Giving Compass' Take:

• British doctor Mike Tomson writes about his experience helping refugees and vulnerable people in Lebanon for Doctors Without Borders.

• How do first-hand accounts help donors better understand the landscape? 

• Here's 9 powerful stories from Doctors Without Borders field staff on their experiences. 

Looking back I should not have been surprised that it was a very intense few weeks of work.

When I was working with MSF in Jordan last year I was part of a non-communicable diseases project focussing on diseases that can't be transmitted from person to person, like diabetes, asthma, heart disease and hypertension.

While I was there I had been lucky to meet two visiting senior colleagues involved in running the non-communicable disease (NCD) programme based in two projects in Lebanon. They later asked me if I could do an assignment in their programme to look at ways to help them develop their work.

I’d replied that I was interested, but that I really needed more time at home.

I was asked to go on the shortened assignment. The terms of reference were pretty broad and certainly could have occupied me for many months… “to support the project in reviewing and planning strategically the non-communicable disease activities in both projects … provide recommendations on programmatic aspects of non-communicable disease care ...  etc.”

Read the full article about helping those in need in Lebanon by Mike Tomson at Doctors Without Borders