The children’s TV show Sesame Street has unveiled its first Rohingya Muppets to help thousands of refugee children overcome trauma and tackle the impact of coronavirus in the world’s largest refugee settlement in Bangladesh.
Six-year-old twins Noor and Aziz Yasmin will feature alongside the show’s famous characters such as Elmo and Louie in educational videos in Rohingya language in the camps, according to Sesame Workshop, the non-profit organisation behind the show.
“Noor and Aziz are at the heart of our efforts to bring early education … to children and caregivers … impacted tremendously by the dual crises of displacement and the Covid-19 pandemic,” said Sherrie Westin, the president of social impact at Sesame Workshop.
“For most Rohingya children, Noor and Aziz will be the very first characters in media who look and sound like them … [they] will bring the transformative power of playful learning to families at a time when it’s needed more than ever before.”
According to UN figures, children make up more than half of about 730,000 Rohingya who arrived in Bangladesh in 2017 after a mass exodus from Myanmar, and now live in camps in Cox’s Bazar.
Earlier this year aid agencies said the risks of child marriage and trafficking had increased in the camps as camp activities were scaled back and youth services shut amid the pandemic.
Q&A Who are the Rohingya and what happened to them in Myanmar?
Show
Hide
Described as the world’s most persecuted people, 1.1 million Rohingya people live in Myanmar. They live predominately in Rakhine state, where they have co-existed uneasily alongside Buddhists for decades.
Rohingya people say they are descendants of Muslims, perhaps Persian and Arab traders, who came to Myanmar generations ago. Unlike the Buddhist community, they speak a language similar to the Bengali dialect of Chittagong in Bangladesh.
The Rohingya are reviled by many in Myanmar as illegal immigrants and suffer from systematic discrimination. The Myanmar government treats them as stateless people, denying them citizenship. Stringent restrictions have been placed on Rohingya people’s freedom of movement, access to medical assistance, education and other basic services.
Violence broke out in northern Rakhine state in August 2017, when militants attacked government forces. In response, security forces supported by Buddhist militia launched a “clearance operation” that ultimately killed at least 1,000 people and forced more than 600,000 to flee their homes. The UN’s top human rights official said the military’s response was «clearly disproportionate” to insurgent attacks and warned that Myanmar’s treatment of its Rohingya minority appears to be a «textbook example” of ethnic cleansing.
When Aung San Suu Kyi rose to power there were high hopes that the Nobel peace prize winner would help heal Myanmar’s entrenched ethnic divides. But she has been accused of standing by while violence is committed against the Rohingya.
In 2019, judges at the international criminal court authorised a full-scale investigation into the allegations of mass persecution and crimes against humanity. On 10 December 2019, the international court of justice in The Hague opened a case alleging genocide brought by the Gambia.
Rebecca Ratcliffe
Photograph: Tracey Nearmy/AAP
Was this helpful?
Thank you for your feedback.
Sesame Workshop described Noor as a passionate and curious girl who loves to make up funny new rules for games, while her brother is a storyteller whose creativity can, at times, distract him from his daily tasks.
Brac, a Bangladeshi NGO and partner of the programme, said the video segments would begin soon. “This will definitely help the Rohingya children stay connected to their roots,” said a Brac spokeswoman, Hasina Akhter.
Свежие комментарии