COX’S BAZAAR, Bangladesh (Reuters) — The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) offers Rohingya children education opportunities in hundreds of schools set up within the refugee camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district.
With 37 children in each class, educators teach Burmese, English and maths in the hopes the pupils are able secure a bright future and earn a living, a UNICEF spokesperson said on Tuesday (October 24)
Nearly 340,000 Rohingya children are living in squalid conditions in the camps where they lack enough food, clean water and health care, UNICEF said on Friday (October 20).
Up to 12,000 more children join the camps every week, fleeing violence in Myanmar, often still traumatized by atrocities they witnessed.
In all, almost 600,000 Rohingya refugees have left northern Rakhine state since August 25, when the U.N. says the Myanmar army began a campaign of “ethnic cleansing” following insurgent attacks.
UNICEF has set up hundreds of schools in the sprawling refugee camps to help children escape from the rigors of camp life — providing them some healthy food and atmosphere in the process.
One in five Rohingya children under the age of five is estimated to be acutely malnourished, requiring medical attention.
