Rohingya Children

Thousands of assaulted and injured Rohingya refugee children are suffering from acute malnutrition at Kutupalong refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Findings of a joint nutrition assessment conducted in October shows that severe acute malnutrition rates among child refugees under five have doubled since May. Many children are underweight and suffering from anemia. Undoubtedly there is a high risk of diarrhea, dysentery, measles, respiratory infections and an expected rise in children suffering from mental health issues. These children are living in filthy conditions barely have enough food, clean water, and healthcare.

Marking World Children’s Day and at the end of visit to the Kutupalong Refugee camp on November 20, goodwill ambassador of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), actress and philanthropist Kristin Davis said “For me, the most shocking part of the Rohingya refugee crisis is the number of children who have had to flee their homes .Over half of the refugees in the camp are children. Some of them have lost one or both parents and they are on their own. I can’t imagine going through what these children and their families have gone through, much less having the strength, resilience and extraordinary bravery these children possess.”

Drawing global attention to the Rohingya refugee children in Bangladesh she further added, “This is currently the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world and seeing the impact of this emergency on children is devastating. The fact is that more funding, more donations, will save lives. Governments, the public, private sector, businesses, we all need to do what we can to help and donate now to support the Rohingya refugees,”

According to UNHCR, the Rohingya people are a stateless minority in Myanmar. Since violence erupted on August,25 in Myanmar’s northern Rakhine state, more than 600,000 people have fled to Bangladesh. Children make up 54 per cent of the total population. A recent survey of more than 170,000 families or 740,000 individuals found that 5,677, or 3.3 per cent, of the households, are headed by children; more than 4,800 households, or 2.8 per cent, include separated and unaccompanied children; and as many as 14 per cent of families are composed of single mothers holding their families together with little support in harsh camp conditions.

UNHCR requires $83.7 million to respond to humanitarian needs in Bangladesh until the end of February 2018 in order to meet the acute needs of children, women, and men fleeing conflict.

with inputs from the UNHCR news.

My story on  : https://www.iawrt.org/news/daily-struggle-rohingya-refugees-0