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This little girl is a reminder of the violence her mother Shafiqua wants to forget. The two are surviving through this together.
She told us about her suffering after being raped by the militia in Myanmar before she fled to Bangladesh and how she has to fend for the children alone as her husband refuses to accept the newborn.
SHIFIQUA BEGUM ROHINGYA REFUGEE, KUTUPALONG CAMP, COX’S BAZAR "I feel ashamed to take my child out of the house in society. Many people say many things. I tried two times to give the child to another family."
The social stigma is felt by many others like her. According to the United Nations Population Fund, more than 13-thousand Rohingya women were victims of sexual violence as they fled from their homes to safer havens. This year, the aid agencies expect a boom in the birth of babies.
RAVINDER BAWA KUTUPALONG CAMP, COX'S BAZAR "According to UNICEF, 60 babies are born each day in these refugee camps to mothers who have suffered displacement, abuse and sometimes rape. Of these, some unwanted babies are abandoned and others, who are orphans, are being taken care of by aid agencies and the community together."
Orphanages like these take care of the abandoned or orphaned children. UNICEF estimates half of new refugees from Myanmar in Bangladesh are children. The newborns will face hardships right from the start.
BEATRIZ OCHOA, HUMANITARIAN ADVOCACY MANAGER SAVE THE CHILDREN, COX'S BAZAR "We want to save these children from any stigma as they're born at a certain time so we are trying to fight the stigma that might hamper their rights."
In the refugee camps that have sprung up along Bangladesh's southern border, now the children play in tented spaces unaware of what's in store for them in the future. Ravinder Bazar, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.