Disaster Response Bangladesh Project #31416

Support Children in the Rohingya Refugee Crisis

by UNICEF USA

Support Children in the Rohingya Refugee Crisis

Project Report | Apr 12, 2022
Update: Supporting the Rohingya Community

By Whitney Simon | Assistant Director, Global Cause Partnerships

UNICEF Bangladesh/UN0580001/Lateef

Dear Friend,

Bangladesh continues to host over 907,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, with an additional 50,000 refugees entering the country in 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated the vulnerabilities of Rohingya refugees, who live in high-density camps with increased transmission risk. The pandemic’s restrictions have fueled an increase in multidimensional poverty, with over 60% of Rohingya households falling in that category compared to 47% in 2019.

These challenges have been exacerbated by natural disasters. Annual monsoons caused damage across learning centers and water and sanitation facilities across the camps; damaging fires have emerged as a consistent challenge as well.

Thanks to the support of individuals like you, UNICEF continues to navigate these challenges to deliver essential services to children and women who need it most. In 2021, UNICEF reached 1.1 million people with COVID-19 prevention and vaccination messages and supported the COVID-19 vaccination of 86% of Rohingya refugees over the age of 55. In parallel, UNICEF maintained access to essential health services for 250,000 Rohingya refugees across ten camps. Nutrition remained a priority, with UNICEF providing 95% of children ages 6-59 months with vitamin A supplementation. Over 97,000 young children also received deworming tablets and UNICEF continued to equip stakeholders with nutrition supplies and training to foster healthy child development.

Learning centers in Cox’s Bazaar reopened in September, allowing 119,444 Rohingya refugee children to attend in-person learning four days a week. UNICEF also invested in school improvements in 657 primary schools, benefitting 180,000 children. Child protection efforts continued in earnest. Information on gender-based violence prevention and risk mitigation reached over 50,000 Rohingya refugees and nearly 8,000 host community members. To prevent sexual exploitation and abuse, UNICEF offered orientations to practitioners to identify and report incidents.

While all of these essential efforts continue, UNICEF also must adapt to the unexpected challenges Rohingya refugees face. After a destructive fire broke out in January 2022, a number of water and education facilities were destroyed and children traumatized. UNICEF’s temporary learning centers offer children an outlet for continued learning and a space to speak with social workers and psychologists to process their fears and anxieties following this incident. For five-year-old Jamila, pictured, UNICEF workers are a key lifeline in the face of great stress.

Due to your generosity, UNICEF will continue to work with and for children such as Jamila to ensure a better future for the Rohingya community. As always, thank you for standing with us in this work.

In Partnership,

Whitney

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Dec 15, 2021
Update: Rohingya Refugee Support

By Kelly Procida | Manager, Global Cause Partnerships

UNICEF/UN0522701/Lateef

Dear Friend,

Bangladesh continues to face complex humanitarian emergencies. The country is hosting over 895,000 Rohingya refugees, including 456,712 children, who fled violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar four years ago. Durable solutions are still being sought for their safe return to Myanmar. The COVID-19 pandemic, fire incidents, upsurge of acute watery diarrhoea/cholera, monsoon floods and landslides have further exacerbated their living conditions, especially for women and children.

In 2021, the humanitarian response in the camps was delivered at drastically reduced levels due to the COVID-19 situation and related restrictions. Nevertheless, UNICEF and partners worked tirelessly to deliver the most critical services through alternative means, such as home-based learning, and in compliance with COVID-19 prevention measures. Thanks to your generosity, UNICEF has continued to support caregiver-led education, ensuring that 190,663 Rohingya children (48 percent girls) engage in learning activities at home. UNICEF has also continued to use radio programs to reach 57,603 children (49 percent girls) including 536 children with disabilities. UNICEF supported the government to organize a national vitamin A campaign which reached nearly 147,000 Rohingya children. UNICEF has also provided over 78,250 primary health consultations amongst Rohingya refugees. Furthermore, UNICEF and partners have continued to provide access to quality water, sanitation and hygiene services to 242,000 Rohingya refugees (51 percent female and 1.2 percent people with disabilities).

As the year comes to a close, UNICEF and partners are looking ahead to 2022. UNICEF will continue to provide multi-sectoral, life-saving humanitarian and sustainable interventions for Rohingya children and their families. Adhering to COVID-19 infection prevention and control measures, UNICEF will prioritize continuity of services in the camps, focusing on:

The safe reopening of learning centers;
Enhancing primary healthcare, improving coverage of immunization services; and
Addressing the needs of women and girls, including through mitigation, prevention and response to gender-based violence

On behalf of the vulnerable Rohingya children in Bangladesh, thank you for your continued support.

In partnership,

Kelly Procida

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Sep 3, 2021
Update: Supporting the Rohingya Community

By Whitney Simon | Manager, Global Cause Partnerships

Dear Friend,

Bangladesh continues to host over 884,000 Rohingya refugees from Myanmar across 34 camps in Cox’s Bazar District, over half of whom are children. While basic services have been provided, children still face disease outbreaks, malnutrition, inadequate educational opportunities and the risks related to neglect, exploitation and violence including gender-based violence (GBV) risks, child marriage and child labor.

These challenges have been exacerbated by natural disasters and the COVID-19 pandemic. Annual monsoons caused damage across learning centers and water and sanitation facilities across the camps; this comes after a deadly fire broke out in Cox’s Bazar in March. Bangladesh continues to struggle with the threat of COVID-19 nationwide, and the refugee camps are no exception.

Thanks to the support of individuals like you, UNICEF continues to navigate these challenges to deliver essential services to children and women who need it most. Over 3,300 children received severe acute malnutrition treatment thanks to the monitoring work of nearly 1,000 nutrition monitoring volunteers. UNICEF and partners have continued to provide access to quality WASH services to 242,000 Rohingya refugees. As learning centers in the camps have been closed due to COVID-19 restrictions, UNICEF and partners have worked to provide alternative learning avenues. To enable caregiver-led education, 435,348 workbooks were distributed this year enabling 190,663 Rohingya children (48 per cent girls) to engage in learning activities at home. As an alternate method of delivering learning in the camps, radio programs were used for distance learning to reach 57,603 children including 536 children with disabilities and their caregivers.

Through it all, UNICEF is working to empower children to lead the way for their communities. In Cox Bazar, UNICEF designed an innovative program to “Make WASH Fun” for children, placing them at the center of COVID-19 hygiene promotion response efforts. Mohammad, pictured here, is one great example of a child leader, who enthusiastically shares important hygiene messages in his community.

Due to your generosity, UNICEF will continue to work with and for children such as Mohammad to ensure a better future for the Rohingya community. As always, thank you for standing with us in this work.

In Partnership,

Whitney

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