Support for Rohingya Refugees
Over 800,000 Rohingya refugees are now living in the southern most districts of Bangladesh. Since the end of August over 600,000 people have crossed the border, having fled the violence in Myanmar. The majority of the new arrivals live in crowded makeshift settlements and there are no words to describe their sufferings, particularly the conditions of the women and children. In such a humanitarian crisis, we all need to help.
At the beginning of October, the Sreepur Village team, led by Pat, visited the Rohingya refugee camps and decided to produce sanitary products for the women and nappies for the babies. According to Pat, these products are essential to the women and children as they face the harsh reality of life in the makeshift settlements. With the help of the Sreepur women and children, we were able to produce 4700 sanitary towels and 1600 nappies.
Earlier in the month, a team from the Sreepur Village and accompanied by the director of Centre for Injury Prevention Research of Bangladesh-CIPRB and Pichieh (who helps us to produce products) went to the Rohingya camps to distribute the donated items and assess another project for the refugee children. Pat distributed some of the sanitary products among the women and the rest of the items were handed over to the army officer who is in charge of the Kutupalong camps.
We also assessed whether a modified Anchal programme (to safeguard young children) would be of benefit to the Rohingya refugees, particularly for children under four who are not comprehensively covered by the other organisations. Although a key element of Anchal is to ensure that small children are in a protected space this would possibly not be the prime objective in the camp although it would still be important and sessions could be based around the camp routines.
Whilst this project is under planning, the warm clothing for babies is currently being produced. At the end of November, we will visit the camps to distribute these items.
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