Médecins du monde (MdM; ), or Doctors of the World, is an international humanitarian organization which provides emergency and long-term medical care to the world's most vulnerable people. It also advocates to end health inequities. It was founded in 1980 by a group of 15 French physicians, including Bernard Kouchner and Alina Margolis-Edelman (a native of Poland). MdM is active in over 80 countries with approximately 400 programs in both the developed and developing world. History MdM was formally established on 1 February 1980. Its goals were "to go where others will not, to testify to the intolerable, and to volunteer". The origins of MdM lay with Médecins Sans Frontières. During the Vietnam War, the future founding members of MdM were approached with the idea of aiding Vietnamese refugees fleeing by ship on the South China Sea. The majority of the Médecins Sans Frontières were against aiding the Vietnamese refugees. However, Kouchner, along with volunteer doctors, journalists, and others organized a hospital boat, L'Île de lumière ("The Island of Light"), to provide medical care and to report the refugees' suffering. MdM was founded by Bernard Kouchner and 14 others doctors split from the group he previously founded, Medecins Sans Frontiers (MSF, or Doctors Without Borders). It has been reported Kouchner felt that MSF was giving up its founding principle of témoignage ("witnessing"), which refers to aid workers making the atrocities they observe known to the public. Kouchner was president of MdM from 1980 to 1982. In 1989, the foundation of MdM Spain paved the way for the creation of the MdM international network. In 2015, the MdM global network consisted of fifteen associations; France (founded 1980), Spain (founded 1989), Greece (founded 1990), Italy and Switzerland (both founded 1993), Sweden (founded 1994), Cyprus (founded 1995 by Elena Theoharous), Argentina (founded 1998), Belgium, Canada and Portugal (all founded 1999), as well as in Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, the Netherlands, and the USA. Doctors of the World USA Doctors of the World USA, also known as MdM USA, was founded in 1990 by Jonathan Mann. The group separated from the MdM network in 2006, and became HealthRight International. Doctors of the World USA is the 15th chapter of the MDM network. It was re-founded by committed humanitarian activists in 2011, with Dr Abby Stoddard as its founding chair. Fraser Mooney, a long-term AIDS and social justice activist, became the organization's Executive Director