HUMANITARIAN CRISIS MANAGEMENT PROGRAMMECOX’S BAZAR | BANGLADESH | NOVEMBER 2019

BRAC has worked in Cox’s Bazar for the last 37 years with host communities and the Rohingya population from previous influxes. The Humanitarian Crisis Management Programme was initiated to provide emergency services to the most recent influx of people which began on 25 August, 2017.

BRAC’s work began with a focus on life-saving interventions. As the situation evolved, we incorporated interventions to support everyone affected by the crisis, in both camps and host communities, to build skills, resilience and knowledge. We serve more than 700,000 people in the Cox’s Bazar area, with the broadest programming portfolio of any responder.

ACTIVITY UPDATES

▪ The first review of the 2020 JRP was submitted on 17 November. Inter-sectoral discussion followed, approval was gained from all sector coordinators and the finalised JRP was uploaded on 20 November.

▪ The latest HCMP employee capacity building training drive has been completed. Key sessions included humanitarian leadership, team building, workplace communications, proposal writing, conflict and stress management. A total of 27 training sessions were conducted, covering five topics.

▪ The Rohingya Task Force meeting was held on 6 November in Cox’s Bazar. Government of Bangladesh officials, RRRC, representatives of UN agencies, BRAC and other NGOs participated in the meeting.

▪ Osman Haruni, Senior Policy Advisor, Food and Nutrition Security, Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and Louis Tran Van Lieu, Livelihood Coordinator, WFP, visited BRAC’s agriculture and environment sector activities in Camp 4 and 5 on 13 November. They expressed satisfaction at the homestead gardening and fish pond aquaculture.

▪ BRAC celebrated World Men’s Day on 19 November. A discussion session was held about the positive roles men play in societies, families and communities, role models and raising awareness for men’s well-being.

Observing World Children’s Day in the camps on 19 NovemberPhoto: Mahmudul Karim

A high level World Bank delegation attended a focus group discussion in BRAC’s women friendly space in camp 4E on 2 November.

HCMP employee capacity development training in the BRAC learning centre in Sylhet

on 18 November.

Learn more: response.brac.net

After the influx, Rabiya was selected by BRAC as a vegetable gardener. She expressed interest in developing her skills, was equipped with training on homestead gardening and provided with seeds and gardening tools including a water bucket, watering can, spade, hand hoe, organic manure and fencing materials. With active guidance from BRAC field experts, she started her own vegetable garden. The produce was overwhelming. In this season alone she has collected 10 bottle gourds, 3 kgs of bitter gourds and 8 kgs of red amaranth. Excess was sold in the local market. Her family fulfilled their nutritional needs, love the garden and are taking care of it. Rabiya’s household is one of 3,318 households in the host community who have been supported to begin or expand gardens, bringing fresh greens into the homes and markets of Cox’s Bazar.

HUMANITARIAN CRISIS MANAGEMENT PROGRAMME

New vegetable gardens in Cox’s Bazar

“I produce vegetables in my own garden now. We eat them, sell them and I can use the extra money for my children’s education. When I have spare time, I help my neighbours to set up and expand their gardens”.

Rabiya Khatun runs a small grocery shop in Chakmarkul Village, near Camp 21. She has 11 family members including her children and grandchildren.

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To tackle this challenge, BRAC has began a community-based solid waste management project with the support of UNDP. The project is taking place in Teknaf municipality, and involves rickshaw vans and a workforce that goes to households and markets, collects solid waste and carries it to dumping grounds. The Honorable Mayor of Teknaf municipality Alhaz Mohammad Islam inaugurated the project, and BRAC officials handed over solid waste carry rickshaw vans to the drivers employed from the host community in the opening ceremony.

Learn more: response.brac.net

New solid waste management programme in Teknaf municipality

The populations of Ukhiya and Teknaf, two of the sub districts in Cox’s Bazar, have drastically increased since August 2017. Currently it is estimated that over 10,000 tonnes, or approximately 22,000 cubic metres of waste per month, is generated in these two sub districts. Prior to this month, neither sub district had a functional system for managing solid waste.

(left) Rabiya working in her home garden

Using silence to raise voices

BRAC’s community-based protection team led mime performances in camps as a part of 16 days of activism against gender-based violence. The dramas portrayed stories about human trafficking and domestic violence, to make people more aware of these issues.

(Left) Mime drama on human trafficking conducted at the Darbar Hall of Camp 3 on 28 November 2019. In this session CIC Mr. Mahfuzur Rahman was present. He appreciated BRAC’s work and all humanitarian workers for their efforts to create awareness on critical issues affecting the displaced community.

(left) Riders taking their waste carrying van to the communities

A day spent in the space can bring psychological change and even changes in attitudes towards family members. As women hold much of the burden in a family, this is a space where they can gather and find some peace.

“Quarrels among people are common in the camps. I believe if people get the opportunity to gather in a space like this, they will learn to keep peace wherever they go or live’’ said Kala Hossain, one of the masons who worked with us during construction.

The materials used to construct the space are very basic and available nearby. As the space is in a cyclone-prone area, we avoided using materials that can be hazardous during cyclones. The space is also very near to Asian elephant habitat and one can often see elephants in the hills behind the space. For that reason, the material and exterior scheme avoids elephant disturbance. In most of the structures in the camps, colors are used which are conflicting to human-elephant co-existence. We negotiated and avoided these colors in exterior surfaces, preferring natural textures to make the structure appear as if it merges into the landscape. Red and yellow are two colours which do not distract elephants, so they have been used for the interior court and several openings.

Power of form is universal and timeless. A very basic introvert court ensures privacy and freedom for women from a conservative society. The interior court connects the surrounding rooms into one space. The activity space and rooms are comparatively smaller than other centers but openings towards the courtyard give the essence of a larger space.

The exterior of the structure is ragged and tries to camouflage into its natural surroundings. The texture, colours and setting are inspired by the common ‘paner boroj’ (betel leaf shades) in rice fields. The interior uses vibrant colours for cheerfulness. The pocket spaces within the form create opportunities for the people using it to have freedom and choice in how they want to use the space.

Displacement situations are uncertain. We hope that this space can help to create a bit more understanding, safety and happiness. We have heard stories of how women went through brutality and sacrifices to save their family. It is relieving to see their men working with love to make spaces like these for them.

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Journal from the fieldBeyond survival: Safe spaces for Rohingya women and girls

How fast a landscape can change is astonishing. Since the influx started, the Rohingya, host communities and the reserved forests of Teknaf area have gone through unimaginable changes.

Almost a million people took shelter on 4,300 acres of hills and forests in Ukhiya and Teknaf in 2017. The region has been a caring host. As young people, we understand that this displaced community includes thousands of young minds who are going through some of the most vital years of their life. The days they are passing in the camps will shape them into who they will become in the future. At the same time, Bangladesh has a young population, and the host community population includes many children and young people.

The Government of Bangladesh, UN agencies and non-government agencies such as BRAC are supporting both the displaced and host communities so that we can ensure, as much as possible, that we support the creation of healthy bodies and minds who are able to contribute to their communities. Safe spaces for young boys, girls and women in the camps play critical roles in this.

The safe space for women and girls pictured above, supported by UNICEF, offers adolescent girls and women from the surrounding camp area a place to have a good bath, a place to share concerns about abuse or violence and a place where they can learn to create & share.

We noticed that men are eager to get their family members (wives, daughters, mothers, sisters) involved with the activities in the space. We also noticed that people are really engaging with the personalisation of the space, using colorful patterns to make the spaces vibrant and personal to them. We have been surprised every day by the artistic talents of the displaced community; people from all ages have wanted to get involved.

The project was designed and documented by Rizvi Hassan and team (Abdur Rahman, Kala Hossain, Anwar and others refugee masons, Abdullah Al Mamun, Biplob Hossain and Saad Ben Mostafa).

Newly-launched women friendly space in Camp 25

Learn more: response.brac.net

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3,129 children and adolescents learning in November

100 learning centres operational

47,089 household hygiene sessions conducted

1,049 life skill training sessions given on poultry rearing

384 mental health services provided in November

60,813households visited and provided with hands-on coaching and awareness(with recurrence)

1,508referral services for immunisation for mothers and children

Our support to host communities consists of targeted, multi-sectoral assistance to vulnerable households, including:

• Learning centres offering non-formal education programmes. We are also developing the capacity of mainstream schools through engagement with teachers, students and community leaders.• Child-friendly spaces implementing our Humanitarian Play Lab model.• WASH interventions supporting over 80,000 households, including construction and maintenance of deep tube wells, piped water supply networks, and latrines, hygiene sessions conducted with men, women, boys and girls in schools, tea stalls, and formation of village WASH committees.• Diagnosis and treatment of communicable diseases, including TB and malaria.• Disaster risk reduction, including quick evacuation schemes, retrofitting, renovating and repairing cyclone shelters.• Agriculture and environment rehabilitation including planting trees to mitigate deforestation, and improving agricultural practices and home gardening, and vocational skills through distribution of agricultural inputs. • Ultra-Poor Graduation Programmes providing interest-free loans, particle grants, combined with classroom-based and hands-on training to create pathways out of poverty. • Alternative Learning Programmes providing apprenticeship-based training and life skills to out-of-school youth. • Customised microfinance products, including micro-loans and small enterprise loans. • Cash-based interventions supporting households with cash distributions per household every month for four months.

SECTOR-WISE SNAPSHOT: Host communities

(Left) C4D volunteers disseminating cyclone preparedness message in Camp 4E, 8 November 2019. We have covered 34 camps.(Right) WFP and Kingdom of Netherlands delegates visited our agriculture and environment work.

Learn more: response.brac.net

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Water, sanitation and hygiene

Education

Agriculture and environment

110,276 households received vegetable seeds

6.2M vetiver slips (grass) planted

Our agriculture and environment projects work to restore the living environment and promote sustainable agricultural practices across 9 camps, through planting and distributing agricultural input packages and training.479 household surveys for homestead vegetable garden beneficiary selection were conducted in camps and 10 batches of training on poultry rearing for 217 beneficiaries in the host community was provided.

We are the largest education provider in the response. We are operating learning centres, developing learning centre framework and approach materials and running learning centre management committees. 19 multipurpose centres are being used to deliver sessions to 580 adolescents and 6 new adolescent centres opened to cater to an additional 357.

A training of trainers on Humanitarian Play Labs was completed in November with 20 staff attending. Orientation on core materials was then completed by 707 participants (displaced and host community and staff).

61,185 children and adolescents registered in learning centres

759 learning centres operating

8,795community meetings conducted by learning centre management committees

Shelter and non-food itemsWe support 167,000 people with secure shelters in camps, continual site improvements such as bridges and roads, and distribution of non-food items. Our work also includes gas-equipped community kitchens, transitional shelter options and the first large scale bamboo treatment plant in Cox’s Bazar.

109 emergency shelter supports have been provided due to heavy rainfall. 124 shelter maintenance kits have been distributed and 18 shelters were upgraded.

24, 834 shelter materials distributed

11,593 shelters repaired

62,580 metres of drainage built

We support almost 700,000 people through integrated WaSH interventions in camps. This includes construction and maintenance of deep tube wells, piped water supply networks, latrines and handwashing stations and hygiene promotion.

Functionality Assessment Survey and Post Distribution Monitoring have been completed. World Toilet Day 2019 was observed on November 19.

SECTOR-WISE SNAPSHOT: Camps

20,916 latrines constructed

6,707 bathing cubicles built

5,156 hand wash stations built

Learn more: response.brac.net

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Protection

Child Protection

Communication for Development

We support over 50,000 people in vulnerable situations, through skills development, psychosocial counseling, case management, legal aid, awareness training, dignity kit distribution, referral services and women’s leadership training.

233 children have been newly registered in mobile and static child friendly spaces. We have reached 37,478 children now through the spaces. The Humanitarian Play Lab curriculum for 4-6 year olds has been implemented in each UNICEF-funded space.

184 radio listener groups created

160,331complaints/questions at information points responded to

211 successful legal dispute mediation sessions

We support over 100,000 children through child-friendly spaces implementing BRAC’s Humanitarian Play Lab model. We also reach adolescent boys and girls through 900 pocket-based interventions.

317 children have been registered for the child friendly spaces. Parents meetings were arranged with 990 parents participating. World Children’s Day was observed on 19 November.

340

1.6 M

child-friendly spaces

packs of high energy biscuits distributed

18,465 average attendance in child-friendly spaces

We bring information to 100,000 households in 34 camps through 800 Rohingya volunteers (84% female). In emergencies, we intensify our efforts to reach 500,000 people. Messages are reinforced through 3,000 community and religious leaders and 3,000 adolescent boys and girls, and 1,440 community action plans ensure access to services for all.

The focus this month was on message dissemination about cyclone awareness for Cyclone Bulbul, through volunteers in 34 camps.

1,803 advocacy meetings with community leaders

1,890 adolescent radio listener club meetings conducted

3 Minterpersonal communication sessions conducted in households

Health and communicable diseasesWe are the largest primary health care provider in the camps, providing essential and life-saving health and nutrition services, including prevention and treatment of communicable diseases. We have provided 1 million+ basic health services in the community via our health network of 24/7 primary health centres, health posts, community health outlets and community health worker network.Social mobilisation and awareness raising regarding malaria is the focus for this month in the camps. Out of 3,486 presumptive tests, there were 293 identified TB cases in the last month.

843,329 outpatient screenings in community health outlets

163,800 malaria tests conducted

110,530 TB presumptive tests conducted

Click here to learn more: response.brac.net

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Site management

Livelihoods & food security

2,225community awareness meetings held in November

227 shelters relocated

37 protection cases referred in November

We support over 165,000 people in 7 camps with site management support focusing on 8 key areas; support to government officials in charge of camps, community governance and participation mechanisms, protection mainstreaming, care and maintenance, information management, emergency preparedness and response, relocations, and capacity building.

A community feedback and response mechanism in camp 7, 1E and Kutupalong registered camp has been successfully launched. Small site improvement activities like stair repair, drain repair, pathway repair have been happening. 3,704 service monitoring and gaps have been identified and referred.

20,050 MT food assistance-in-kind

3,920 training sessions on homestead gardening

We support people through providing technical and life skills which increase confidence, capacity, and opportunity.

Training manual and flip charts on poultry rearing have been completed. Training of beneficiaries on homestead gardening has been conducted, and vegetable seeds, tools and manure distributed among the beneficiaries.

Click here to learn more: response.brac.net

Nutrition

37,686

supplementary food packets delivered to pregnant and lactating women via the blanket supplementary feeding programme

9,499

children, pregnant and lactating women reached with supplementary food in the targeted supplementary feeding programme

We provide knowledge and nutrition supplements for women and children in the camps through a community-based approach.

Members of the community are engaged in awareness sessions to improve their understanding about the importance of nutrition, their nutrition sources and how to preserve nutrition during cooking processes. They are then provided with supplements.

Ayesha Abed Foundation

316 trainees enrolled in camps

286 trainees enrolled in host communities

142 trainees enrolled in main production centre

We operate 8 sub-centres in the camps and 6 sub-centres in the host community, as well as 1 production centre, training women in artisan embroidery techniques.

Delicate products such as Endi cotton shirts and Addi Panjabi (long shirt) are being now produced in the centres in Cox’s Bazar.

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2,556 total BRAC staff providing critical services in camps and host communities

5,054 BRAC volunteers from both host and FDMN communities

53% of BRAC staff members are female

PROFILE ON THE GROUND

THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS

PROGRAMME DIRECTORSajedul Hasan

sajedul.hasan@brac.net +88 02 9881265 Ext 3530

PROGRAMME HEAD Mohammed Abdus Salam

salam.ad@brac.net+88 017-0964-7506

MEDIA/COMMUNICATIONSSarah-Jane Saltmarsh

sarah.jane@brac.net+88 017-38937985