I am lucky enough to have a great friend in Yorkshire who runs the Communications in Bangladesh for UNICEF. He kindly suggested that some our Pyjama House nighties would be very popular with the refugee children that he works with. I received a very humbling message from Mosina thanking me for the nightie that she was given and Ali sent me these wonderful photographs. Her story is as follows:
Mosina, 12, is one of an estimated 750,000 Rohingya Muslims forced out of Myanmar in 2017 by the Burmese army. She helps to look after her father, who had to have his leg amputated after he was shot by the military during the exodus.
Mosina, her parents and three siblings (two younger brothers, one older brother) live in cramped c in the Kutupalong refugee camp in south-eastern Bangladesh. Their home is a bamboo and tarpaulin shelter built on top of a steep sandbank which aid agency workers have warned is especially vulnerable to landslides during the monsoon period from now until the end of August.
Mosina has had to sacrifice what little education she receives in the camps to help look after her father, who cannot leave the tiny and stultifying humid shelter the family inhabit because the surrounding area is so steep. Every day she either has to help him go to the toilet or collect water and food, which is distributed to the refugees daily by the World Food Programme.
“I am so grateful for my nightie,” Mosina said. “Life in the camps is hard for young people like me, but this has brightened up my life.”
If you are humbled, as I am, by her story you can follow this link to make a donation DONATE TO UNICEF NOW