Javid Abdelmoneim (born c. 1979) is a British-born physician and television presenter. He is best known for his work with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF / Doctors without Borders) which has seen him respond to crises in Iraq (2009), Haiti (2010), South Sudan (2014), Sierra Leone (2014), Syria (2017–2018) and also aboard the Aquarius (2016), a search and rescue ship run in partnership between MSF and SOS Mediteranée. Most recently, Abdelmoneim served as a Member of the Board of Trustees (2015–2021) and was also elected the youngest serving president and chair of the Board (2017–2021) for MSF UK.
During his time in Sierra Leone in 2014, he documented his experiences during the West Africa Ebola epidemic for the BAFTA, Emmy & Grierson, shortlisted Panorama film Ebola Frontline. A film that was broadcast in more than 20 countries globally.
Alongside active service with the NHS and MSF, Abdelmoneim fronted a number of critically acclaimed science and wellbeing programmes for the BBC, Channel 4, HBO and the Al Jazeera network. His filmography includes, amongst others; Foreign Press Association Award, Best Science Story of the Year Winner Al Jazeera medical series The Cure for his episode Operation Gaza (2016); Annual News and Documentary Emmy Awards shortlisted HBO documentary Ebola, The Doctors Story (2017); BAFTA shortlisted BBC Two documentary series No More Boys and Girls (2018) and Royal Television Society (RTS) Scotland Award nominated Channel 4 mini-series How to Stay Well (2018).
Abdelmoneim is also an advocate for humanitarianism through the right to health through his public speaking and writing engagements including the BBC News (2014), The Independent (2014), TEDx (2015), The Hippocratic Post (2017), and DNDi's 15th Anniversary Gala Dinner (2018).
Abdelmoneim was awarded the Ebola Medal for Service in West Africa, but subsequently returned the medal in protest against the hostile environment in healthcare towards migrants in the UK.
In August 2021, Abdelmoneim was appointed a trustee of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine.
Early life and education
Born in Cambridge, England to Sudanese Iranian parents, Javid spent his first seven years in Khartoum, Sudan, before returning to Cambridge for schooling. He calls Britain home but has lived, worked and travelled to approximately 80 countries in the world. In addition to English, he speaks French, Arabic, and Persian.
Abdelmoneim is a Member and a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and a Trustee of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, who initially studied medicine at University College London before undertaking postgraduate training in emergency medicine and a diploma in tropical medicine.
Career
Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) Abdelmoneim became involved with Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) in his second year of university as a medical student, working with the Access Campaign to promote the accessibility of medicines for neglected diseases. He has since worked with MSF on a number of assignments and in a number of different capacities while also serving as a registrar in Emergency Medicine for the NHS Trust in London.
Most recently, Abdelmoneim served as a Member of the Board of Trustees (2015–2021) and was also elected the youngest serving president and chair of the Board (2017–2021) for MSF UK.
Prior to this, his first MSF mission took him to Basra, Iraq in 2009, where he worked as an emergency room doctor at Jumhuree Hospital. The focus of the work was to provide advanced life support, trauma life support and resuscitation training and to put in place mass casualty procedures in the run up to Iraq's first general election in Spring 2010.
The next year, Abdelmoneim travelled to Haiti after the devastating 2010 earthquake where he spent six months working as an emergency room doctor, treating trauma patients and running the internal medicine and intensive care departments within the MSF hospital.
In 2014, he joined MSF's team of flying doctors, nurses, and logisticians in South Sudan. Travelling by helicopter or plane, depending on the weather, Abdelmoneim and his colleagues would arrive at a remote destination around noon and open at 8am the next day. In the space of an afternoon, the team would have to hire and train local staff and build the clinic and place to sleep.
Later that same year, Abdelmoneim undertook a project in Kailahun, Sierra Leone, where he worked in Ebola Management Centre treating Ebola patients. During his time in Sierra Leone, Abdelmoneim featured in the critically acclaimed BBC One Panorama documentary, 'Ebola Frontline'.