after her successor, MSF fieldworker and surgeon Christos Christou, took over.

She answered questions about the strategy, culture, role, and relevance of the iconic medical organisation. From radical beginnings in France in the 1970s, MSF has grown to run an annual budget of €1.6 billion and a staff of 68,000, with operations in 74 countries treating some 11 million patients.

Liu recalls political storms, wrangles over strategy, and growing pains. But it’s the sustained US attack in October 2015 on an MSF hospital in Kunduz, Afghanistan that looms most over her memories and that will, in all likelihood, define her legacy.

Highlights from the interview follow, edited for length and clarity.

TNH: In an internal report in June you gave a diagnosis of some of the illnesses you think MSF faces. ‘HumanitarianFeatured Video

'Petite valse' on CD

About Rosy Wertheim

(02/19/1888 - 05/27/1949)
Rosy Wertheim

Rosy Wertheim was one of the first Dutch women composers who completed a professional music education and gained international acclaim. Next to music, she was deeply committed to social causes. She lived in Paris for seven years, and for some time in Vienna and New York; her home was a meeting point for artists. Her compositions were performed nationally and internationally, and she worked as a correspondent for several newspapers and magazines. She was in the Netherlands when World War II broke out, and survived by going into hiding. She left a varied and interesting oeuvre of some eighty works.