change language
you are in: home - news newslettercontact uslink

Support the Community

  
January 23 2018 | BANGLADESH

A school for 300 rohingya children open in Jamtholi refugee camp

 
printable version

The cholera and diphtheria epidemic that has hit a big part of the Rohingya population in the refugee camps in Bangladesh, especially in December and the first half of January, is almost passed. However, there is a new menace in the horizon: the annual arrival of the monsoon season (which this year is predicted to be particularly long and strong). This menace comes together with a cyclon that is likely to arrive from the north-east around mid-April.

 
Considering that the barracks are placed in slopes of sandy and soft terrain, there is a very high probability of collapses and landslides for about 60% of the provisional dwellings. Consequently, the population needs protection and shelter.
 
Monsoon season also means potential cholera diffusion. Given these news, the Community of Sant'Egidio is continuing its committment at the side of MOAS (Migrant Offshore Aid Station), by distributing in these days a substantial amount of medical help to the camps' clinics of Shamlapur & Unchiprang.
 
Back to School!
At the same time, to answer to the many needs of the children, which are now more than half the population in the Rohingya camps (around 520,000), Sant'Egidio has opened a school for 300 children in the refugee camp of Jamtholi.
 
Today, the school works for 6 days a week, from Saturday to Thursday, from 9am to 3pm in 3 turns of 100 children.
 
The teachers are four Rohingya refugees who were teachers in Rakhine before they flee. At the moment school is held in a provisional barrack, whilst waiting for a bigger and more stable construction in a plot of land already located, for which authorisations have been granted. It is in partnership with Dreamers and Muhammadiyah, who also manage a small nutritional centre.
 
To start school here is a gesture of hope for the future of Rohingya, in a moment where the situation is on a standstill. The possibility of a repatriation, announced by the government of Bangladesh after the meeting with the government of Maynmar and Naypyidaw on 16th January, encounters many considerable difficulties.
 
The possible repatriation is subordinate to the concession of Myanmar citizenship to the Rohingya population. This concession will be given (according to the agreements) to no more than 300 people per day. This means that the refugee camps would be eliminated only in 10 years' time!

The school is the first step towards trying to transform this really long "emergency" phase in a time that is useful, that prepares the younger generations to a future that we hope would see an integration process of a multi-ethnic society.

 

Help us to give a future to the rohingya children of the refugee camps in Bangladesh

Donate Online


 
VIDEO (IT)

 ALSO READ
• NEWS
December 5 2017

Let us not close our hearts, or look the other way. The presence of God today is also called ''Rohingya''. May each of us respond.

IT | EN | ES | DE | FR | PT
all the news
• PRINT
November 25 2017
La Vanguardia

La Comunidad de San Egidio se vuelca con los rohinyá mientras se espera al Papa

all press releases
• NO DEATH PENALTY
October 10 2017

On 15th World Day Against the Death Penalty let us visit the poorest convicts in Africa

October 7 2015
UNITED STATES

The World Coalition Against the Death Penalty - XIII world day against the death penalty

October 5 2015
EFE

Fallece un preso japonés tras pasar 43 años en el corredor de la muerte

September 24 2015

Pope Francis calls on Congress to end the death penalty. "Every life is sacred", he said

March 12 2015
AFP

Arabie: trois hommes dont un Saoudien exécutés pour trafic de drogue

March 12 2015
Associated Press

Death penalty: a look at how some US states handle execution drug shortage

March 9 2015
Reuters

Australia to restate opposition to death penalty as executions loom in Indonesia

March 9 2015
AFP

Le Pakistan repousse de facto l'exécution du meurtrier d'un critique de la loi sur le blasphème

March 9 2015
AFP

Peine de mort en Indonésie: la justice va étudier un appel des deux trafiquants australiens

February 28 2015
UNITED STATES

13 Ways Of Looking At The Death Penalty

February 15 2015

Archbishop Chaput applauds Penn. governor for halt to death penalty

December 11 2014
MADAGASCAR

C’est désormais officiel: Madagascar vient d’abolir la peine de mort!

go to no death penalty