In photos: Rohingya children use art to depict the horrors of Rakhine
Ask most children to draw something, and, chances are, you'll receive happy pictures of hills, trees, and smiling faces. This is not the case with Rakhine State's Rohingya children.
Childhood in Myanmar's Rakhine State is not idyllic. It is a battlefield. A state-backed purged of Rakhine's Rohingyas have led to hundreds of thousands of traumatised children being displaced from their homes and families. These children have seen the mutilation, murder and rape of their community members, as well as the burning down of the buildings they once called home. The UN human rights chief has called the crisis a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
According to UNICEF, over 230,000 child refugees have fled to refugee camps in Bangladesh since August, after the latest outbreak of violence in Rakhine. These figures mean that children make up around 60 percent of the 420,000 Rohingyas that populate refugee camps in Bangladesh. Many are orphaned, with no idea what fate their parents have met, and no means of finding out.
With nowhere to go and their futures uncertain, these children have found sanctuary in Children Friendly Spaces(CFS) that have been set up within these camps. Managed by NGOs such as CODEC, these spaces allow the children to enjoy a slice of childhood that they might otherwise never experience.
However, even here, the horrors of what they have seen are evident. The fear that has been instilled in these children is coming to the surface through the artwork they have created. Have a look:
