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UN PhotoUNFPA / KANEM ROHINGYA REFUGEES VISIT
STORY: UNFPA / KANEM ROHINGYA REFUGEES VISIT
TRT: 4:01
SOURCE: UNFPA
RESTRICTIONS: PLEASE CREDIT UNFPA ON SCREEN
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 13 MAY 2024, FRIENDSHIP HOSPITAL SITUATED IN UKHIYA COX’S BAZAR. WOMEN FRIENDLY SPACE IN CAMP 9. ROHINGYA CULTURAL MEMORY CENTRE, CAMP 18, COX’S BAZAR
13 MAY 2024, FRIENDSHIP HOSPITAL SITUATED IN UKHIYA, COX’S BAZAR
1. Wide shot, outside of Friendship Hospital, vehicles of the UN waiting to enter the premises.
2. Med shot, UNFPA Executive Director Dr. Natalia Kanem speaking to a representative of the Friendship Hospital outside
3. Med shot, Dr. Kanem speaking to a representative of the Friendship Hospital outside in the presence of Md. Mizanur Rahman.
4. Med shot, Dr. Kanem walking around the hospital premises guided by an official from the Friendship Hospital.
5. Med shot, Dr. Kanem speaking to midwives in a room about their work
6. Med shot, Dr. Kanem stands outside the pathology room as the doctor explains the provider's services.
7. Med shot, Dr. Kanem walking around the hospital premises guided by an official from the Friendship Hospital.
8. Med shot, Dr. Kanem outside a room in the hospital inspecting the room signs
9. Med shot, a volunteer from the Friendship Hospital is explaining to Dr. Kanem
10. Close up, Dr. Kanem enters a room in the hospital
11. Med shot, Dr. Kanem inside a room in the hospital speaking to the doctors
12. Wide Shot, Dr. Kanem standing in the hospital corridor while the volunteer explains the chart and achievements
13. Close up, Dr. Kanem is standing in the corridor listening to a volunteer
14. Wide shot, Dr. Kanem speaking to the RRRC government representative Mohammed Mizan Rahman in the hospital corridor
15. Med shot, Dr. Kanem inside the post-operation room in the Friendship Hospital
16. Med shot, Dr. Kanem speaking to a mother in the post-operative the hospital
17. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Natalia Kanem, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director:
“Babies wait for no one, not even here in this camp setting for Rohingya refugees hosted in Bangladesh, investing in the services of the midwives and the doctors and lab technicians who provide on-the-spot care conveniently for a community in desperate need is something that we need to pay attention to and do more of. When we invest in these life-saving services, we're really bringing hope and the promise of tomorrow into the hearts and homes of some of the most vulnerable people in the world today.”
13 MAY 2024, WOMEN FRIENDLY SPACE IN CAMP 9, COX’S BAZAR
18. Wide shot, Dr. Kanem in the woman-friendly space in the Rohingya refugee camp
19. Med shot, Dr. Kanem looking around the room
20. Med shot, UN officials in a room with Rohingya women in the center
21. Med shot, Dr. Kanem in a room with Rohingya women in the center
22. Med shot, UN officials in a room with Rohingya women in the center
23. Med shot, Dr. Kanem in a room with Rohingya women in the center
24. Med shot, staff in a room with Rohingya women in the center
25. Med shot, Dr. Kanem and staff in a room with Rohingya women in the center
13 MAY 2024, ROHINGYA CULTURAL MEMORY CENTRE, CAMP 18, COX’S BAZAR
26. Wide shot, Dr. Kanem looking at the exhibits inside the museum
27. Wide shot, a Rohingya refugee demonstrates how a machine works inside the museum
28. Med shot, Dr. Kanem looking at the exhibit inside the museum
29. Wide shot, a volunteer explains the exhibits
30. Med shot, a volunteer explains the exhibits
31. Close up, traditional Rohingya boats miniature sizes inside the museum
32. Wide shot, a volunteer explains the exhibits
33. Med shot, Dr. Kanem looks at the exhibit with other UN officials in Rohingya museum
34. Med shot, UNFPA official enjoying the performance of Rohingya musicians
35. Wide shot, Dr. Kanem and other UN officials enjoying the performance of Rohingya musicians
36. SOUNDBITE (English) Dr. Natalia Kanem, United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Executive Director:
“I am vividly recalling that when I was here in 2018, just after the Rohingya crisis broke out, leading to the inflow of people here into this camp in Cox's Bazar. Hearing the wound, you don't see that is the one that hurts the most. Coming back with appreciation that due to the actions of UNFPA working in concert with so many of our humanitarian partner whose lives have been saved, we have made a difference.But it is also sad to reflect that the need is great in this camp of well over 1.2 million people, the preponderance being women and girls.”
Seven years after the Rohingya people were forced from their homes in Myanmar, close to 1 million remain stranded in the refugee camps of Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district – over half of them women and girls.
Conditions in the densely-populated camps are difficult. With no means of earning a legal income, and with food rations directly impacted by funding shortages, refugees are resorting to increasingly desperate measures to survive. There are reports of forced early marriage – one in ten Rohingya girls is married as a child. Women are concerned their sons and husbands may be recruited to fight an ongoing war in Myanmar. And an increase in security incidents in the camps has also left women and girls more exposed to violence.
UNFPA has been on the ground since 2017 providing life-saving sexual and reproductive health services to Rohingya women and girls, as well as host communities. Today, UNFPA supports over 60 percent of all midwives in the camps; as well as midwives at Friendship Hospital in Balukhali, Ukhiya – in partnership with the IOM. The hospital is the only facility staffed and equipped to provide comprehensive emergency obstetric care, 24 hours a day. Although maternal and newborn deaths are still high, the number of women giving birth at facilities has doubled to 85 percent since 2019, in large part thanks to the efforts of UNFPA and partners, who facilitated more than 10,600 safe births in 2023 alone.
UNFPA also supports 56 women and girl-friendly spaces across the camps. Here women and girls can access counseling, medical and referral services for gender-based violence. The spaces give women and girls a chance to escape from their cramped, hot shelters, to access electricity and clean water; and to discuss how to ensure their rights are met. They are also able to learn sewing, traditional Rohingya embroidery and other skills. In 2023, more than half a million women and girls accessed services and support through these spaces as well as through 10 Women-Led Community Centres.
Today, however, the future prospects of the Rohingya people are uncertain. Women and girls told UNFPA they are worried about how they will feed and support their families, with less food available and crime on the rise.
Amid serious underfunding, UNFPA’s services are also under threat. At nearly mid-year, our $13.1 million appeal for 2024 is only 42 percent funded. The consequences could be dire – One Stop Centres providing comprehensive services to prevent and respond to gender-based violence in host and Rohingya communities may be forced to close; support for reproductive health and protection programmes, including for youth, reduced. This underfunding is true for all UN agencies working in Cox’s Bazar, and risks every aspect of the humanitarian response.
The Rohingya cannot be forgotten by the international community. Donors must urgently step up funding to the Joint Response Plan for Cox’s Bazar and Bangladesh. Only if fully funded can UNFPA, our fellow UN agencies and multiple NGO partners provide services for the Rohingya people that can quite literally spell the difference between life and death.
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