September 17, 2017

Humanitarian Aid for people from Rakhine State of Myanmar


Over 400,000 people have fled from Myanmar since August 25. The situation is putting enormous pressure on a region that is already overwhelmed with earlier influxes of people from the Rakhine State of Myanmar and recent floods. More than half of the new arrivals are children, many of them not even a year old and many unaccompanied. More than 50,000 pregnant and lactating women have also arrived, who need urgent support – and will soon have more children to look after. There are many people helping, but the need is much higher than the support available, and the need is growing every day. People have walked for days and they are sick, exhausted and scared. They have nothing. They urgently need shelter, clean water and sanitation.

BRAC started working in the makeshift settlement communities in Ukhia and Teknaf sub-districts to provide child protection services in January 2017. Establishing three child friendly spaces (CFS) helped build close relationships with the community. We used those relationships to begin emergency WASH and health support for the new arrivals on 5 September.

What BRAC is doing:

Providing immediate healthcare, focusing on maternal and child health including oral saline for diarrhoea management, fever management for malaria and pneumoniamaternal, neo-natal and child health services and mobile clinics.

Installing water, sanitation and hygiene facilities, focusing on tube wells and latrines. This also includes the distribution of drinking water and hygiene kits and the building of bathing cubes. 

Operating and increasing our recreational and child protection services through child friendly spaces. Some of the child friendly spaces are mobile so they can reach children in scattered locations. We are also identifying and assisting unaccompanied children.

BRAC is responding to the people in dire need of assistance. In consultation with government and mandates to coordinate the humanitarian efforts, BRAC has deployed an emergency response team of 170 staff to take action at Ukhia and Teknaf sub-districts. We have a large staff base at the frontline, including BRAC’s health workers, skilled birth attendants, hygiene promoters, case workers and outreach staff. The government is allocating land where the new arrivals can be accommodated. Once these new makeshift spaces are fixed, BRAC will begin the second and a more sustainable phase of assistance.

If you would like to contribute to our efforts to help people from Rakhine State of Myanmar, please visit our donation page. All donations (minus a 3% transaction fee charged by our donation portal supplier) will go straight towards BRACs relief efforts.