Over 700,000 Rohingya fled their homes in Rakhine state to escape a violent ethnic cleansing, including widespread raping, by Myanmar's military in August 2017. Every single person suffered loss. The office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) estimates 17 percent of Rohingya households in the refugee camps are now headed by single mothers as a result of the violence. Arriving in Bangladesh, many women were pregnant from the Myanmar military’s brutal rape campaign. Now, over nine months later, these women and girls are giving birth—often in unsafe and unsanitary conditions—and grappling with the complex emotional trauma the babies bring with them.
Amid the maze of challenges that constitute health care in the world’s largest refugee camp, vulnerable mothers and infants too often fall through the cracks. A Dutch lactation consultant, Astrid Klomp, alongside her team of nurses, staff and dedicated community volunteers, has been piloting Medair’s first-ever Community Management of At-Risk Mothers and Infants (C-MAMI) program, in partnership with World Concern.
