They are enlisted as child journalists in the world’s first dedicated Bangla news website for children, ‘Hello’, which sent them to different Rohingya camps to chase untold stories.
After a short training, they went to the Rohingya camps in Bangladesh, where experienced journalists from across the globe have descended to cover the fastest growing refugee crisis in the world.
They found mismanagement and also talked about what they would do, if given the opportunity, to end the inefficiency in the camps.
Responding to a question by bdnews24.com Editor-in-Chief Toufique Imrose Khalidi, who moderated the discussion in Cox's Bazar, child journalist Jannatul Nayeem Zerin said she spoke to a Rohingya boy who arrived at the camp on Friday.
“His sister and brother-in-law called them on phone and asked them to come over to Bangladesh. The couple told them that there was a good supply of relief and other facilities in Bangladesh,” Jannatul said.
“He crossed the border with his parents after the conversations, though they were not in such a bad condition that would make them to leave their country,” she said.
“The child said the people of Bangladesh are better when I asked him which country has been good to him. He said he would stay back even if everyone else leaves here.
“He said the people of Bangladesh are feeding them, not beating them up,” Ashikur said.
But, Moriom Akter Nupur’s experience was different. A number of Rohingya families told her that they wanted to return once the situation in Myanmar improves.
They saw the distribution of relief materials, availability of emergency medical services, water and sanitation crises and spread of communicable diseases.
They recounted the first day of the journalistic experience enthusiastically.
Hello, which produces stories by children for children, was launched on Mar 31, 2013. Children and adolescents are involved in every step of the process, from news gathering to distribution.
Hello is the result of a joint initiative between Bangladesh’s largest news publisher bdnews24.com and UNICEF.
Thus far, over 7,000 children and teenagers have worked with Hello, according to its Executive Editor Mujtaba Hakim Plato.