Rohingya “Lifeline” show – Monday, Dec. 16, 2019
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ROH Lifeline 121619 1130 UTC
MC & News: Sami Ahmed & Mohammed Hussain
Intro
Today: Monday, December 16, 2019
06:30-7 a.m. (Washington, D.C., USA)
Music (bridge)
News headlines
Author and artist: Sami Ahmed
Duration: 7 minutes
● Bangladesh celebrates Victory Day, commemorating allied forces’ defeat of Pakistan troops
in 1971
● Rohingya crisis: Bangla foreign minister says Myanmar’s attitude has softened
● IOM says Bangladesh has more internally displaced people than Myanmar, ranking
18th and 19th, respectively, in global migration
● UN’s annual Global Human Development Index shows Norway topping list of 189
countries, with Bangladesh ranked 135th and Myanmar ranked 145th
● Global Refugee Forum starts today in Geneva; the three-day gathering aims to transform
response to refugee situations
Short Wave, 31-meter Band 9310 kHz
25 Meter-Band, 11570 kHz, 12030 kHz
Report: Mohammed Idris Abdullah (stringer)
Related item code: 9-P
Duration: 9:25 minutes
Topic: A new report in the Lancet medical journal cites food issues and impact on health. A look at food-related health issues among displaced Rohingyas in Bangladesh.
Translation summary: Rapid changes in food systems around the world are increasing the number of people who are underfed or who are obese, says a new report published in The Lancet, a medical journal. The report says more than one out of three middle-income and poor countries face these extremes of malnutrition. Both Bangladesh and Myanmar have many people living in poverty, a condition common in the camps for displaced Rohingyas.
The report, released Monday, says undernutrition and obesity in pregnant women can hurt the health of children, harming generations.
Around the world, nearly 2.3 billion children and adults are overweight and more than 150 million children are stunted in their growth, the report estimated.
Dr. Francesco Brana was the report’s main author. He directs the World Health Organization’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development. He talked about what the research found.
“All forms of malnutrition have a common denominator – food systems that fail to provide all people with healthy, safe, affordable, and sustainable diets. Changing this will require action across food systems – from production and processing, through trade and distribution, pricing, marketing, and labelling, to consumption and waste. All relevant policies and investments must be radically re-examined.
In camps for displaced people in southeast Bangladesh, the government and aid groups provide basics such as rice, lentils and palm oil. But malnutrition still can be an issue, some people tell Mohammed Idris Abdullah, who's reporting from Ukiya, in Cox's Bazar. Fifty-year-old Abdu Salam lives in Lamabasia, Camp #1, with 10 relatives. He’s glad to have lentils, oil and rice from the World Food Program, but his family can’t afford vegetables, fish or meat because they have no income source in the camp. Abdu Salam used to teach middle school in Maungdaw, Myanmar. The family came to Bangladesh after August 25, 2017.
Now his family experiences hunger and malnutrition, he said. Abdu Salam said many others don’t get enough to eat or enough variety. Sometimes, he said, children in the camp are too weak to move.
Delwar Hussain Juwell is a 22-year-old student at Cox's Bazar government college. He lives with his 10 relatives in Uttor Pukurai, Raja Palong, Ukihia.
He was shopping for food in Court Bazar (where he bought a half-kilo of eggplant for 20 taka and a half-kilo of cabbage for 30 taka). Juwell said even with the rice and other items, most of his relatives suffer weakness and malnutrition. He blames poverty.
Abdul Motaleb is a 45-year-old farmer who sells vegetables and fruit at Cox’s Bazar. He rents garden space, giving half to the owner and selling or keeping the rest. But he said he still doesn’t make enough money to get enough food for his family, which includes his wife, a son and daughter. He also said they often don’t have enough rice. Sometimes, he misses when it’s being handed out.
Motaleb said he and his family members are weak and often get sick. Most of the people in his community are vulnerable, too, he said.
The Bangladesh government and the international community are trying to help. For example, the U.S. Agency for International Development reports it gave over $123 million for emergency food aid for vulnerable communities in Cox’s Bazar District in the 2019 fiscal year. It teams up with the World Food Program and the aid group World Vision to provide emergency food aid to Rohingya refugees.
The U.S. government’s Food for Peace program helps the World Food Program and the UN Children’s Fund with nutrition programs in Cox’s Bazar. Children under age 5, along with women who are pregnant or nursing, get special food to prevent or treat severe malnutrition.
Author and artist: Mohammed Idris Abdullah
Music (bridge)…………
Report: Mohammed Rukon Uddin (stringer)
Related item code: 9-P
Duration: 7:25 minutes
Topic: Interview with Anjuman Ara of Mukti Cox’s Bazar, a Bangladeshi aid group. She coordinates a project that assists Rohingya victims of gender-based violence – usually females.
Translation: Mukti Coz’s Bazar is a Bangladeshi aid group with core values such as sincerity, honesty, equality and justice, transparency and accountability, respect and commitment to service. Its vision is to achieve a peaceful universal society free from poverty and prejudice, where people can live in dignity and security.
The aid group has 36 projects, said Anjuman Ara, who works with the gender-based violence (GBV) project.
“We identify and provide support to Rohingya women who victims of gender-based violence,” she said. “Our target group is adolescent and women. We also provide support to the host communities. Normally, we provide psycho-social activity, which is counseling, and social activity such as handicrafts.”
“We do have an outreach program where a caseworker and two volunteers visit camps and talk with religious leaders, Majhi, women leaders and others. Our caseworker can identify [potential victims by] talking to specific women and also by some symptoms.
“Some willingly shares their problems with us,” Ara said. “We advise them to come to our office. We have a room where they can sleep, rest, relax. We call that our ‘peace room.’ We then take the victim to the counselling room – a confidential space in which only the caseworker and the affected individual stay during counseling.”
Confidentiality is important, Ara said.
“We don’t use any name there. We only use code, so no one will be identified by name. After counseling, we decide what support the woman needs: whether she should be sent to get medical treatment, to a lawyer or to her home.”
The project has a women’s support group. It includes those who are recovering or have recovered from abuse. “They motivate other victims” to deal with problems, Ara said.
She said the project includes “a community watch group whose members include religious and female leaders. “Their job is to create awareness” about domestic violence and how to address it.
Web extra: As The Guardian news organization reported earlier this month, [https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/dec/03/my-dignity-is-destroyed-the-scourge-of-sexual-violence-in-coxs-bazar] “rape is endemic in the camp in Cox’s Bazar. … Earlier this year, 490 girls and 12,386 adult Rohingya refugees,” three-fourths of them female, were reported as visiting safe spaces set up by Unicef. They were getting support to deal with issues involving gender-based violence.
Author & artist: Mohammed Rukon Uddin / Mohammed Hussain
Music (bridge)
Intro singer:
Singer: Shobbir Ahmed Shobu
Duration: 4:30min
Program closing: Sami Ahmed