Since August 2017, violence in Rakhine State, Myanmar has driven an estimated 621,000 Rohingya people across the border into Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Formal and informal volunteers are helping respond to the needs of the Rohingya population. UN Volunteers are working day and night to support UN agencies providing assistance on the ground.
The speed and scale of the influx has resulted in a critical humanitarian emergency, with refugees reliant on humanitarian assistance for food and other life-saving needs.
Ashraful Islam is a national UN Volunteer supporting the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) in developing women-friendly spaces, gathering data from the field and distributing medical kits.
Girun Beyene, international UN volunteer from Sudan is serving with UNFPA in Bangladesh to incorporate disaggregated data into UNFPA Project documents.
And Catalin Bercaru is an international UN Volunteer from Romania who is serving with the World Health Organization (WHO) to document its emergency response at Cox’s bazar. Catalin reports on the work the WHO team carries out, delivering critical health services to vulnerable populations and supporting partners in the field.
Watch the video below to find out more about the contributions of volunteers helping the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh.