In pictures: Rohingya families rediscover the joy of mealtimes

Mealtimes are a chance for families and friends to come together, to share food, tell stories and make plans for the future.

Rohingya refugees have been separated from their homes and their families, and simple routines, like eating favourite dish together, for more than 1.5 years. In Bangladesh, they are now rediscovering the joys of cooking and eating together with their newfound access to a diverse range of food.

Refugees are now using technology — through an electronic voucher — to purchase the food they need in stores located close to their homes. With this card they can now buy a diverse range of food, including fresh vegetables, chillies and dried fish. This is replacing the in-kind distributions of rice, lentils, and oil and supporting families to have greater autonomy over what they eat in a situation where they’ve had very little.

Families can now choose from 20 items in each store. Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder.

The World Food Programme is scaling up its e-voucher food assistance with support from EU Humanitarian Aid (ECHO). We are supporting all refugees to use these cards and cook their favourite meals by the end of 2019.

Nur Halima

“Now we can buy to meet our needs. We are getting chillies, oil, eggs, dried fish and others items. We are really thankful and happy that we have this shop.”

Nur Halima and Jahed Hossain arrived in Bangladesh in 2017 with their two children. They initially received a General Food Distribution of rice, lentils, and oil from WFP but were transitioned onto the e-voucher system in 2019 (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Nur Halima buys spices, egg, dry fish, onion, oil and rice for her family at the WFP e-voucher outlet (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Nur and her husband give priority to their children when it comes to the shopping. Eggs are a favourite for the kids so she makes sure they are always on the shopping list (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Eggs fried with spices is one of the dishes Nur cooks up for her two sons. She and her husband prefer to eat dried fish with potatoes, both of which they can get in the e-voucher outlets (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Nur’s eldest son, Enamul Hasan, is 7 years old and attends one of the learning centres in the camps. Having eggs for breakfast ensures that he goes to class with a full stomach and is able to concentrate (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Mohammed Shofi and Hasina

“Previously we would share one egg between all of us because we had no money. Now we can buy as many eggs as we need and have one per person.”

Mohammed Shofi and his wife Hasina came to Bangladesh with their four children (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Mohammed and Hasina were concerned about how few vegetables their children were eating and use their e-voucher to buy as many vegetables as they can (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

When the family first arrived from Myanmar they survived on white rice and would sometimes add green leaves to it. The e-vouchers have been a huge change for the family (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

This potato, tomato, and egg curry is a popular dish with the family, Mohammed says it gives his kids energy and strength (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

The choice and ability to cook different dishes because of the e-vouchers means the family have rediscovered the joy of mealtimes together (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Nur Bahar

“Other than rice, we buy onions, salt, chillies, turmeric, eggs, and dried fish. I also buy fruit as a snack for my children, it makes them very happy.”

Nur Bahar and her husband have seven children together, five sons and two daughters. The family were farmers in Myanmar with acres of land where they grew produce and raised cows (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Nur prepares the dried fish she bought at the WFP e-voucher outlet, she says when they first arrived in Bangladesh there were times when her children stayed hungry for days and they’d survive on rice with chillis (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Fish curry is a popular dish for this family, now that they have access to spices it’s possible to eat it every week (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Nur’s son, Tuhir (11), loves malta fruit which is available at the e-voucher outlets. She buys them for her children to snack on whenever she goes shopping. Fruit and vegetables are generally very popular amongst children living in refugee camps but prior to the opening of the e-voucher outlets they were difficult for families to access if they didn’t have cash (Photo: WFP/Saikat Mojumder)

Half of the refugee population in Cox’s Bazar is currently receiving food assistance through the e-voucher system. WFP, with support from ECHO, has been scaling this up steadily and by the end of 2019 all refugees will receive food assistance this way.

Find out more about how you can support Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.