Micah Spangler // On the Front Lines of Humanitarian Aid: Midwives Providing Lifesaving Care to Rohingya Refugees | unfoundation.org

13.12.18

On the Front Lines of Humanitarian Aid: Midwives Providing Lifesaving Care to Rohingya Refugees | unfoundation.org: “We are here 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” Jhumur Rani Saha proudly told me as I toured the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) clinic in Cox’s Bazar where she and her team work, a humble four room bamboo structure encircled by a dense thicket of makeshift shelters and tents. “At any time, a woman can come. We must always be ready.”

A year ago, this refugee camp didn’t exist. Last summer, the Rohingya, an ethnic Muslim minority from western Myanmar, began flooding across the country’s border with Bangladesh.

As some 20,000 Rohingya refugees arrived daily, they brought with them stories of the unspeakable atrocities that forced them to suddenly flee their homes: Thousands of women raped, countless men executed, and precious young babies thrown alive onto fires – all by the hands of the Myanmar military.