HANDS 4 Rohingya
HANDS 4 ROHINGYA
#H4R is a project of HANDS International, a UK registered charity. The project is being coordinated by UK based activist Jamila Hanan and is overseen by Samad Billoo, founder and trustee of HANDS International, both of whom work as volunteers on this cause.
Our aid work for the Rohingya started on a small scale, as personal attempts to meet urgent calls for help, passed our way by journalists and others. When documentary maker Shafiur Rahman began to work closely with victims of the Tula Toli massacre, there were requests for assistance from the survivors. The #HANDS4ROHINGYA project was born out of this tragedy. We have seen this community rekindle hope that we would never have imagined possible after what they have endured. This project is inspired by the hope of survivors.
Our team is a close-knit network of Rohingya and Bangladeshi locals living near the camps in Bangladesh. Together, we've achieved so much thanks to the incredible support of ordinary people like you worldwide. Their encouragement, donations, and ideas fuel our work. We're energized by the potential for a brighter future for the Rohingya and hope you'll be inspired to join us. Become part of this growing project and help us create a better tomorrow for the Rohingya community.
Rohingya Children Receive Education and Hope in Remote Burmese Village
In 2022, Hands International and the Muslim Community & Education Centre (MCEC) joined forces with Rohingya Christian community in India to bring education in a remote area of Rakhine State, Burma, where schooling was scarce. Their year-long collaboration yielded significant results, offering vital support during Ramadan and facilitating the construction and operation of the Taung Chaung Literacy Centre (TCLC).
Rohingya Tube well Project
Access to safe and clean Water is a major problem in the Rohingya refugee camps of Bangladesh. There are problems with collection, transport of water and storage of water. Inadequate and unsafe drinking water and limited sanitation facilities have given rise to a number of diseases including cholera, typhoid and diarrhoea
During the extended Covid19 lockdown in the camps, most NGOs have scaled back their activities. There have been a number of consequences. One major impact is that many tube wells, managed by those NGOs or camp authorities, have fallen into disrepair and are not being serviced by the NGOs. Additionally, water is rationed with only twice daily provisions at the water points. Long queues build up causing problems.
Women and children have faced the brunt of these lockdown outcomes in terms of water collection and transportation.
Over the past year #HANDS4ROHINGYA, a HANDS International project, have built over a dozen tube wells in the Rohingya refugee camps, each one serving approximately 70 families. These families benefit by not having to go to distant water points, and queueing is also reduced substantially. Each tube well costs £270 in order to dig to a depth of 220 feet. Donors are provided with a name plate within the cost
Responding to Fire Emergency in Rohingya Camp
A massive fire has ripped through the Rohingya camps devastating thousands of shelters.
People were trapped by barbed wire when they tried to flee. An unknown number of people have died. Many are missing.
Families have lost everything. Past fires have left Rohingya with little help.
We have people on the ground to get your donations directly to those affected.
Please give generously if you can.
Support Rohingya Orphans
Life in the refugee camps of Bangladesh is extremely challenging. For children, who make up more than half of the refugee population, it is even more so.
Rohingya children have suffered profound trauma having witnessed the slaughter of their community in Myanmar in 2017. Now in the camps of Bangladesh, education is severely restricted and there is no formal education for hundreds of thousands of children. Malnutrition also exists and even as late as last year malnutrition remained at emergency levels especially for younger children.
The conditions in the camps are dangerous. Children have little access to child friendly spaces. They face serious protection risks including child labour, trafficking and child marriage.
Many of the children are orphans. Their parents were killed in August of 2017. Some have found shelter with relatives. Others have been adopted by community members. This appeals aims to help these children with their education and also some family support, including supplementing the meagre food rations they receive.
Most Rohingya refugees are children
Support Rohingya Refugees during Lockdown
Over the past 2 years, we have helped Rohingya survivors of the Tula Toli massacre and their neighbours with hundreds of payments to buy food, get access to health care, build and repair shelters, buy fuel and solar panels.
Now Rohingya refugees face Ramadan and the threat of Coronavirus lockdown, living in cramped shelters with little food and extremely limited access to healthcare. Development activities have been halted in the camps as NGOs have had their access restricted and the price of food has increased. Moreover rations have been reduced.
We already have assisted with workshops in the camps to inform people of the risk of the virus and ways to try and keep safe. With your support, we would like to continue providing cash payments to Rohingya families living in the refugee camps in Bangladesh.
Thus far we have raised approximately £2500. We have distributed to around 250 families and more payments are being made by our Rohingya fixer who live in the camps and in Cox Bazar. This is very much a drop in the ocean. However, in the context of the lockdown, even this small support has been very important for members of this community. Rohingya are not allowed to work but some did work informally which has now been not possible in the lockdown. We have spoken to quite a few community members and lack of money and tightened rations have contributed to stress and tension.
We have also provided socially-distanced Iftari for almost 500 people on different days. One family buys and makes the food on a given day and then these are distributed to other households. One plate of iftari containing bhajee, cucumber, puffed rice, chickpeas, salad, aubergine fritter, dates and a drink costs £0.80pence.
With this background, provision of healthy and wholesome food has become hugely important. Approximately £10 will enable a household to buy vegetables for a month, and this may help them to stay healthy.
School 4 Rohingya
Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugee children living in camps in Bangladesh still have no access to education.
In one area in Gundum, we know of 2,000 children who only had one little school serving about 200 children (the school in the photo below). Thanks to your donations, we are now building them another one!
We are also start a homeschooling service for those Rohingya children that can’t make it to school for various reasons, including trauma, disability, and family responsibilities.
Testimony Tailors
Testimony Tailors is a sewing co-operative run by Rohingya women who survived rape and massacres. They are now rebuilding their lives and families in a camp in Bangladesh. This is a shop with a difference: Every item you purchase here be given to a Rohingya refugee. All profits go directly to the Rohingya refugee women who make the clothes, with a small share allocated to their own sewing co-operative.