Assist Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh

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