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Photo by Khin Maung Soe

HOPE STILL ALIVE FOR ROHINGYA – I’ve been talking a lot about the Rohingya people, individuals stuck in Bangladesh in the world’s largest refugee camp. It turns out that it’s a story that most people don’t know about.

The Rohingya ended up as refugees because they were forced to flee the genocide in their home country of Myanmar. They had no choice. They were driven out by people with a religion that was different than their own. To have stayed in Myanmar, they would have continued suffering the atrocities. They would have suffered inescapable cruelty and death.

But they fled to nearby Bangladesh, a country poor in its own right, given food and shelter. Safety. The biggest exodus occurred in 2017. And today, well over a million of those men, women and children are still in the camps, facing another crisis—the threat of dying from hunger and disease, forgotten by the world. In need of food, water, medicine, clothes, and shelter. The conditions in the camps are, and have been, poor beyond belief.

The world has turned its eyes away. It is not watching, not in the way they are watching GAZA today, where the crisis has developed to hopeless proportions.

For the Rohingya, the genocide that occurred was evil, as it is for Palestine. They had no place to go. Trapped. Stateless. Not wanted anywhere.

Is the world seeing what is happening today to these people? Are they aware? Have they not learned from the ignorance they showed as the Palestinian situation was developing?

Today, atrocities are happening in many places. More than people can keep up with. And so, the Rohingya are not receiving the attention they should—people for whom there is still hope, people who could at this stage still be helped . . . if the world could only hear their cries.

UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency has been there for the Rohingya in the past and is equipped to continue their good work caring for them. But their funding is running out.

The world seems to be under the impression that the problem is too big—too hopeless—with no point in stepping in to alleviate the suffering through donations.

This time again, the world is considering the situation to be beyond help. “How could I possibly help bring healing to a problem that is so enormous?” they ask themselves.

We are a generation that has given up on hope. We have forgotten that all things are possible with a God who is above us all. When we need to do an enormously big work, it would be well for us to remember that the work is God’s, not our own. We are his hands, feet, and voice, working with obedience to his Will. My life experience has shown that all things are possible with God if we believe in him.

I’m often reminded of the story I’ve read in the Bible about Nehemiah. It is an inspiring one that would be good for Rohingya, as well as all of us who would help, to hear. It is a story that will show us that there is always hope.

Nehemiah’s story took place after the Jewish exile. When he heard of the destruction of the Jerusalem walls, he courageously tackled the huge work of rebuilding the city’s fortifications.

Despite facing opposition Nehemiah successfully led the rebuilding efforts by gathering all kinds of people, each with skills of their own. He believed in the power of God. He realized that he was doing God’s work. All that was needed was many hands and feet working together in obedience to God.

The Bible also details how he later led a spiritual and social revival among returning exiles.

Is the Rohingya crisis really that hopeless? Can individuals of the Western World not lend a hand to help them in the way they wished they had before the situation in Palestine deteriorated to where it now?

Eight years after their exodus to Bangladesh and other countries, the Rohingya are still continuing their tragic crisis. They have nowhere to go where they will be accepted. They would like to go back to their rightful home of Myanmar. But even now, great atrocities are continuing there against remaining Rohingya. It is not safe to return.

Unlike the situation in Palestine, where AID is so extremely difficult to deliver, there is still hope for the Rohingya. Food, water, medical care, and shelter are still possible if the world would respond.

How can you help?

You can be God’s hands by contributing to the UNHCR’s work. Donations sent to https://giving.unhcr.org/en/rohingya/ will go directly to support Rohingya’s needs.

marja