The 1999 Nobel Peace Prize went to MSF "in recognition of the organisation's pioneering humanitarian work on several continents".  A recent figure was >36,000 people working for MSF, mainly local doctors, nurses and other health care workers. Also out there are experts in logistics, engineers (sanitation and clean water), and administrative back-up. Together, they serve the people of >70 countries in need. Private individuals like you furnish >90% of MSF's support. 

MSF started when I was age 18 y. Biafra was a disaster zone. That things must be changed was clear to a handful of French doctors and journalists. The aim was to make medical care accessible regardless of national boundaries and irrespective of race, religion, or political dogma. Pivotal to MSF is independence and impartiality, i.e. no political, economic, or religious constraints on what it decides to do. So it has to limit what it can expect from governments or other organisations. This permits MSF to speak out against war, corruption and whatever else might hinder human health or dignity. With offices in 28 countries, MSF has treated >100m patients; for instance, 8.6m outpatient consultations just in 2015. Its annual commitment, ~£1.26 billion makes it 1.7-fold more efficient than the NHS.

During the Ebola outbreak 3 years ago, serious medical demands were met by MSF working mainly alone, after its early warnings had fallen on deaf ears. That year, MSF was a partner in pioneering  satellite broadband to bring eHealth and telemedicine to isolated areas: SATMED, first deployed in Sierra Leone in the fight against Ebola.

Only once (Rwanda genocide 1994) has MSF looked to soldiers to defend the people it sought to serve. “There were hundreds of women, children and men brought to the hospital that day, so many that we had to lay them out on the street and even operate on some of them there. The gutters around the hospital ran red with blood. The woman had not just been attacked with a machete, but her entire body rationally and systematically mutilated. Her ears had been cut off. And her face had been so carefully disfigured that a pattern was obvious in the slashes. She was one among many — living an inhuman and simply indescribable suffering. We could do little more for her at the moment than stop the bleeding with a few necessary sutures. We were completely overwhelmed, and she knew that there were so many others. She said to me in the clearest voice I have ever heard, 'Allez, allez…ummera, ummerasha' — 'Go, go…my friend, find and let live your courage.'"  

“Silence has long been confused with neutrality, ... presented as a necessary condition for humanitarian action... MSF was created in opposition to this assumption. We are not sure that words can always save lives, but we know that silence can certainly kill." (Orbinski, 1999).

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