Thomson Reuters Foundation :
Dozens of midwives have been deployed to camps in Bangladesh to deliver babies and help young mothers among the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled across the border from Myanmar and are now living in squalid settlements.
About 35 midwives trained by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to work in crisis situations have been attending to women and girls in the two government-run refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar over the past few weeks, according to UNFPA. The midwives are providing emergency services including for sexually transmitted disease and sexual violence, as well as caring for pregnant women and young mothers.
“The sheer number of people pouring in, the magnitude of the situation is quite overwhelming,” said Sathya Doraiswamy, chief of health at UNFPA. “Our midwives are used to working in more stable situations, with other Bangladeshi women; there is a language issue and other challenges, but they are facing up to them,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. The midwives have delivered about 200 babies since the recent influx of refugees began Aug 25, Doraiswamy said.
More than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a Myanmar military offensive that began after a series of guerrilla attacks on Aug 25 on security posts and an army camp in which about a dozen people were killed.
UNICEF estimates that an “unprecedented” 60 percent of new refugees in Bangladesh are children.
Besides sexual violence, early marriage is a risk for Rohingya refugee girls.
Earlier this year, a UN survey found that over half of Rohingya girls who fled to Malaysia, India and Indonesia became child brides.
Dozens of midwives have been deployed to camps in Bangladesh to deliver babies and help young mothers among the hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who have fled across the border from Myanmar and are now living in squalid settlements.
About 35 midwives trained by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to work in crisis situations have been attending to women and girls in the two government-run refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar over the past few weeks, according to UNFPA. The midwives are providing emergency services including for sexually transmitted disease and sexual violence, as well as caring for pregnant women and young mothers.
“The sheer number of people pouring in, the magnitude of the situation is quite overwhelming,” said Sathya Doraiswamy, chief of health at UNFPA. “Our midwives are used to working in more stable situations, with other Bangladeshi women; there is a language issue and other challenges, but they are facing up to them,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone. The midwives have delivered about 200 babies since the recent influx of refugees began Aug 25, Doraiswamy said.
More than 400,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled a Myanmar military offensive that began after a series of guerrilla attacks on Aug 25 on security posts and an army camp in which about a dozen people were killed.
UNICEF estimates that an “unprecedented” 60 percent of new refugees in Bangladesh are children.
Besides sexual violence, early marriage is a risk for Rohingya refugee girls.
Earlier this year, a UN survey found that over half of Rohingya girls who fled to Malaysia, India and Indonesia became child brides.
