My job as the media and communications manager is to make sure people outside Bangladesh understand and care about what’s happening to Rohingya children and their families. This means I’ve spent the past year talking to literally hundreds of refugees and learning about their lives, both in the camps and back in Myanmar. It also means that if you’ve read about a Rohingya child through Save the Children, chances are, I was involved.
I take this job incredibly seriously, because I know that without this information, people like you – our donors, our friends – are less able to help.
I’m often asked how I’ve remained sane, particularly because the stories people tell are so filled with sorrow and suffering. There is no doubt, it is incredibly intense. The knowledge that the question “What brought you to Bangladesh?” might deliver you a story of terror, pain, sexual violence, loss and grief, fills your heart with dread.
The camps are also physically hard work. The heat, the smell, the mud. The humidity which can turn a plastic shelter into a sauna, so you need to stop an interview mid-way through because your sunscreen has
melted into your eyes and made them burn.