Help for the Rohingya Refugee Children in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh

This humanitarian project aims to provide dental care as well as educational support through play and sports to Rohingya Refugee children and affected host community children in the Kutupalong camp in Cox’s Bazar.

Due to the high burden of oral disease and limited availability to dental care in the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar, together with other development agencies, HOPE‘87 Bangladesh is implementing the oral health prevention and health care programme for children. The project aims to prevent and reduce tooth decay and instil healthy hygiene habits from an early age as a habit that contributes to healthy development and reduction of preventable diseases. Throughout the project, HOPE’87 established a dental health post and provided all the necessary medical equipment and accessories. The dental clinic was opened at Camp 12 in February 2024 and offers comprehensive dental treatment including fillings, restauration, extractions, root canal treatment and abscess drainage as well as free medicine. The medical team also distributes oral hygiene aids such as fluoride tooth paste and tooth brushes to every child that comes to the dental health post and regularly organises hygiene and oral care sessions at different places in the host community schools as well as in the learning centre in the Rohingya camp in Cox’s Bazar district. On average, 600 patients are treated monthly at the health post and the mobile dental camp in the host communities.

HOPE‘87 Bangladesh also set up washing facilities in the learning centre in camp 12. The station has a capacity for twenty children at a time. The teachers received training from the dental team on handwashing and toothbrushing. Every day, each child in the class partakes in the group activity at the washing station where they brush their teeth with fluoridated toothpaste and wash their hands with soap. The team will also be providing regular oral health screening and dental treatment for the children.

Furthermore, throughout the project, two learning centres were set up in the camp. In order to offer the children schooling programmes in their own language, two teachers from Myanmar and Bangladesh each conduct the classes, including games and sports. In two shifts, 160 children attend this learning centre programme and are able to enjoy their leisure time with joy and fun.