Rohingya Refugee Relief Fund

In 2017, more than 730,000 Rohingya in Myanmar were uprooted from their homes as they fled violence and persecution at a scale the United Nations described as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing” and the United States considered “genocide and crimes against humanity.” Five years later, nearly 1 million Rohingya are still displaced, mostly hosted by Bangladesh in Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee camp. More than half of those refugees are children, and many have only known life in a camp.

GlobalGiving launched the Rohingya Refugee Relief Fund in September 2017 to respond to the unimaginable needs resulting from this forced exodus. The crisis has caused enormous hardship for the Rohingya who fled their homes and strained the host communities in Bangladesh, but our partners have been responding ever since. 

Thanks to the generous outpouring of support of GlobalGiving community members, including you, donations continue to make a difference by ensuring Rohingya refugees across the region receive vital services even five years after they were forcibly displaced. As our longstanding partner HOPE Foundation for Women & Children of Bangladesh recently said, “It is amazing to see what has been possible in the midst of chaos.”

Since launching the fund, GlobalGiving has supported nine vetted nonprofit partners with grants totaling $455,000. 

This July, GlobalGiving made two additional grants to our trusted nonprofit partners working with the most impacted of these refugee communities. Here is a short description of some of the critical work you’ve supported: 

• Friendship has bolstered its health care services to include five 24/7 primary health care centers, servicing approximately 150,000 Rohingya. The organization also operates a hospital in Ukhiya, Bangladesh, which offers critical OBGYN services to women. Friendship provides extracurricular activities for children to promote social development and complement education as well. 

• The Malaysian Relief Agency Foundation serves Rohingya refugees across Malaysia through child and adult education programming and basic health care services. While most funding is driven toward Rohingya communities in the densely populated Cox’s Bazar and Bhasan Char camps in Bangladesh, the Malaysian Relief Agency Foundation works to ensure Rohingya in other host countries like Malaysia can also access essential resources.

Your support of the Rohingya Refugee Relief Fund powers these community-led responses, and it means Rohingya refugees get the critical resources they need as the situation continues without a sustainable solution for the families and individuals who are still displaced. Thank you again for your generosity.

With gratitude, 

Kyra + the GlobalGiving Team