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The five-year-old Rohingya boy was so emaciated that doctors could not insert a drip into his arm.
“He said he hadn’t eaten anything in eight days. Nothing,” said Dr SK Jahidur Rahman at a clinic run by Bangladeshi medical charity Gonoshasthaya Kendra.
He is one of the thousands of children facing life-threatening malnutrition in overstretched Bangladeshi refugee camps.
The UN says more than 14,100 children are at risk of dying from malnutrition in camps where half a million mainly Rohingya refugees depend entirely on charities for survival.
UNICEF is scaling up its response to deliver immediate life-saving humanitarian assistance.
Children urgently need protection, nutrition, health, water and sanitation support.
“There are acute shortages of everything, most critically shelter, food and clean water,” said Edouard Beigbeder, UNICEF’s Representative in Bangladesh.
“Conditions on the ground place children in danger of high-risk water-borne diseases. We have a monumental task ahead of us to protect these extremely vulnerable children.”
Children arriving in the camps have endured long and dangerous journeys. Many have witnessed violence and lost family members.
Psychosocial and recreational support has been provided to more than 24,000 Rohingya children so far through more than 40 mobile Child-Friendly Spaces.
Separated and unaccompanied children are also being identified through these spaces and community outreach.
With UNICEF support, a total of 512 unaccompanied and separated children have been identified.
Over 100 adolescent clubs are now active in host communities and makeshift settlements to provide life-skills education.
UNICEF is currently running 182 learning centres in Rohingya camps and settlements in Cox’s Bazar, and has enrolled 15,000 children.
It plans to increase the number of learning centres to 1,500, to reach 200,000 children over the next year.
Source
- Channel News Asia
- UNICEF
- Image: APNews
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News category: Asia Pacific.
