Safe Haven for Rohingya Refugee Children

For the last three years, stateless Rohingya refugees have been focusing on solely the aspect of survival. According to a UNICEF report, more than 900,000 stateless Rohingya refugees living in the camps of the Cox’s Bazar district in southeast Bangladesh have been in shortage of basic nutrition, health care, water, sanitation, hygiene and most importantly, education.

Intervention of a number of UN agencies and international organizations has undeniably upgraded the recovery process of the Rohingya refugees. New infrastructures, toilets, food, water have been ensured for a large part of the population who fled persecution and violence in Myanmar. Yet the root cause of the violence that affected the lives of these refugees remains unresolved. The refugee crisis crosses the second year and it is very well understood that the children and young people are considerably more vulnerable and they both want and need more than just survival. Conditions have not been established that would allow the refugees to return to their homes. As a result, the Rohingya refugees will remain in Bangladesh for the immediate future. The gap in their education will certainly create obstacles for them in future. JAAGO Foundation’s project “Safe Haven for Rohingya Children” is working to provide them a sense of stability and protect them from the suffering of the violence and trafficking they have faced at a very early age.

Infrastructure development for the children

The Rohingya in Myanmar are either confined to camps or live in partially destroyed villages, denied the opportunity for work, formal education, and freedom of movement. Monsoon season is now underway, introducing the threat of cyclones to an already vulnerable population. So authorities in Cox’s Bazar are turning to a new solution to ease the suffering of refugees: infrastructure.

The living conditions were unbearable in the Rohingya camps in the beginning. They lived together in a “mega-camp”consisting of temporary houses, built with materials that were available at the crisis period i.e., bamboo and tarpaulins. The emergency management of the camp rapidly turned it into a highly congested space with no proper facilities such as water or electricity. In the Safe Haven camp, we have been working on constructing a proper classroom and stable environment for the children. During this quarter, we have been able to construct proper classrooms, including white board and library and also install solar panels in the camp in order to receive adequate electric supply.

Evaluating the progress of their knowledge

The Government of Bangladesh does not permit providing regular education curriculum for Rohingya refugee children and without adequate support, children face the prospect of growing up without an education and without the means to process the horrific events they have lived through. In order to improve the level of the education for the Rohingya children, we try to deliver quality English, Mathematics, Burmese, Art and General Knowledge based on the UNICEF recommended curriculum. While concluding the 2019 session we have taken assessments of the children to evaluate their development throughout the year. We have divided the children into 4 different age groups starting from 4 years and above. Compared to the progress of last year, in 2019 they have done much better on average.This explains that not only do children benefit from the daily opportunity of learning; they are also much able to express themselves through writing, drawing and also have the opportunity to enjoy being children.

Doze of Immunization to ensure good health

Cholera is an extremely virulent disease that can cause severe watery diarrhea. It takes between 12 hours and five days for a person to show symptoms after ingesting contaminated food or water. Cholera affects both children and adults and can kill within hours if untreated. 

A multifaceted approach is the key to control cholera, and to reduce deaths. A combination of surveillance, water, sanitation and hygiene, social mobilization, treatment, and oral cholera vaccines are used. Despite the progress and efforts made by humanitarian agencies to improve water and sanitation conditions in Rohingya camps, cholera remains a concern. Oral cholera vaccination is the most effective way to protect such a large section and reduce the risk of disease outbreak. In December 2019, World Health Organization (WHO) declared that more than 6,35,000 Rohingya refugees and Bangladesh host community will be vaccinated against cholera in a month-long campaign. This is the 5th round of cholera vaccination since they arrived in Bangladesh in 2017. With the support by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, World Health Organization, UNICEF the children in our Safe Haven camp also received cholera vaccination to protect them from this acute diarrheal disease. This campaign was monitored by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MOHFW), Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner (RRRC), WHO, UNICEF, UNHCR, International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research (iccdr,b) and other partners.

Thank You Note

We are very grateful to the donors of this project as they are not only helping these young minds to germinate, but also paving a way for their better future. Our current activities still require a lot of support and we are on the way to develop the project even better. We have come a long way, but our ambitions are high and we aspire to build capacity of these young migrant children and provide ventilation to them through the power of education and extra-curricular activities. We sincerely request our well-wishers and donors to keep supporting us!  

The Rohingya people have faced decades of systematic discrimination, statelessness and targeted violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar. Such oppression and mistreatment has forced Rohingya women, girls, boys and men into Bangladesh for many years, with significant spikes following violent attacks in 1978, 1991-1992, and again in 2016. The greatest influx of Rohingya people into Bangladesh happened in 2017 when 745,000 Rohingya, including 400,000 children have fled into Cox’s Bazar.

During the displacement of the Rohingya people, it was the children who caught attention of many people. Almost 60% of the refugees were children who had experienced major violence and brutality at a tender age. In their own country they had no legal identity and after displacement to Bangladesh, Rohingya children are not being registered at birth, having no identity or citizenship. It is not known to anyone for how long they will be displaced. Meanwhile, the children are unable to receive formal education which keeps them deprived of the knowledge and skills they need to thrive in future.

With the support of the government and humanitarian partners, refugees have gained access to some basic services. Yet, major dependency remains on short-term aid because of them living in unstable conditions in the congested camps which are hugely difficult and sometimes dangerous during monsoon and cyclone seasons.

JAAGO introduced the Safe Haven project for the psychological and spiritual betterment of the Rohingya children in 2018. The traumatized Rohingya children needed a safe space where they can be engaged in regular childhood social experiences. The concept was to provide learning opportunities for them and heal them emotionally as much as possible. After receiving the GlobalGiving Feedback Fund Grant, JAAGO has been successfully initiating and integrating feedback from 500 Rohingya Children and 1,000 parents.

A Doze of Nutrition Everyday

Since past two years, malnutrition among Rohingya children has been one of the most critical considerations. Long journey across the border and poor living conditions in the camp are thought to be the key cause of malnutrition among Rohingya children. According to UNICEF’s nutrition specialist Joseph Senesie “If the child is not fed well, the child’s brain will not develop well and that will affect their educational consequences and that will affect their productive capacities as they grow up in the future.”

In Cox’s Bazar, there are 85 nutrition centers across the camps. The children receive therapeutic food and they are examined in the cases of severe malnutrition. Although there are fruit and vegetable stands in the camps, but many families can’t afford them because they have no income and depend solely on the aid. Understanding the importance of proper nutrition, JAAGO provides nutritious food every day to the 500 children under the Safe Haven project. The food menu contains proteins, carbohydrates and fruits. During the time of Ramadan, the children also received nutritious snacks during iftar.

Nurturing Creativity and Strengthening their Imagination

Albert Einstein said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge." Imagination is the endless door of possibilities. It is where thinking outside the box begins for child development. Imaginative and creative play is how children learn about the world. They tend to see things from a very different perspective and form pictures in their minds and that is what makes them different. At times, parents and adults nurture children's imaginations and take joy in their creative thoughts and acts. But unfortunately, the Rohingya children have been deprived of many creative joys.

As JAAGO works to provide psychological support to these disadvantaged children, regularly games and art classes are arranged for them. The children often team up together to play both outdoor and indoor games. Games such as “Ludo” are very popular among the kids and the teachers at times accompany them which create a very welcoming impact. These children also get a chance to spread colors on their imaginations very frequently. They are provided with notebooks, colors and other stationaries required and asked to draw and bring their imaginations to the papers. These relaxing activities have a very affirmative impact on the minds of these children.

Going an Extra Mile

Although JAAGO does not provide proper educational support to these Rohingya children under the Safe Haven project but we do give them books and a positive environment to thrive in. It is important to create an environment where they feel they need to develop their knowledge and skills for a better future. Hence, there is no other way to encourage them other than offering them books to read. In the light of this thought, recently some bookshelves were setup in the safe space camps where books for their age were kept. They would feel free to come to the safe space camps an read the books according to their interests.

The infrastructure in the Rohingya camps is temporary and highly congested. There is no proper water and sanitation facilities, they are vulnerable to natural disasters and also do not have adequate supply of electricity. To keep the lights and fans in the safe space camps functioning, new solar panels were setup. These solar panels will be very functional and convenient for the children coming to the camps.

Expressing Gratitude

The quality of being generous and kind is not something that everyone has. With the utmost sincerity we at JAAGO would like to convey our gratefulness to our national and international sponsors, corporate partners and donors. Without their contribution our journey to support these Rohingya refugee children would not have progressed. Thank you for contributing for this humanitarian cause and enlighten these children’s lives!