2023-04-20 13:37:59
Why did you choose to work at Médecins du Monde?
JB Matray: I have been working there for 6 years, but I have been in the voluntary sector for much longer. What I appreciate is the independent status of Doctors of the World. The association wishes to maintain a certain financial independence which allows it to broaden its fields of action without depending on other organisations. This independence allows us to act more freely and quickly. This feature is really important since we very regularly intervene in emergency situations. Doctors of the World also has a strong political commitment that promotes real social change and denounces extremism. In a way, Doctors of the World also has a status of counter-power.
We have the snapshot of French Doctor who goes to treat abroad but you also intervene a lot in France…
Indeed, we act in about thirty countries in the world including France where access to care is far from being equal for all. For example, we work in medical deserts, in sensitive areas such as Lens and Hénin-Beaumont in the North, where mortality and alcoholism rates are dangerously high. We act in a logic of awareness and prevention, always hand in hand with local associations. In Paris and other cities in mainland France, we run harm reduction programs aimed at sex workers or drug users. Without judging these practices, we are campaigning for laws and appropriate and effective care protocols. Moreover, Médecins du Monde is at the initiative of “shooting rooms”, these places of supervised consumption whose idea is to guarantee a certain security to people by accompanying them. We prefer that to repression, which is in fact not very effective and which sometimes causes more serious problems than drug addiction itself.
Do you also intervene internationally, in Europe for example, in the context of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine?
There are about fifteen Doctors of the World associations internationally. In the context of the war in Ukraine, three of these associations collaborate on the Ukrainian ground or in neighboring countries. They intervene at borders, for example, to welcome refugees and provide first aid with particular attention to the mental health of war victims. Inside the country, our associations support health structures, strengthen the healthcare offer and offer psychosocial support to Ukrainian healthcare staff, exhausted by more than a year of war. These are actions that will last since at the end of the conflict, we will also help to rehabilitate the health system during the reconstruction of the country.
In 2023 you are launching an event, the Festival des Gros Maux, this is not the first time that MDM has taken this kind of initiative…
The Speedons: 3 years ago we launched Speedons, a charity e-gaming marathon. All in all, 80 hours of uninterrupted high-level online gaming. The third edition was held in March 2023. We expected a lot and the generosity of the public was there, since we raised 1,252,637 euros. Speedons is also an opportunity for Doctors of the World to share its struggles with the general public, to defend its values and to propose solutions for engagement alongside us.
What about the Festival des Gros Mals then?
We wanted to create a landmark event, specific to the militant identity of our NGO. A unifying event that would come back every year, to talk about the richness of our association, to inform about the problems related to the difficulties of access to care, to raise funds. We also seek to establish partnerships with companies in line with our values. It will be an urban art festival of all kinds. In February, we launched an important first step with the festival’s writing competition, open to everyone. Each participant will have to send us a committed text to denounce the evils of our society. It can be a poem, an open letter, an eloquent text, a short story or even a song. The selected texts will be interpreted by personalities or exhibited during the Festival des gros mals in November 2023 at the Ground Control space in Paris.
Like other health-related associations, you need volunteers, does the health crisis play a role in citizen engagement for MDM?
For the associations, there is a real issue around the question of voluntary commitment. The Covid crisis has come to upset habits. We worked with a lot of elderly volunteers, retirees who wanted to give their time to support us. As a precaution against the virus, they have gradually withdrawn, which is understandable. Today, we would like to make younger generations aware of going beyond giving, which is already very good in itself of course, and finding forms of voluntary action and commitment alongside us.
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