Bringing joy to traumatised Rohingya kids

KUTUPALONG ( Bangladesh): The Rohingya boys and girls shrieked with delight as the clowns juggled hoops and somersaulted, their rednosed antics provoking a sound rarely heard in the world’s largest refugee camp – children’s laughter.

The clowns have been providing much-needed levity in the crowded Bangladesh camps, where hundreds of thousands of traumatised Rohingya children spend long days in bleak and difficult conditions.

Mohammad Noor lives with his mother and three siblings in a makeshift shanty in the teeming Kutupalong camp, where a lack of food and water means a constant struggle to survive.

The 10-year-old fled Myanmar last month after his father was killed in brutal violence by the army that the United Nations has likened to ethnic cleansing.

The impromptu circus in a dusty clearing is a welcome distraction from the horror at home.

“It is hilarious. I have never seen anything like it. My friends and I were just laughing and laughing,” he said, as a quartet of painted clowns performed skits before a huge gathered crowd.

Theatre groups in Bangladesh have a record of using “drama therapy” to lift spirits in the most depressing of circumstances.

In the camps, where many lie sick or injured mourning the death of family and loss of their homelands, laughter is sorely needed.

“Our sole aim is to bring laughter to the Rohingya,” said Rina Akter Putul, a veteran acrobat and the lone female member of the group.

“Making people laugh is a tough job, especially for those who lost their parents in the conflict.”

Charities on the ground say children are in dire need of emotional and mental support after enduring such trauma on their journeys.

“I am sure our show will live in their memory for some time. It won’t erase their scars, but it will boost their confidence,” said Faker Ali, an acrobat. But it’s not just the children who benefit from the performance.

Among the spectators who flocked to a recent show were countless elderly Rohingya refugees, clapping and smiling as the acrobats whirred rings and bars.

“Life in Arakan (Rakhine) is grim,” Khairul Amin, a 63-year-old grandfather, said as a boisterous crowd, young and old, jostled to meet the visiting clowns.

“There is no television and no cinema or theatre. And there is this constant fear you’ll be killed or arrested by the military.” — AFP

I am sure our show will live in their memory for some time. It won’t erase their scars, but it will boost their confidence.

Faker Ali