Unsung Heroes of Bangladesh
Bangladeshi community volunteers help Rohingya refugees from Burma
Six days a week, Jamila walks out her front door and steps immediately into her place of work, the Shamlapur settlement, in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Equipped with a tape measure, she travels door-to-door, greeting families and screening children for malnutrition.
Jamila is one of many community volunteers helping ensure malnourished children in her village receive the life-saving nutrition assistance they desperately need. “I follow up with the families at least once a month,” she explains.
Jamila is responsible for 260 families, but not all are Bangladeshi. Her village is located just south of the Kutupalong “mega” refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, and many families in the area are Rohingya refugees from neighboring Burma.
Since August 2017, nearly 700,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in Cox’s Bazar, fleeing persecution and violence in Burma’s Rakhine State. More than 212,000 Rohingya were already living in Cox’s Bazar, having escaped previous waves of conflict.
Refugees in Cox Bazar live in extremely difficult conditions. Most new arrivals reside in semi-formal settlements where they depend on humanitarian assistance from the United States and other donors to survive and regain some semblance of stability.
Others have settled in and around local communities, where the Bangladeshi families who have taken them in also need food and nutrition assistance.
There are rarely nearby clinics or doctors, and existing services are severely strained due to the rapid population influx.
USAID and our partners are providing emergency food and nutrition support to refugees to help ease the burden. In Rakhine, many Rohingya already suffered from high rates of malnutrition prior to the current crisis. Now, more than 400,000 refugees and Bangladeshis in Cox’s Bazar need life-saving nutrition assistance, including more than 100,000 pregnant and lactating women and more than 200,000 children under 5.
Jamila and other community outreach volunteers canvas their villages to identify children who are malnourished and refer them to outpatient nutrition centers where they can receive treatment. Typically, a nutritionist will measure a child’s middle upper arm circumference. If it is less than 12.5 centimeters, or about 5 inches, the child is acutely malnourished. Volunteers help ensure acutely malnourished kids are referred immediately to the center to receive treatment.
Nutrition treatment can be life-saving for kids like 7-month-old Shobika, whose mother carried her across the border into Bangladesh six months ago, when she was just a newborn. She was severely malnourished when she arrived in Cox’s Bazar. She now attends the Shamlapur outpatient nutrition center — the same place Jamila works — which supports mothers and children among more than 16,000 refugees and 15,000 Bangladeshi host community members.
Shobika’s arm circumference was 8.2 cm — barely more than 3 inches around — when she first enrolled in the outpatient center in April, indicating she had severe acute malnutrition and needed immediate treatment. Now, Shobika’s mother takes her to the center every week to be weighed and measured, so she can track her growth and recovery.
Staff teach Shobika’s mom how to improve the diets of Shobika and her four siblings; Shobika also receives specialized, fortified food, provided by UNICEF with funding from USAID’s Food for Peace, to treat her malnutrition. She still has a way to go, but Shobika is making progress.
Jamila and community volunteers like her are helping save the lives of young, malnourished children like Shobika. USAID is proud of Jamila’s work, and all the volunteers who are helping to provide food and nutrition assistance to those who need it most.
About this Story
Suzanne Cunningham is an information officer supporting USAID’s Office of Food for Peace. She met Jamila while traveling through Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, visiting and reviewing emergency food and nutrition assistance programs for Rohingya refugees. Follow USAID’s Food for Peace @USAID_FFP.
