Doctors Without Borders, also known as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has promised to provide mental health and psychological first aid support to people affected by the recent earthquake in Morocco.

Development Diaries reports that the 6.8-magnitude earthquake, which hit central Morocco on 08 September, killed close to 3,000 people and injured around 6,000.

More than 50,000 homes were demolished, many villages lost power, and some were entirely levelled, making it more difficult to go around.

‘We saw entire villages destroyed, roads collapsing, and electricity cut off’, a nurse with Doctors Without Borders, Fouzia Bara, said.

‘Despite this, the Moroccan authorities, with the support of some states, managed to remove people from under the rubble, treat the injured, use helicopters to transport the injured from the most remote areas, and distributed food and other materials to affected people’.

According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), war, armed conflict, and other man-made or natural disasters cause profound distress, and can in some cases ignite or inflame existing mental health conditions.

‘Our teams will work mostly through networks of Moroccan psychologists, social workers, heath promoters and other volunteers, who have been mobilised since the beginning of the response’, Doctors Without Borders said in a statement.

‘Our main activities will consist of providing psychological support to people affected and to frontline volunteers, to support Moroccan Ministry of Health medical and paramedical teams, to run health promotion and mental health campaigns, while also training and supporting local groups on psychological first aid’.

For those involved in emergencies, receiving high-quality mental health care and psychosocial support is crucial to their rehabilitation.

Photo source: MSF