CARE: Lasting Support for Refugees Worldwide

While everyone around the world struggles to cope with the devastating impacts of COVID-19, the risks are heightened for the world’s approximately 71 million people who are forcibly displaced.

According to the UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, 134 refugee-hosting countries are reporting local transmission of COVID-19. Refugee camps and settlements are typically overcrowded, and refugees commonly lack access to water and hygiene supplies and facilities, which may cause the virus to spread.

A CARE analysis shows that women in countries experiencing war, poverty and instability are at an even greater risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. Gender-based violence increases, and women are forced to eat less or last, among other issues. Despite these factors, less than 1% of global humanitarian funding is spent on sexual and gender-based violence prevention and response activities.

CARE, which centers women and girls in its humanitarian response, is continuing to provide services and emergency support to displaced populations around the world.

“There is no shortcut here” says Sofia Sprechmann Sineiro, Secretary General, CARE International. “If we don’t act fast, millions of highly vulnerable men, women and children in high-risk countries will be left to battle this pandemic alone.”

Due to political turmoil in Venezuela and the subsequent economic crisis, approximately 5 million refugees and migrants have fled Venezuela since 2016. In Ecuador, one of the countries worst hit by COVID-19 in the region, the situation is so dire that many migrants who initially fled to the country for safety and opportunity, are now leaving. Many are no longer able to work informally and face serious challenges without proper access to healthcare or other services due to their migratory status. Venezuela is experiencing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, with crumbling public services and widespread malnutrition due to food shortages.

In Ecuador, CARE is distributing cash, food, medicine and other supplies to marginalized groups including Venezuelan refugees and migrants, sex workers, and people living with HIV/AIDS.

A group of Venezuelan migrants gather in a shelter in Quito, Ecuador, while a child plays nearby with blocks. They have been in isolation together for more than three weeks and are waiting for Venezuela to lift its suspension of evacuation flights so that they can return home.

Children in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh, home to the world’s largest refugee camp, participate in a CARE workshop on coughing and sneeze etiquette.

Nearly one million Rohingya refugees have fled to Bangladesh since 2017 after violence escalated in Myanmar, with most fleeing to Cox’s Bazaar.

The camps, which house approximately 855,000 refugees, and are nearly four times as dense as New York City and eight times that of Wuhan, China, making social distancing practically impossible.

Girls participate in a drawing session at the Women and Girls’ safe space in Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, Bangladesh, while maintaining social distance. The majority of refugees in Cox’s Bazar — approximately 459,000 — is children. About 51% are women and girls.

Deepmala Mahla, CARE’s Regional Director for Asia, explains the importance of interventions that support women and children: “The household burden is shared more by women and girls, so when people are not able to go out, the burden on the family to earn a livelihood is bigger. Who sacrifices the meal first? Women and girls.”

A health worker wearing personal protective equipment (PPE) provides treatment to a patient in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Health services are limited and there are no intensive care beds in the camp.

Conditions of the camp, including its density and a lack of access to water, soap, and other hygiene supplies, are particularly concerning during the coronavirus pandemic. Cox’s Bazar has been under a lockdown since March, but the virus was detected in the camps in May. As of June 15, there were 38 positive COVID-19 cases and two deaths in the camp.

As of June 11, Yemen counted 595 cases of COVID-19 and 137 deaths. After more than five years of brutal war, self-isolation, disease, displacement, movement restrictions, and loss of economic opportunity are all too familiar to Yemenis. An estimated 24 million people are currently in need of humanitarian assistance inside Yemen, and as COVID-19 threatens this especially vulnerable population, the country is simultaneously battling a cholera epidemic that counted more than 87,000 suspected cases in the first three months of 2020.

Women line up to have their temperature checked while maintaining social distance in Kenya’s Dadaab refugee complex. The camps in Dadaab are home to over 230,000 refugees.

During COVID-19, CARE has expanded its work in the camps to include teaching safe hygiene and sanitation practices, distributing soap, repairing broken water pipes and pumps, and constructing new bathrooms and handwashing stations.

The camps recorded their first positive coronavirus cases in May. Isolation facilities have been set up in the camps, but the UN refugee agency says they are not sufficient to provide adequate care in the event of an outbreak.

Refugees, carrying their few remaining possessions, wait in the transportation area of the Imvepi Refugee Settlement in Uganda in 2019.

Uganda, which is widely praised for its progressive policies on refugees, hosts refugees in settlements, rather than refugee camps, and provides refugees with plots of land for agricultural use in order to support self-reliance.

Currently Uganda has closed its borders, meaning refugees can no longer arrive in the country.

“We only hope that the borders will open for refugees as soon as possible, and we can screen and isolate them as a precaution. We also hope in the meantime that their human rights will be respected, and they will be treated with dignity. This is uncharted territory for us all,” says CARE Uganda’s country director Apollo Gabazira.

COVID-19 poses an unprecedented threat to the world’s most vulnerable people, including displaced women and girls.

See some of their stories and Fight With CARE by signing the petition to prioritize the most vulnerable in a global COVID-19 response.

Links:

• How Refugees Around the World Are Living During COVID-19

The global death toll from the coronavirus has crossed 800,000 as confirmed cases surged past 23 million, with Bangladesh overtaking Pakistan to become 15th on the list of countries with most COVID-19 patients. While the country has crossed a grim milestone, there are so far fewer causalities in the densely-populated Rohingya camps that have been and still are considered one of the most vulnerable places to the ongoing pandemic. 

As of now, COVID-19 situation across the camps has been tackled somewhat successfully. However, the apparent success in keeping the virus away should not hide the fact that the risks of a COVID-19 outbreak in the camps remain very high. Despite taking all the preventative measures, it cannot fully alleviate the very difficult conditions continually present in the camps. 

Coordinated approach by the Bangladesh Government, UN organizations and NGOs including CARE has yielded results. CARE is currently responsible for co-managing three camps (Camp 13, 14 & 16) under the supervision of Camp-in-Charge (CIC) appointed by the Government.  

As an early responder, CARE intervened to ensure that the Rohingya population and the host community members have access to life saving and essential services to fight COVID-19. CARE continued with the services e.g. related to health, water and sanitation, and Gender Based Violence where community engagement sessions were also organized to sensitize women, girls, men and boys as well as community level actors to create awareness on prevention and control methods for COVID-19. Staff and community volunteers are being trained on infection prevention and control (IPC) to strengthen knowledge and skills on safe delivery of response package at all levels.

Along with a COVID-19 response from March 2020, CARE has implemented a number of programs to reach 334,227 people in the past three years. CARE especially targeted the most vulnerable groups like elderly, unwell, care-givers and people with disability for offering life-saving services. While establishing over 1,000 gender-segregated latrines in camps, a total of 91 accessible latrines were constructed for families with persons with disability. “Previously, the latrine I had to use was 20 feet away from my house. I used to face a lot of difficulties then”- shared Bashir who is 17 and visually impaired.  

Apart from working with health, water, sanitation, protection and gender-based violence issues, CARE has also worked on nutrition issues extensively. CARE provided training and capacity building support to 11 partner organizations responsible for implementing community based management of acute malnutrition (CMAM). Over 2000 staff members from these agencies were trained to provide CMAM services across 29 out of 34 Rohingya camps.   

However, COVID-19 threatens to roll back gains made on nutrition in the camps as access to food supplies, income and diverse diets become more limited. According to Nutrition Sector1, progress has been made since the onset of the crisis in August 2017, when over 700,000 Rohingya people fled from Myanmar seeking shelter and safety in Bangladesh. Global acute malnutrition among children under five has reduced from 19.3 percent in 2017 to 10.9 per cent in 2019. It is evident that COVID-19 compromises the fragile gains made over the past three years. 

Aside from COVID-19, people living in the camps also face the threat of cyclone and landslide during the monsoon period; usually between June and October. The conditions in the camps have made Rohingya communities at particular risk of disasters. The strain on services, infrastructures and the environment from the influx has also increased the vulnerability. The exposure of these communities to extreme weather events would exacerbate already existing needs and vulnerabilities, especially for the most marginalized, including women and girls, persons with disabilities, elderly persons and children. 

“Close to a million Rohingya refugees are living in highly overcrowded camps in the Cox’s Bazar region of Bangladesh. So far with the collective effort of all humanitarian agencies and the government we have been able to limit the spread of COVID-19 successfully. However, the risk still remains and we need to keep working with the communities on food and nutrition security, creating health awareness while reinforcing our disaster preparedness activity”- said Ram Das, Deputy Country Director – Humanitarian Response of CARE Bangladesh. 

About CARE: Founded in 1945 with the creation of the CARE Package®, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE places special focus on working alongside poor girls and women because, equipped with the proper resources, they have the power to lift whole families and entire communities out of poverty. Last year CARE worked in 100 countries and reached more than 50 million people around the world. To learn more, visit www.care.org and www.care-international.org. 

Links:

• COVID-19 and extreme weather threaten gains in Rohingya camps