Our time in the Rohingya Refugee camps was an experience we have never experienced before! It is an overwhelming place, with the most heart retching stories, situations and lack of hope for the future I have ever experienced. We was able to spend quite a few days in the camps, getting to know the military helping run the camps, the families, and the children in the two new schools within the camp.
The light distribution went very well. The military has a way that they distribute all of their supplies, and it worked fairly smoothly. The way that the military has set up is each family has a distribution card, where whatever they are given gets marked down on their family’s sheet, so there is a record of who received what and when. For a people who have nothing, have no way of earning or supplying anything for themselves, it was very controlled.
We were able to supply 2,300 solar lights to the Unpinrang camp! That is 2,300 families!
Also, 100 new students in the camp schools, they are actually excited to complete their homework!
The ways that the families were describing the way they were going to use the light with such excitement, brought me to tears! The camps are pitch dark at night and making their way to the bathroom is nearly impossible! The fires they have to have within their little tarp covered homes for light is incredible toxic, smoke filling, and very dangerous for starting fast spreading fires through the camps!
Also after almost 1 million people move into rice fields, there is not much for them to burn for light within their tarp homes. And even after 5 months, there is no natural resource for light left. Having a solar light enables them to hang the light and have the whole room lit!
