Nov. 16, 2017 (Cox’s Bazar, BANGLADESH) – World Concern, a Seattle-based humanitarian agency, is distributing critical shelter materials and hygiene kits to 22,000 Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh camps. Working in coordination with Integral Alliance partners Medair, a Swiss aid agency, World Concern is reaching refugee families with desperately needed emergency supplies to shelter and protect vulnerable families who fled extreme violence with nothing.

More than 600,000 Rohingya refugees have arrived in overcrowded refugee camps and makeshift
settlements near the Myanmar border in Bangladesh since Aug. 25, 2017. Tens of thousands of people,
mostly women and children, are in need of shelter, food, water, and medical care.

“We’re specifically targeting people who have been left out of aid distributions,” said World Concern Director of Disaster Response Chris Sheach. “We’re reaching people who have not had a roof over their heads in six weeks since they left Myanmar.”

Sheach said the situation there is the worst he’s seen in his career. Many children are visibly malnourished and suffering from diarrhea and skin diseases.

Fifty-one-year-old Aadil was among 1,250 refugees who received emergency supplies today. “I lost everything, my house and contents, cows, goats and a huge amount of land with rice. Fortunately my family is fine, though struggling. I cannot say thank you enough,” he said.

World Concern will continue to assist thousands of refugees through November and ramp up the response in the coming months as funding allows.

For interviews, or to arrange a press tour of the aid response in the camps, please contact Cathy Herholdt at 206-794-9775 or email [email protected].