Sabuku Nahar, 8, a Rohingya child now residing in Cox’s Bazar as a refugee, dreams of becoming a pilot, with a mission to bring back her uncle from Malaysia to Myanmar, their birthplace. She has drawn three multicoloured planes to portray her hidden dreams. Her story plays out in an exhibition in Dhaka, about 400 km away from the overcrowded refugee camp where she lives now. Ironically, she cannot visit the exhibition as there is a government restriction on the movement of Rohingya refugees.
When hundreds of thousands of terrified Rohingya refugees — 60% of whom were children — began flooding onto the beaches and paddy fields of southern Bangladesh in August 2017, they brought with them accounts of the unspeakable violence and brutality that had forced them to flee. By April 2019, around 9,10,000 Rohingya had settled in Cox’s Bazar. They joined the around-3,00,000 people already in Bangladesh from the previous waves of displacement, effectively forming the world’s largest refugee camp.
The exhibition organised by Amnesty International deals with a fundamental question: what do the children want to become when they grow up? The five-day event, supported by UNICEF and EMK Center, is the outcome of a two-day art camp in Cox’s Bazar where the Rohingya children, with the help of six cartoonists, sketched their aspirations.
The path of teaching
One common pathway the children want to explore to get out of their miseries is to become a teacher. For instance, nine-year-old Enamul Hasan, who wishes to teach English and Burmese alphabets, has sketched out a classroom with a teacher in the middle, surrounded by students.
“We have seen that many Rohingya children wish to become teachers and doctors based on the very practical needs that they have experienced in the camps. Many have shared about disease outbreaks that doctors have helped prevent in the camps and they wish to help others when they grow up,” said Saad Hammadi, South Asia campaigner at Amnesty International.
The art camp and exhibition are part of Amnesty International’s campaign to increase local and international support for the education of Rohingya children.
“Childhood is the most formative period in the life of a person. We all have a responsibility to afford these children the opportunity to chase their dreams,” said Mr. Hammadi.
Close to one-third of the children do not have access to education and the remainder have access only to informal education. UNICEF, together with the country’s education sector, introduced a framework in January to provide more structured learning that matches international standards.
However, restrictions in Bangladesh mean that Rohingya children’s education will continue to be informal for now. “UNICEF is exploring pathways to an accredited curriculum with higher-level institutes... Our goal is to ensure this generation of children have the knowledge and skills they require to lead healthy, productive lives, and contribute to their communities in the future,” said Dara Johnston, UNICEF’s acting deputy representative.
Amnesty International said ensuring a quality education for Rohingya children is not at odds with repatriation. However, delayed and informal education limit their opportunities. The safe, voluntary and dignified return of the Rohingya refugees to Myanmar is the great hope that sustains many living in Cox’s Bazar. And artworks act as a new conveyor of emotions.
When the Rohingya children started drawing, they had concentrated only on red, grey and black to turn their dreams, often nebulous, into works of art. With time, they turned to a rainbow of colours, indicating a big change in their mind, said Japanese Ambassador Hiroyasu Izumi, who has visited Rohingya camps 10 times since his arrival in Bangladesh in September 2017.
Today’s world is defined by state egotism, by the ‘me-first’ mantra propagated by stronger nations, said Mr. Izumi in his speech at the inauguration of the exhibition on June 20. “What about the weaker? What can the weaker people do?,” he asked. These words draw broader attention to the plight of the Rohingya stuck in a crammed corner of the world.
( Arun Devnath is a journalist based in Dhaka. )
