Authors on the front line

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MSF works in many places around the world that are consistently ignored by the media.

For years, we have tried to find new ways to encourage the media to cover the world's least reported humanitarian disasters without having to succumb to the fashion of "celebrity supporters".

In 2003, we took acclaimed author Joanne Harris – a huge supporter of MSF – to visit one of our projects in the Republic of Congo. Thanks to a moving article written by Joanne for the Sunday Telegraph and the subsequent interviews she gave, this little known corner of the world and the plight of the people that live there was suddenly splashed across the pages of the UK press. From this, the idea for Authors in the Frontline was born.

With the guidance of Joanne and in partnership with the photographer Tom Craig, MSF went on to challenge some of Britain's best loved writers to "meet humanity on the edge of survival and bring their stories to the world".

As a result, over the last two years 14 authors have visited MSF projects in remote corners of the globe and witnessed first hand the lives of the people we offer emergency medical care to.

These were no celebrity jollies. Authors were treated as members of the MSF team and had the pleasure of enjoying the same facilities and services as our own volunteers. Joanne endured torrential rains and mud hut floors as she floated down the Congo river in a dugout canoe; A A Gill, the great food lover and critic, was served tinned peas and mayonnaise day in and day out until we feared he might starve; Hari Kunzru was pounced on by giant spiders in a delightful squat loo and Daniel Day-Lewis came uncomfortably close to sniper bullets. But despite a few moments where mutiny seemed imminent, the most lasting memory will be the humour and the genuine empathy shown by each and every author.

Thanks to this what has been produced is a range of articles all distinct in style, but all very human.

MSF would like to thank all the authors for giving up their valuable time for free to embark on such an uncomfortable and time consuming enterprise. And in particular Tom Craig, who this project belongs to just as much as MSF.