Bangladesh, Middle East (Aljazeera)- Rohingya Mothers And Babies Hungry And Traumatized: Twenty-year-old Sameron was anticipating the birth of her second child, due in just a few days when the Myanmar army attacked her village and started indiscriminately killing villagers.
Members of the persecuted Rohingya community, Sameron, her husband, Anwar, and their three-year-old daughter, Sabiha, fled their home in Rajarbill in Myanmar’s Rakhine state. It was August 25.
Heavily pregnant, Sameron ran and walked through the night with her family.
“In the morning, we reached a village named Itella,” she recalls. “The village was deserted after the army had attacked it.”
They found an abandoned house with enough food items inside it to sustain them for five days.
But then the army came again. “We escaped,” says Sameron.
The next stage of their journey was the hardest. The family walked for an entire day and night without any food or water.
“I don’t even want to think about that pain,” she says. “I had constant pain in my stomach and I was feeling sick. In the middle of this journey, I started having unbearable pain in my stomach and I would sit down and crouch in an effort to reduce it. I had gone into labour.”
Tears well in her eyes as she recalls it.
“It was the most terrifying phase of my life. I somehow would keep breathing and walking. My husband would carry me and then carry my daughter, who had also started crying from the pain of walking. We were all weeping from pain, desperation and hunger.”
The family eventually reached the village of Mongni Para. There were still people living there and some of the old women helped to deliver Sameron’s baby.
“We had to leave this village after five days. I was in no condition to walk but I somehow managed to reach a place from where we got on a boat to enter Bangladesh by crossing the Naf River. We had to pay 650,000 Kyat (around $477) to the boatman [for the rent of the entire boat]. He initially refused to take us because we didn’t have enough money, but some people helped us,” she says as she stands in a queue with her newborn daughter, waiting for medical treatment at a clinic that has been temporarily set up outside a mosque in the Bangladeshi port city of Cox’s Bazar.
As a result of her strenuous journey and weak state, Sameron hasn’t been able to breastfeed her baby, who she has named Sadiha. “There was hardly any food for any of us as we walked for days. How would I produce enough milk to breastfeed my daughter?” she asks.
Many others are in a similar situation.
Mayang Sari, a nutritionist with UNICEF, says “young mothers and children are the most vulnerable”.
“The extremely stressful and hard conditions have led to mothers and children becoming traumatised,” Sari adds. “This has made it difficult to breastfeed babies and this could become a bigger problem.”
Khalida, 20, with her one-year-old daughter Shahana. “It took us five days to reach here and I consider myself fortunate that my entire family is with me,” she says. “The army had invaded our village and was burning houses and killing people. We also ran to save our lives and crossed over to Bangladesh on a boat. My husband goes out in the day to get relief material and food for us. I would want to go with him and get more food, but it’s tough to stand in a queue with an infant and struggle to find food.”
Sona Mehar, 45, with her three-month-old daughter Mirana Begum. “I am taking care of my seven children alone,” she says. “My husband was shot with a bullet in the shoulder and is getting treated in the hospital. I stand in the queue for the entire day with this baby in my arms to secure a meal.”
Twenty-five-year-old Haseena with her 18-month-old daughter, Muneera. “I came here with my husband and two children. We had only managed to take enough food to last us for two days. The rest of the days we walked hungry. I had to leave my cow behind, when we ran to save our lives. I wish I could have brought her with me.”
Hamida, 33, with her four-month-old nephew Yousuf. “His parents were killed. I grabbed him and brought him with me, [or] else he would have just died there alone,” she says. “I have six children of my own and one of them is six months old. I have to breastfeed both of them because they cannot be given this food. It is hard for me because even I hardly get to eat one meal in a day.”
Sixteen-year-old Bushra Begum with her three-month-old son Mohammad Kaisar. “We crossed over to Bangladesh on foot. It took us 10 days to reach this refugee camp in Kutupalong,” she says. “I am worried for my son. I think this journey has emotionally traumatised him. He has drunk only a little milk since the day we escaped from our home. The journey was tough and there were days we went without food, and this also affected his health.”
Hamida, 35, with her one-year-old son, Mohammad Alam. “They murdered my husband. I had to run to save the lives of my five small children. I have nobody to help me get the relief material and food. I need the food packets desperately to feed my children. I have been waiting in a queue for the past three hours and haven’t been able to secure anything. The men are healthy and stronger and they jump and grab any aid that is thrown towards us, while women like me keep waiting,” she says.
Twenty-four-year-old Tahira with her seven-month-old daughter Rusma Akhtar. “We were sleeping in the night at our home when we heard screams outside. We saw fire everywhere outside and people screaming and running around. My husband grabbed my daughter and we ran out with others,” she recalls. “All my belongings must have been destroyed. I wish I had managed to get our big family photo from the wall.”
Shams-un-Nehar, 35, with her two-month-old twins, Eesa and MusaI. “I have 10 more children apart from these two and we walked for three days to reach the border. We did not get to eat a single morsel of food in these three days and I was as a result not able to breastfeed my twins. They kept wailing in thirst and hunger. It was so frustrating and painful to see them starve like this in front of me,” she says.
Yaemeena Ara, 30, with six-month-old daughter Rohana. “Our village was attacked on Eid last month, and we escaped that day. It took us five days and nights to reach here. I have six children, including her. My husband and I had to carry each child in our arms and on our shoulders, in order to cross into Bangladesh, as they could not walk for so long.”
