Kutupalong, Bangladesh - Over plastic sheets and woven
straw mats on the ground, dozens of children sit clustered together in groups,
chatting animatedly.
A group of them is hunched over carrom boards. Others are
rolling dices counting their turns over games such as Snakes and Ladders or
Ludo.
The younger ones are playing with marbles, expertly flicking the tiny glass balls on a board printed with different points. Some are holding copies of Meena and Raju, the popular South Asian children's books, too young to read the words but old enough to recognise the two main characters and their sidekick, a talking parrot.
"The difference in these children compared to last
year is remarkable," says Sadrulalam, who runs this Child Friendly Space
(CFS) in Kutupalong camp.
The centre was established in September 2017, barely two
weeks after the first mass influx of Rohingya refugees crossed the border into
Bangladesh, fleeing an army crackdown in Myanmar's Rakhine state, which the
United Nations called a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing".
"Back then, they were so traumatised. Their features
were frozen in fear," recalls Sadrulalam. "Whenever they saw a
policeman or soldier here they would be very scared.
"The children now are happier," adds the
42-year-old. "They laugh and play together, and they roam around the camp
without any fear."
Overcoming trauma
More than 700,000 Rohingya have settled in overcrowded
and dilapidated camps, including Kutupalong, in Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar since
last year, carrying accounts of mass killings, gang rapes and razing of entire
villages.
Half of them are under the age of five, according to aid
agencies' estimates.
"The main purpose of the Child Friendly Spaces
(CFSs) is to help children between the ages of five-18, who had witnessed the
brutality and violence carried out by Myanmar soldiers overcome their
trauma," says Sadrulalam, explaining the use of physio-psycho-social
training which includes physical and counseling exercises.
The CFS that he supervises hosts 200 children; including
orphans and those who have been separated from their families or whose
relatives are missing.
The space is part of the Child Centre Project, an
initiative supported by the UN's children agency (UNICEF) in conjunction with
CODEC, a national NGO.
To date, there are currently 150 CFSs supporting 145,000
children in the camps, according to a UNICEF official, in addition to 300
adolescent clubs supporting 30,000 teenagers.
Furthermore, UNICEF supports nearly 1,000 learning
centres in the camps for children between the age of nine-13, who are taught
English and Burmese. Under the instructions of the host government, Rohingya
children are prevented from learning Bengali as a deterrent from permanently
settling in the country.
Life skills and peer sessions
Inside the CSF in Kutupalong camp, tissue paper
decorations, garlands and polystyrene birds tied with string hang from the
ceiling.
Seven-year-old Sabialam flits around the room, the
remnants of a washable tattoo that comes with chewing gum plastered on one
cheek.
"My mother was shot and killed by Myanmar
soldiers," he says, matter-of-factly.
Sabialam lives in the camp with father, who drops him off
to the CFS every morning after Quran lessons, and other relatives.
"I like it here because I have children my own age
to play with," he says. "The books and toys are good too."
When asked about his favourite colour, he looks down at
his red button-down shirt and red shorts and smiles, before the four teenage
boys sitting around a carom board grab his attention.
"There is a weekly peer session between a child and
an adolescent where they meet to talk about what they learned and share their
views and experiences," explains Sadrulalam.
The camp has four adolescent centres, each made up of 25
girls and five boys, who are trained in life skills such as hygiene and
sanitation, in addition to counseling and guidance on how to protect themselves
from early marriage, human trafficking or illegal work such as drug dealing.
"They also receive training in how to cultivate
farmland, how to make handcrafts and how to build cottages or huts in the event
they go back to their villages in Myanmar," Sadrulalam said.
Rafiq Alam, 18, is from the village of Fakira Bazar in
the Maungdaw Township but now lives in the Lambashia camp section of
Kutupalong. He has been coming to the CFS for eight months.
Source: Al Jazeera English News