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They ran for their lives

Thousands of Rohingya families have fled horrific violence. Their villages have been burnt to the ground.

Rohingya children are in need of urgent medicine, food, clean water and supplies to survive.

This is Rahmmot.

He is one-and-a-half years old, and he has already seen so much violence. His home was burned to the ground and his village destroyed.

He and his mother were shot at as they fled into the night.

Rahmmot and his mother Majuma are Rohingya, an ethnic group that is known to be one of the world’s most persecuted minorities. Major violence against Rohingya people has seen families fleeing for their lives from Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State.

Children are right now living in makeshift shelters in Bangladesh. Food is scarce. Clean water is hard to come by. Medicine is needed to treat and stop the spread of diseases.  

Families have been pouring into the cramped camp in Bangladesh. Even though the Myanmar government has agreed to take them back, the camp is still overflowing with people.

The military came into our village at night and started to burn our homes and they shot at us. Lots of people were killed or wounded. We left everything behind, taking nothing but the clothes we were wearing. I turned around and saw my house totally burned down. I was so scared. If we had of stayed we might have been killed, so we ran away to save our lives.

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The makeshift shelters are built using flimsy plastics sheeting. When the monsoon rains hit, everything could washed away.

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The Rohingya people in Cox's Bazar are completely dependent on donations of supplies. They queue everyday for food distributions.

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Families are crammed into the mega-camp. Muddy rivers run between the rows of tents. 

The monsoon season will hit any day now and we are very concerned the thousands of people living here. Heavy rains will likely flood toilet blocks, contaminating children’s drinking water with human waste. Children are already getting sick from diseases that spread like wildfire through the camp.

Your support will make sure children living in the makeshift shelters in Cox's Bazar receive essential clean water. You will also give lifesaving medicine to children like Rahmmot that are already suffering from diseases like diarrhoea from the dirty water that they have to drink. The camp is overflowing with families and you can make sure families get vital food parcels to help keep feeding their children. 

Rahmmot's mother tells us, "We are feeling better here in Bangladesh because we’re not scared of being shot now. We came here searching for peace and if you all help us we will find peace.

But life here is not easy. My son is sick, he has diarrhea and a fever."

Rahmmot's mother, Rabeya, described what life is like in the huge camps of Cox's Bazar:

"Rahmmot also has spots all over his body but I don’t know what it is. Most of the people here are getting sick. I already know of five people who have died here because they were sick – two children and three adults.

I’ve also heard there are some people who are trying to kidnap children. It’s frightening. I never leave my son alone in our shelter.

Water is a big problem here for us. I have to go far away to fetch water, it takes half an hour each way and I need to go three times a day. I have to leave my son with his grandma so I can go.

But we still need better access to clean drinking water and latrines.

When the rains come, everything will be covered in mud, the toilets will overflow and human waste will be everywhere. Even more people will get sick and die. I worry every day about how we're all going to make it through this."