More than £1m of aid delivered to Rohingya refugees
Islamic Help has been at the forefront of responding to the Rohingya refugee crisis, with more than £1 million of aid already having been delivered to thousands of stricken families.
Since August 2017, more than 650,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled Myanmar (Burma) to seek refuge in Bangladesh. As the crisis escalated, Islamic Help and its partners responded with an emergency appeal which distributed provisions to more than 100,000 refugees in just four months. The aid included food packs and cooked food, water, shelter kits, hygiene packs, bedding and winter kits, and solar panels.
Longer term programmes were set up including the installation of water hand pumps, toilets, washrooms, water tankers and water stations, and static and mobile medical camps. These are benefiting more than 435,0000 refugees every month.
Housing is among the major elements of our long term programmes with plans to construct a village with 1,000 homes for refugee families. The bamboo structures have been designed to protect them from the elements during the monsoon season.
Another 40 of these homes will be used to initially house 200 orphans and 40 widows who will be employed to act as their guardians or ‘Mamas’.
With the support of our donors, 300 homes were built within two months of launching this programme.
Along with orphan sponsorships, which meet the daily needs of Rohingya orphans, there is also a specially-built school where Rohingya orphans and other vulnerable children, are taught by qualified refugee teachers. These homes are safe havens for the children and women are empowered by earning incomes to become self-sustainable.
Three water stations have been established to service three tankers which each deliver 30,000 litres a day to more than 30 tanks sited at refugee camps, which benefit more than 360,000 refugees every month.
And nearly 10,000 refugees are receiving medical aid every month at a static medical camp staffed by qualified doctors and nurses; a primary eye care centre which provides provides free eye care and medicines, plus cataract surgeries for poor and marginalised patients; and a mobile medical camp that visits refugees at different camps.
All of this has only been possible thanks to our generous donors and supporters, but more aid is desperately needed. So please support our efforts in reaching out to the Rohingya refugees.
