Assist Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

Dear Supporter,

Our Bangladesh team have reported that tens of thousands of Rohingya families sheltering in the deforested hills of Cox’s Bazaar in Bangladesh are in peril from the monsoon rains. One assessment, carried out by the UNHCR and Dhaka University, suggests the risk of landslides and flooding could directly impact over 100,000 people.

Desperate efforts are under way to put flood defenses in place and to provide safer ground in the sprawling refugee camps for some of the most vulnerable families. The monsoon can bring enormous amounts of rain and winds of up to 90mph, threatening the integrity of the shelters. Tropical cyclones, the term used for hurricanes in the Indian and South Pacific oceans, can cause even greater damage. Concern first set up operations in Bangladesh following a deadly cyclone in 1970, which reportedly killed over 500,000 people and left millions homeless.

There are currently 865,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh, most having fled persecution in neighboring Myanmar in August and September of last year. A repatriation deal was signed between the two governments in November, but has essentially stalled. Several camps, including what is now the world’s biggest refugee settlement area at Kutapalong and Balukhali, sit on sand-and-clay hills stripped bare of trees. Landslides are a major danger, along with the risk of water-borne diseases, as makeshift latrines are likely to flood and collapse among the bamboo and tarpaulin huts.

Concern has been playing a key role in supporting displaced Rohingya families, operating seven emergency nutrition centers across a number of camps, with an eighth under construction. To date, nearly 40,000 acutely malnourished under-5 children have been treated at these centers. The emergency response team is busy reinforcing structures, sandbagging, and building drainage canals and has stockpiled extensive supplies in advance of the monsoon season.

Lucia Ennis, Concern’s Regional Director for Asia, says “There is a sense of helplessness due to the magnitude and the implications of the incoming cyclone season. However we remain focused in activating its emergency response plan for scale up and adapting the existing response systems, working closely with various other organizations and communities on the ground”.

Thanks in part to your support, Concern will be well placed to activate our emergency response plan. We humbly request that you consider contributing in the face of this impending emergency, and extend our deepest thanks for your continuing support.

Dear Supporter,

Thanks in part to your generous contributions, Concern Worldwide continues to provide life-saving assistance to vulnerable Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Since August of 2017, 671,000 Rohingya people have crossed the border into Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. The vast majority of the refugees have found temporary shelter in densely populated camps in Cox’s Bazar, leading to overcrowding and health concerns. The hygiene, nutrition, and general health of the people is poor, and many of the refugees are living with the psychological trauma caused by torture, rape, and the experience of fleeing for their lives in Myanmar.

In response to high levels of malnutrition, our team has set up eight nutrition centers and has been working hard to screen as many children as possible. Those children diagnosed with severe acute malnutrition are immediately treated at the centers. To date, we have screened over 200,000 children for malnutrition and admitted over 5,000 children for treatment for severe acute malnutrition.

The cyclone and monsoon season will hit sometime between April and June, leaving the hills that the Rohingya are staying on at risk of landslides and flooding. With this in mind, Concern has been working on risk mitigation and emergency response plans in the likely event that landslides, flooding, and/or cyclones damage vulnerable housing structures. 

I would now like to share a story about two of our beneficiaries whom your donations are helping:

It took *Layru and her family 15 long days to reach Bangladesh from her village in Myanmar. They travelled by foot, leaving with just the clothes on their backs and with what little food they had. The journey was long and treacherous. Ten members of Layru’s group were killed trying to reach the border to Bangladesh, including her 40 year old cousin, *Dil.

When asked why she left Myanmar, Layru says that their home was attacked by the military and burnt to the ground. “Our next door neighbor’s child was killed and the body thrown in the sea.” She says. “Attractive girls were taken by the military and raped.”

Layru says her two year old daughter, *Hala, was already thin when they lived in Myanmar, but that the long journey to Bangladesh affected her health badly. When Hala arrived at the camp, she was just 11.6 lbs in weight, or half the weight of a healthy child her age. A Concern Worldwide community health worker visited their dwelling in the camp and referred Hala to the Concern nutrition center. She was found to be severely acutely malnourished, and was put on a diet of therapeutic food in order to regain her strength.

Concern plans to continue to provide nutritional support to vulnerable refugees, while responding to emergencies as they arise during the upcoming cyclone season. On behalf of Concern and the Rohingya people, we thank you for your generous support, which allows people like Layru and Hala to begin to rebuild their lives.

*Names changed for security purposes