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Finding the right Host Getting relief goods: words in the Community A re-emerging concern within Rohingya language Feedback the Rohingya community WHAT Find out more on page 1 Find out more on page 2 Find out more on page 3 MATTERS? Humanitarian Feedback Bulletin on Rohingya Response Issue 12 × Wednesday, October 03, 2018 There have been many flows back and forth along the standard Burmese and Rakhine. When the ‘new Rohingya’ Finding the porous Bangladesh-Myanmar border over the last 50 joined the registered community in the camps, the linguistic years. In the early 1990s, about 250,000 Rohingya people differences became clear. So did the need to consider those right words in the fled to Bangladesh from northern Myanmar to escape differences when communicating with the community. a military crackdown. Some of those people returned Rohingya language to Myanmar, but many remained in Bangladesh. The ‘Registered Rohingya’ now use many Bangla words community that stayed behind is usually referred to as Clear communication with the Rohingya the ‘registered Rohingya’, even though some of them are In the past three decades, various government and non-government community is one of the most challenging not officially ‘registered’ as refugees by UNHCR and the institutions exposed the ‘registered Rohingya’ community to aspects of the current response. It requires us to government of Bangladesh. standard Bangla. Those that went to Bangladeshi schools learned understand how their language is evolving, how how to read and write in standard Bangla. Rohingya men learned different languages have influenced it, and how In 2017, another 700,000 Rohingya people crossed Bangla in their interactions beyond the camp, through trade or distinct dialects are emerging. Importantly, we the border fleeing a fresh wave of violence. They are employment for example. must acknowledge linguistic variations within often referred to as the ‘new Rohingya’. Now over half the community, and use appropriate vocabulary of the world’s Rohingya speakers live in camps in The ‘registered Rohingya’ community uses many Bangla words in all communications. Cox’s Bazar district. associated with health. For example, they use betha, the Bangla word for ‘pain’, rather than the Rohingya word bish. Most ‘registered In this response we often talk about the ‘Rohingya More than 30 years of geographic separation has Rohingya’ people use the Bangla oshudh for ‘medicine’, instead of refugees’ as if they are a homogeneous group of influenced the language that the two groups of refugees dabai. The Rohingya language does not have a distinct word for people. Yet they come from different parts of use, resulting in diverging dialects of the original Rohingya ‘treatment’, so the ‘registered Rohingya’ people adopted the Bangla Rakhine and they have different levels of literacy language. Language is like a sponge: it absorbs from its word chikitsha. and access to education. Language is another surroundings. So while the ‘registered Rohingyas’ were key area of difference, with discrete Rohingya soaking up Bangla and Chittagonian terms into their The newer arrivals in the camps are not so familiar with those dialects emerging. vocabulary, other Rohingya people were borrowing from Bangla terms, and might not immediately understand them. 1 Chittagonian has also influenced The ‘new Rohingya’ brought Burmese for the past three decades, so Consider the different vocabularies vocabulary in the camps Burmese words to the camps are sometimes unfamiliar with these new when working in the camps words. Chittagonian, the local dialect spoken by Just across the river, the Burmese When working with the community or the host community, has also influenced language influenced the Rohingya people Rakhine, the dialect of Burmese that is designing information, education and the ‘registered Rohingya’ community’s who remained in Myanmar. spoken in Rakhine state where many communication materials, choose terms that vocabulary and pronunciation. For Rohingya people lived, has also influenced Rohingya people are most likely to understand. example, the words beda (‘man’) and Standard Burmese is the state language the Rohingya language. Rakhine Provide explanations of words that have been bedi (‘woman’) also mean ‘husband’ of Myanmar, so Rohingya people and standard Burmese have marked introduced from other languages. Encourage and ‘wife’ respectively in Rohingya. attending government schools were differences in pronunciation and some Rohingya-speaking field workers to use However, the ‘registered Rohingya’ now taught that language. Though reading terminology. Rohingya people pronounce the terms they remember their grandma prefer to use the Chittagonian terms and writing levels are still low, quite a few Burmese words with a Rakhine accent. using, because a wider audience is likely to zamai and bou for ‘husband’ and ‘wife’. standard Burmese words entered the For example, seyama is the Burmese understand those words. In terms of pronunciation, words like Rohingya language. Burmese words also word for ‘teacher’, but serama is the aishsha (‘okay’) now sound closer to entered the Rohingya language through Rakhine pronunciation of the same word. New arrivals rarely understand standard Chittagonian aichcha. administration, trade and, increasingly, The Rohingya community also address Bangla, so Chittagonian and ‘registered through conventional and social teachers as serama. Rohingya’ field workers and interpreters Although there is overlap between media. For example, the words ukkata should use simple terms and contextual Rohingya and Chittagonian, unfamiliar (‘chairperson’) and myuney (‘district’) are These variations add an extra layer of phrases (as opposed to academic Bangla and Chittagonian terms might confuse the borrowed from Burmese. The ‘registered complexity to communicating with the jargonistic terms) that the new arrivals will new arrivals. Rohingya’ have not been as exposed to Rohingya community. more easily understand. Host community members said that students The host community is also concerned because they say Host Community Feedback in Cox’s Bazar are struggling to reach school they can no longer get birth certificates for their children. on time due to heavy traffic on the roads as These certificates are an essential part of the school Road traffic from UN / NGO vehicles and the NGO and UN offices and schools start at admission process. People said that officials from the Union increased transportation costs are among the same time. The host community also said Parishad (local government) have stopped providing birth the host community’s top concerns. that transport costs have increased since the certificates in order to stop Rohingya people collecting birth Rohingya influx: previously BDT 10 was enough certificates for their children (click here for details). Host to get to school, but this has doubled to BDT 20 community members who didn’t collect a birth certificate and in some cases even more. for their child immediately after the birth say that they are Source: Feedback collected from the host community now facing problems in obtaining one. audience of the radio discussion programme Betar The school hours and office hours of Sanglap, recorded at Palang High School in Ukhiya on the NGOs are the same, which The Union Parishad has stopped providing birth 5 September 2018. The concerns came from questions makes it difficult for the students to reach certificates after Rohingya influx. This is causing asked during the programme by 36 men and 18 women. school on time” problems for children during school admission.” The programme is produced by Bangladesh Betar, with support from UNICEF and BBC Media Action. - Male, teacher - Female, housewife 2 During this edition of Betar Sanglap, the host community discussed several other issues The Rohingya community is continuously destroying the forest by that concern them. These included high birth rates among the Rohingya community due to cutting down trees, which is disrupting the environmental balance. lack of awareness about family planning. The host community is also curious about what Another issue is that the birth rate is high within the Rohingya community and the citizenship status is for newborn Rohingya babies. Deforestation to accommodate they need to be aware of family planning methods.” the Rohingya population continues to be an issue and other concerns include a perceived increase in the spread of disease in the area, including diarrhea, jaundice and malaria. - Male, employee in private company Concerns about food and NFI relief Getting relief goods: 34% (Base: 390) 31% A re-emerging concern within (Base: 441) 33% 23% (Base: 1626) the Rohingya community (Base: 1114) 26% (Base: 1123) Source: data collected from 6811 respondents by IOM community 17% mobilisers from February to August 2018, in camps 8W, 9, 10, 18, 15% (Base: 1536) (Base: 581) 19, Leda, Leda MS, Shamlapur and Unchiprang. BBC Media Action weekly focus group discussions in camps 9 and 10 in late August and early September 2018 with men and women aged 18 to 40. February March April May June July August Getting access to food and NFI relief has reemerged as the Data also included specific complaints that the community raised in terms of getting access to relief. biggest concern amongst the Rohingya community. Concerns related to relief Percentage of complaints raised Feedback shows that, in February 2018, problems related to accessing Didn’t get relief card/lost relief card 13% relief were mentioned the most. But in March, April and May, shelter Need Hygiene Kit 5% issues such as lack of space and the need for shelter materials became Not getting NFI (non-food items) 4% the biggest concern expressed by the community. In June, July and August getting access to relief once again become the biggest concern. Not getting enough food 3% The graph below shows how feedback regarding access to relief has Not getting food regularly 2% changed over the past seven months. Didn’t get family count number1 2% Base: Total respondents - 6811 1. The Government of Bangladesh and UNHCR launched a joint verification exercise for Rohingya refugees in Cox's Bazar.