Bangladesh and received excellent care. But how many more died before they were able to leave Myanmar?

There was a time when Chenai Mathabire read Vogue, watched beauty pageants on TV and fantasized about being a supermodel. Today she helps the sick and injured as a nurse and epidemiologist.

Last month, the 35-year-old Zimbabwean received an International AIDS Society prize for showing that a faster tuberculosis test could be implemented at health centers in southeast Africa. Her work will help save the lives of HIV-positive patients who contract TB.

"Nursing is often looked down upon and people just think you are there to be the maid of the doctor or do the dirty work. But teachers made me realize that nurses have a big role to play," says Mathabire.

For two years, Mathabire and a team explored how easily health clinics and hospitals in the Chiradzulu District of Malawi and the Chamanculo District of Mozambique could implement the tuberculosis test for HIV patients, who are more susceptible to the infection.

The team's findings, published by Doctors Without Borders this year, has led some of the health centers where the aid group works to embrace rapid TB testing. It could pave the way for more facilities to incorporate the test it into their health systems, meaning faster care for the sickest of HIV patients.

In a statement, International AIDS Society president Linda-Gail Bekker said that Mathabire's research will "support the next generation of investigators whose work can help to change the course of this epidemic."

Mathabire still works for Doctors Without Borders and is considering conducting more research on HIV and tuberculosis. But her award-winning research isn't the only major event of her summer.

She moved to Falun, central Sweden, to marry an infectious disease specialist whom she worked with in Zimbabwe. True to her early love of fashion, she's sewing her own wedding dress, with glass beads, silk and lace.