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An Imperfect Offering

Dispatches from the Medical Frontline

By James Orbinski

Humanitarian action for the 21st century by the founder of Médecins Sans Frontières (Canada). In 1988, James Orbinski, then a medical student in his twenties, embarked on a year-long research trip to Rwanda. Investigating the conditions of paediatric AIDS in Rwanda, James confronted widespread pain and suffering. Fuelled by the injustice of what he had seen in Rwanda, Orbinski helped establish the Canadian chapter of Médecins Sans Frontières. In 1994 he agreed to serve as Chef de Mission for MSF in Kigali. As Rwanda descended into a hell of civil war and genocide, he and his team worked tirelessly, tending to thousands upon thousands of casualties. The Rwandan genocide was Orbinski's undoing. Confronted by indescribable cruelty, he struggled to regain his footing as a doctor, a humanitarian and a man. In An Imperfect Offering, Orbinski not only tells his own inspiring story but is also remarkably provocative about what governments and agencies should and shouldn't be doing to help the world's poor and very sick. At the same time, he addresses what part each of us can play, so that we never lose sight of the dignity of those being helped, or deny them the right to act in their own lives. Here, Orbinski is doctor as witness, recording voices that must be heard around the world calling on others to meet their responsibility.