In December 2022, with the acute and post-emergency phases of our medical response over, Doctors Without Borders decided to close its project and hand over activities to local health actors. Know more:
Editor’s Note: When the infamous Marawi Siege—a dark chapter that one prays will never be repeated—happened in 2017, one of the major responders to the crisis was the Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières . The siege lasted five months, with over 350,000 locals forced out of their homes. In the aftermath of the siege, Doctors Without Borders responded with access to free and clean water, mental health and psycho-social support, and primary healthcare.
The conflict and destruction had a great impact on the local population. “I only really got sick after the Marawi siege, because of our problems and fears,” recalls Doctors Without Borders patient Rasmia Magompara. “We had evacuated during the siege, with no belongings, no money. All we had was what was in our pockets and what we were wearing. With all our fears and problems, every time I hear a motorcycle, I thought it was a helicopter.
“Our other priority was mental health support. We organized psychosocial activities for the children. The stress of their parents also affected them: our teams organized play therapy to make them feel like kids again. We also held one-on-one sessions for adults and children who needed it.”AMELIA PANDAPATAN was one of the displaced people who received support from Doctors Without Borders in 2017.
Sarah Sultan Ambor is the health promotion supervisor in the Marawi project. She has been working for MSF for more than two years.SLOWLY, the situation stabilized. Displaced people moved from tents to evacuation centers and temporary shelters, with the last families moving to shelters in January 2020. But many Marawi residents have been unable to move back to the city center, remaining in shelters until now.
As the emergency needs decreased, health issues that persisted long before the siege resurfaced. Hypertension and diabetes have since ranked among the 10 leading causes of mortality in Lanao del Sur, which is why Doctors Without Borders started a program focused on non-communicable diseases in 2019.
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