Vocational training for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh

Since 2017, Bangladesh has seen a large influx of Rohingya refugees fleeing persecution and genocide in Myanmar. Many of the refugees are living in crowed and cramped conditions inside a camp at Cox's Bazaar.

Human Relief Foundation has been supporting these refugees with a number of projects including food provision (feeding over 1,000 Rohingya children every day at our kitchen in the Kutupalong camp), shelter building and providing access to clean, safe water through our wells project. In addition, we have set up a number of vocational training courses to provide a sense of self worth and income for refugees, who arrived in Bangladesh with nothing.

Below are two inspiring stories of how Human Relief Foundation has provided vocational training for women in the camps, to set them along a future that provides skills and a sustainable income.

Fatima’s story

Fatima fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh during the massive influx of refugees in 2017. She is now living in a refugee camp in the Cox's Bazar District of Chittagong with her husband and five sons.

Upon arrival at the camp, Fatima had no income source and was living in difficult conditions with her family. Her, and her family’s life became a grind, with no positive outlook for their collective futures.

Fatima was given a sewing machine, with the addition of basic machine training for clothes making from the Integrated Humanitarian Assistance project. Fatima is now generating an income from her new machine and skills, allowing her family to live in improved conditions, giving Fatima a renewed purpose.

Hasina’s story

Fleeing Myanmar in 2017 with her seven family members, Hasina (33), now lives at a refugee camp in the Cox's Bazar District of Chittagong, Bangladesh.

As with many refugees, Hasina has no income sources to improve her family’s desperate situation. No way to provide food or clothing.

Hasina was given a sewing machine, with the addition of basic machine training for clothes making from the Integrated Humanitarian Assistance project. Hasina can now make two dresses per day for sale and performs tailoring services to people of the camp, giving her family a modest yet life changing income, providing her children with a regular, nutritious food source and good quality sanitation to stave off waterborne disease, such as cholera.