Rohingya refugees share stories
For two weeks, they are taught smartphone photo and video-shooting techniques — such as understanding light, exposure and angles — as well as writing skills
KUTUPALONG, Bangladesh (AFP) — When Mohammad Rafiq spotted two Rohingya refugee girls dusting their faces with circles of traditional thanaka powder under the warm morning light, he quickly took out his smartphone to capture the moment. The 19-year-old budding photographer, who fled to Bangladesh in August 2017 after a military crackdown in Myanmar, uses his mobile phone to record the daily lives of nearly one million stateless Rohingya in a vast camp in southern Bangladesh.
“I loved the photo instantly as it reflects our culture and the innocence of the little girls who barely want to remember the crisis we are facing,” Rafiq told AFP.
Rafiq is among some 30 Rohingya youths selected by the World Food Programme (WFP) for its “Storytellers” project. For two weeks, they are taught smartphone photo and video-shooting techniques — such as understanding light, exposure and angles — as well as writing skills.
The refugees then share their stories directly with the public through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, with audiences around the world posting comments and asking questions.
“The idea behind it is to be able to hand back the narrative to the people that we are already assisting,” WFP spokeswoman Gemma Snowdon told AFP.
The Storytellers Page on Facebook has more than 30,000 followers and includes similar schemes rolled out in Chad and Uganda.
All the Rohingya posters have a similar goal — to share with the outside world the raw, emotional ups and downs they face living in the world’s largest refugee camp.
Minara, who was four months’ pregnant when she fled Myanmar, shares videos of how refugees are given ropes to tie their makeshift tarpaulin roofs to bamboo poles so they are not blown away by strong winds.
Another post, by Hafsa Aktar, is a heartrending letter to her father who was left behind, in which she writes of the difficult conditions in the camp and her deep longing to return to her homeland.