Save the Children welcomes today’s funding announcement by The Honourable Marie-Claude Bibeau, Minister of International Development and La Francophonie, of up to $8.15 million for emergency preparedness and assistance for Rohingya refugees and host communities in Bangladesh.
The announcement follows the launch of a new UN and international NGO Joint Response Plan, appealing for US$950 million to meet the needs of almost one million Rohingya refugees- the majority of them women and children- over the next ten months, as well as 336,000 members of the host community in Bangladesh who are also heavily affected by the crisis.
Save the Children applauded the timeliness of the funding, which has the potential to help ensure adequate preparations within the refugee camps ahead of the upcoming monsoon season, supporting efforts to avert a major health crisis, and to ensure that refugee children, particularly girls, are provided access to protection programs to help them overcome the trauma they have experienced, support their recovery, and ensure their safety from continued risks of violence, abuse and exploitation.
The new response plan also calls for US$47 million to support access to education for over half a million Rohingya and host community children in Cox’s Bazar. Only about a quarter of Rohingya children in Bangladesh are currently able to access any form of education, while nearly half of host community children in Cox’s Bazar don’t make it to the end of primary school.
“Not only is education an important way to safeguard children’s futures, but learning centres themselves are a vital avenue to speak to children about how to stay safe and healthy and how to prepare and respond to the monsoon threat, including preventing family separation. We have also heard first-hand from children that education is among their top priorities,” said Rachel Logel Carmichael, Head of Humanitarian Affairs at Save the Children.
“As girls and boys’ displacement draws out month after month, we know responses to this crisis must move beyond the bare minimum of life-saving aid to ensure girls and boys are equipped with the tools they need to begin rebuilding their lives in dignity, and that support their empowerment even while they remain displaced. Education is among the most powerful tools for empowerment.”
Save the Children continues to call on the Canadian government to support education in emergency response.
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