Notations On Our World (Weekly Edition): On the Plight of @ordinaryFaces

MOAS is one of the organizations we have periodically featured especially as the latest out of Europe was the denial by Italy of a migrant boat that was on its' way to Valencia in Spain as we went to press with this edition.   We hereby present these stories of ordinary folks courtesy of MOAS:

Ikram is a 59-year-old Rohingya refugee from Myanmar. “I have had a fever and a cough for almost a week now. Last night I couldn’t breathe properly, I stayed awake the whole night. Now I’m here at the Aid Station to see a doctor. I live in Shamlapur refugee camp with my wife, two sons and a daughter-in-law. Our village was close to Maungdaw, in Myanmar. Like most men from our village, I was a fisherman. When the unrest began, everything happened so fast that we didn’t have any time to prepare for our journey. At my age... several times I thought I was going to die, that day. But we managed to stick together and make it over the border into Bangladesh. Now we spend our days in search of food and supplies. It’s a hard life in the refugee camps, but we’re happy to be living here in safety. What can I say about the future? All of us have been living in constant fear for most of our lives. What I wish for is that my grandchildren will never know this fear.”

Amina is 53 and arrived from Myanmar in September 2017. She visited our Aid Station in Unchiprang with a fever, headache and blood pressure problems. “This is the first time I’ve been able to find treatment since coming to Bangladesh. I’ve seen many other people suffer. Because we have no way to earn money, we cannot buy expensive medicine. Here at the Aid Station, the doctors listened to my complaints very attentively. After that I received all my medication for free, and the pharmacist also explained how to take it. The journey from Bangladesh was very difficult for me, at my age. I wish no one had to suffer like this.”   “My name is Mohammad and I’m 58 years old. My wife Faouzia is 55. We have eight children: the eldest is 38 and the youngest is 12. We lived in Maungdaw, in Myanmar. I had my own fishing business: I had eight fishing boats, four cars and a big shop in the central market. When the violence erupted, the Burmese military shot at us and burned our house, so we had to flee. We made our way to the coast to take a boat to Bangladesh, but we had to wait there four days without any food. We were so scared the boat might sink, because we’d heard of a boat full of people that had capsized the previous day. Now there’s talk of sending us back to Myanmar. We will only go if we’re recognised as Rohingya and promised the same rights as everyone else. Faouzia and I have been married for such a long time and have been through so much together that we know we can handle anything. Whatever happens, we’ll get through it together.”