Child Refugee Crisis

Story of the Month

Laila* lives with her mother Halima Khatum* and father in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. 

Laila was admitted to a Save the Children nutrition centre in May 2018, when she was found to be suffering from Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM). She had caught fever and diarrhoea on the journey from Myanmar to Bangladesh and lost a lot of weight, only weighing 6.8kg for her 74.3cm height.

With Save the Children’s support, Laila is gaining weight and becoming healthy again. After a month with Save the Children, Laila now weighs 7.3kg. Save the Children has also helped Laila’s family through digging a tube well near her home, setting up clean toilets near her home, and providing her parents with a hygiene kit. 

Halima Kahtum said: “Save the Children is now giving me special peanut paste to give to my daughter, to make her healthy again. We are getting free medical treatment and medicine from the Save the Children clinic."

Since August 2017, 688,000 Rohingya children and families have fled to Bangladesh following a rapid and alarming escalation of violence in northern Rakhine State, Myanmar. Save the Children is working around the clock to ensure Rohingya children and their families are supported in their basic human rights. We run more than 180 child-friendly spaces and centers which support Rohingya children’s learning and well-being. We are distributing food, shelter items and hygiene and household kits as well as digging latrines and handing out warm clothes and blankets for the cold winter months. Save the Children has reached more than 624,000 people including nearly 350,000 children.

Thanks to compassionate people like you, Save the Children is there, on the ground every day, working to provide essentials – like food and safety – to children trying to survive these extreme conditions. We're working nonstop to ensure children are safe, cared for and learning. Learn more and support our work here. Thank you! 

*Names have been changed for privacy.