As the family wandered through the jungle and crossed the roads between neighbouring villages, corpses lay strewn on the grounds while animals fed on them. Small hands and feet belonging to children lay by the sides of drains. Piles of burnt bodies – of the young men who were rounded and killed – lay in open fields.

Stories similar to Sadia’s echo many times over – for an estimated 500,000 Rohingya children who fled Myanmar and now live in the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar. Unlike Sadia, thousands of these children arrived unaccompanied, ultimately losing both parents while trying to flee. More than 6,000 households in the camps are headed by a child. Without access to formal education, these half a million children are at risk of becoming a lost generation.

Today, Sadia lives in a shelter with her family, she admits it is much smaller than her previous home, but she feels much safer there. She misses her friends from her previous school back in Myanmar, but she has also made new friends in Bangladesh.

Sadia loves the many stories she gets to hear, apart from the usual school lessons. Storytelling sessions are her favourite; she also loves reciting traditional Burmese rhymes with her friends. Sadia learning how to better communicate and socialise with everyone around her. She also learns about hygiene – how to wash her hands properly before eating and to always put her sandals on before going to the washroom.
 

Sadia is a student at EAC and BRAC’s learning centre in Camp 16. The centres are safe spaces where women run sessions – a language instructor from the Rohingya community and a teacher from the host community.   “I lost my child trying to flee from Myanmar,” says Sadia’s language instructor.

The learning centre that Sadia attends focuses on early grade learning, basic literacy, numeracy, life-saving information, and psychosocial support and life skills for children aged 4-14 years.