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Preparing for the monsoon in Bangladesh

June 2018 update

Rokiya, 9, lost everything when she fled from the violence in Myanmar - her home, her friends and sadly her sister too. She and her family found refuge in an overcrowded camp in Bangladesh.

She's been through so much already, but now she faces the threat of losing her home again with the monsoon coming and its devastating weather.

Click through these photos to see Rokiya's story

Life was beautiful for Rokiya, 9, and her two younger sisters Asma, 8, and Sadekunahar, 7. She used to love playing with them in their home.

“Our house was big and it was made of wood. It was surrounded by a big piece of land. In that land, we had lemon trees, jackfruit trees, mango trees and jamun trees. We had pond and there were big fishes in it.”

“We live in a shelter covered with tarpaulins. The house is small. It shakes when strong wind blows. During the day, it is sunny on top and it becomes very hot. During the night, we feel cold. We have only three blankets that is not enough to keep our big warm. The ground is cold and that makes us feel cold. We sleep on the floor with the mats received from aid distribution,” she says.

Rokiya finds comfort at a child friendly space near her tent - one of nine that World Vision runs in the refugee camps. About 2,000 children attend these centres each week.

At the centre, children have the chance to play and make friends but they also learn about how to protect themselves. Here Rokiya plays a game with her friends that teaches them how to avoid being snatched or robbed.

"In the morning I go to World Vision’s child friendly centre. I get to play and do loads of activities with other children. I like to play here a lot, eat biscuits and snacks and many other things.”

“Rokiya is a very shy girl and she became more closed and afraid after all that she saw while we were fleeing. Now that she has started going to the centre I see her smiling again. She likes going to the centre," says her teacher.

At the centre, they also learn how to protect themselves from natural disasters such as floods and landslides.

Children get nutritious biscuits at the child friendly space.

After spending time at the child friendly centre, Rokiya goes back to her shelter and continues to help her mother do the household chores. She takes care of her youngest brother who is 7-months old while her mother works.

Rokiya also needs to collect water for the family from the nearby wells. “We could eat properly in Burma (Myanmar). We ate fish and meat also. We also did farming. My Father used to go fishing with nets. We could eat everything there. There we didn't have to worry about anything.”

Now all they can afford is rice, lentils and potatoes. Sometimes the food gets over before the next round of aid they are to receive. Her father tries to look around for work so that he can support his family and provide food and clothes for his children. But he hasn't been successful in finding work.

One of Rokiya’s chores is to collect firewood for burning as fuel. But this is a scary task. “I don't like going to jungle. There are elephants that may attack us or local people who may chase us away. Kidnapers may come so I feel really scared. That’s why I don’t don’t like going to collect wood.”

World Vision and other partners are trying to provide food, water, shelter to almost a million people. The need is overwhelming. For instance, over 16 million litres of safe water are needed per day in the camps. World Vision has installed water pumps that bring clean water to more than 54,000 people, and built more than 1,300 latrines.

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Like thousands of others, Rokiya and her family walked a long way through rivers and hills to find a safe place to stay across the border.

Once at the camp, they found refuge in a small shelter. But with the monsoon coming soon, thousands of these fragile stick and plastic shelters are at risk of being damaged or destroyed by the storms and heavy rain.

Living in a shelter in a refugee camp is nothing like home, and with the strong wind and torrential rain coming, life there will get even harder.

Families are getting relief kits with bamboo, tarpaulins, ropes, nails and sandbags to help make their shelters stronger, so that they can protect themselves over the coming months.

As well as having a safer place to live, Rokiya knows what to do if there's a flood, landslide or storm. She's learned at one of the child friendly spaces how to protect herself from the bad weather that the monsoon will bring.

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