MSF Innovation Newsletter May 2023
Play Therapy: Tools to work out (or "play" out) difficult emotions
Children under the age of 15 make up more than 60 per cent of MSF's patients, and many have experienced conflicts, natural disasters or other traumatic events. Play therapy uses play to help a child, or a group of children, explore and express their emotions and process and cope with difficult experiences.
This edition of the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit (SIU) newsletter features the MSF Play Therapy Toolkit. The toolkit guides readers through the basics of play therapy implementations and provides concrete inspirational examples for making toys and play activities with limited resources.
Another play therapy initiative by MSF is Juan Pablo's Journey colouring book. Our health promotion teams give the book, which is based on a true story, to children waiting at the border points between Nicaragua and Honduras to awaken their interest in drawing and help them see that many others are facing a similar situation.
Gaming is another activity that is often associated with play or entertainment. However, in recent years, more and more humanitarian actors have teamed up with game developers to leverage their cutting-edge technologies and game narratives to solve real-life problems. More on this in the "resource highlights" section of this newsletter.
We hope you enjoy the read!
Innovation updates from the MSF movement
Play Therapy Toolkit: A guide to implementing play therapy in MSF projects
In 2019, the MSF Sweden Innovation Unit organised the Paediatric Hackathon focused on designing and exploring innovative solutions on the topic of paediatric care. Workshop participants identified play therapy as an important but often deprioritised area that deserves more attention, and a mock-up web page was developed with the idea of making all resources needed to set up a play program available in one place.
Fast forward to 2022, our team was able to turn the original concept into a concrete tool in collaboration with MSF Operational Center Brussels (OCB), MSF’s Play Therapist Katherine Haciömeroğlu and the play team at MSF’s Mother and Child Hospital in Kenema, Sierra Leone. Together, we developed a Play Therapy Toolkit. The toolkit guides readers through the basics of play therapy implementations and provides concrete inspirational examples for making toys and play activities with limited resources.
For more information about the play therapy project, read Katherine Haciömeroğlu's first-person account of her work in Kenema.
Colouring book: Juan Pablo’s Journey – Based on a true story
Since the beginning of March this year, more and more people have been crossing the borders of eastern Honduras. In view of this situation, MSF mobile clinics continue to travel to these areas to provide medical and humanitarian assistance to people on the move.
Our teams listen to the stories of people who arrive affected by physical exhaustion and have experienced situations of violence that impact their mental and emotional health. This was the case for Natasha and René, who had to leave Venezuela with their puppy Juan Pablo to cross the Darien jungle between Colombia and Panama to Danli.
Their testimony was captured in a colouring book to try to bring people closer to this type of situation in a different way. MSF health promotion teams provide the book to children waiting at border points to awaken their interest in drawing and help them see that others are also facing this difficult journey.
Download Juan Pablo's journey colouring book or read more about MSF's work at the border between Nicaragua and Honduras here »
Resource highlights
CHA Conference 2023: Tackling power imbalances in humanitarian action
(How) can modern technology help tackle power imbalances in humanitarian? Digital technologies are often celebrated as a key tool for improving communication and fostering equitable partnerships in humanitarian operations, shifting more power to and increasing decision-making by local actors. At the same time, other voices raise worries about how these transformations instead threaten to further exacerbate the existing power imbalances.
The Center for Humanitarian Action (CHA) conference on the 23-24 of May included rich discussions about the promises and perils of digital technologies in humanitarian action. You can still access the event recording by registering (registration is free).
CHA institutional partners: MSF Germany, Caritas Germany, Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe, and German Red Cross.
Read, watch, listen:
[Insider Geneva] How humanitarians are embracing gaming technologies
The nonprofit sector is gradually turning to game developers to leverage their cutting-edge graphic design technologies and game narratives, trying to solve real-life problems. International organisations have been mainly experimenting with games as tools for education, training and raising awareness. These innovations appear to hold great promise, but there are also a number of worrying issues related to the booming gaming industry and the use of gaming technologies by humanitarian organisations. Read here »
[MSF SIU] Zero Separation workshop during MSF Paediatric Days report released
In November 2022, the MSF SIU organized a two-half-days workshop focused on designing and exploring innovative solutions on the topic of Zero Separation in Dakar, Senegal during the 2022 MSF Paediatric Days. The team reflected on the initial outcomes of the event in a blog post last December. This month, a more comprehensive workshop report and a summary video were released.
[Elhra] Improving the control of measles epidemics in niger through a combination of anticipatory and real-time tools
A new study by MSF Epicentre, funded by Elrha, will develop state-of-the-art statistical models for epidemic prediction and simple alert detection algorithms, which will be validated against 20 years of data about measles outbreaks in Niger. The aim of this study is to explore if measles surveillance and immunisation data can be reliably combined to anticipate the risk of measles outbreaks and to provide actionable results that help MSF and the Nigerien Ministry of Health (MSPP) improve our vaccination activities. Read more »
[MSF/Epicentre] Computerized radiographic detection of tuberculosis in densely populated areas of Manila
Since May 2022, an MSF Team has travelled through Tondo, Manila, in the Philippines with a truck containing AI-powered chest X-ray equipment. The aim is to make tuberculosis (TB) screening accessible and available as close as possible to where community members live and work. In the last ten months, the team screened 6,400 people. Screening such a large number of people with a single X-ray machine and a radiologist could be difficult without the use of a small, innovative black box. Read more »
In our headphones
The MSF Dunia Podcast
Engage: Zero Separation and Person-Centered Care
The Berlin Knowledge Hub, part of MSF Germany, has launched a new segment as part of its podcast "MSF Dunia", focusing on less-clinical topics than the main podcast, such as patient-centred care, medical ethics, field epidemiology and health promotion. In this inaugural episode, Maartje Hoetjes, Neal Russel, and Tasmin Bota (founder of 'Preemie Connect') discuss the topic of Zero Separation. Listen here »
Note: to access previous episodes, you must subscribe to the podcast.
The Fourth Dimension
What we talk about when we talk about quality of care
The WHO Office on Quality of Care (QoC) and Patient Safety in Athens has just launched its new podcast series, the Fourth Dimension. In the first episode, Joao Breda, Head of the QoC Office, dives deep into the meaning of quality of care, its impact and implications for patients, healthcare professionals, and the entire healthcare system. Listen here »
Until next time👋
As always we would love to hear of any global health innovation insights or thoughts. Anything you would like to feature in the next newsletter? Reach out with any questions or comments on comms.siu@stockholm.msf.org or simply reply to this email—we would be delighted to continue the conversation!
Best wishes,
The MSF Sweden Innovation Unit Team