Caring in crisis: Family dynamics and child wellbeing in Rohingya refugee camps

Bree Akesson^1*Ashley Stewart-Tufescu²Cindy Sousa³Karen Frensch¹

• ¹Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada
• ²University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada
• ³Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, United States

To optimize development and help children achieve their potential, children require nurturing and responsive caregiving, access to quality health care and social services, healthy food and balanced nutrition, and clean and safe environments within which to explore and develop (World Health Organization, 2020). As primary caregivers, parents often help ensure these elements, thus contributing to their children's positive development. But in the Rohingya refugee camps in southern Bangladesh, parents face a plethora of challenges to their children's wellbeing and to their own ability to ensure their children's health and development. Rohingya refugees are one of the most persecuted ethnic minorities in the world (OHCHR, 2017), who have been forced to flee their homes in Myanmar to seek safety in neighbouring Bangladesh (UNHCR, 2022). Many families are not able to reliably access nutritious foods, leading to childhood stunting rates that exceed global averages (Choudhary et al., 2023). In the camp, there is no formal schooling for Rohingya beyond Level 3, thereby restricting learning and future livelihood opportunities (Hossain, 2023). Poor sanitation (Uddin et al., 2022), overcrowded camps (Chowdhury et al., 2020), and the increasing risk of violence from intra-camp armed groups (Humanitarian Action, 2024) further jeopardize Rohingya families' safety and wellbeing. Due to these reasons and their own struggles to cope with adversity, parents are often limited in their capacity to meet their children's needs. While the ability of parents to provide for and respond to their children's needs has been shown to ameliorate the negative impacts of such adverse circumstances as war and violence (Sousa, Akesson, & Manahil, 2024), there is still much to uncover regarding the diverse and varied daily realities of the perinatal period for family members displaced by conflict and persecution.