Robbed of childhood, Rohingyas sketch out their trauma, misery
COX’S BAZAR: Shupira sits surrounded by dozens of children drawing colorful patterns onto white sheets of paper. But the eight-year-old’s picture is turning out differently. With a grey pen, she sketches houses full of people, then switching colors to orange, she sets the buildings on fire with her small, delicate hand. She pauses to look up. “This is my village. It’s what I saw.” Shupira is a Rohingya Muslim and she has lost everything. More than half of the 1.1 million Rohingya population - over 600,000 - has fled to Bangladesh since 25 August, making it the world’s fastest growing refugee crisis. Those in flight accuse security forces of arson, killings and rape in what the United Nations calls a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.
Trauma on a page
Shupira said her family fled an attack by Myanmar’s army on her village that saw dozens burned alive. Between 1,200-1,800 children cross into Bangladesh on a daily basis, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with at least 60 percent of the camp’s total population aged under 18. Nearly 340,000 Rohingya children are living in squalid conditions in the camps, short of food, clean water and health care, according to UNICEF. Many are traumatized by what they have seen. Shupira escaped Bholi Bazar village with her parents and now lives in a poorly constructed plastic tent. She does not go to school, but instead visits a so-called child-friendly space - a separate area in the camp supervised by social workers and equipped with toys and games. While Shupira likes to be around others, she does not play much. She sits motionless, focusing only on her drawing, without breaking into even the slightest smile. “I ran past soldiers who shoved my neighbors into their houses. Then they sat them on fire. I screamed because I was so afraid,” she said, pointing to her picture. “I want people to know what happened. That’s why I draw.”
Early trauma Psychological distress is widespread among the camp’s children; aid agencies say long-term trauma could well follow. “This is still the early onset, but it’s been a long time that people in Rakhine state have lived in horrible conditions and have been exposed to violence. I am afraid that we will see more long-term effects, including trauma,” Lisa Akero, of IFRC humanitarian organization, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Akero works closely with Rohingya children in the camps and has seen how deeply the crisis has shaped them. It’s heart-breaking to see their extreme sense of resilience. —Reuters