Rohingya parents in Indonesia want ‘children to know happiness’

At a temporary shelter in Aceh, a mother who travelled by boat to Indonesia dreams of a better life for her children.

Formin’s husband Toyob left Bangladesh first, as the couple witnessed increasing violence in the camps and feared he would become a victim of it. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Pidie, Indonesia – Formin was pregnant when she boarded a boat from Bangladesh last December, accompanied only by her daughter, two-year-old Adiba. She had taken shelter in Bangladesh along with hundreds of thousands of Rohingya following the 2017 brutal crackdown by the Myanmar military. But life in crowded refugee camps has not been easy, as authorities have imposed increasing restrictions forcing many Rohingya to undertake perilous sea journeys.

The 20-year-old mother did not know where they would end up, or if they would even survive the journey facilitated by smugglers.

“I was just lying down on the boat, I couldn’t urinate, I couldn’t eat. During the boat journey I experienced intense pain,” she said.

“I was sick and unaware of what was happening around me. My child would cry for breastmilk, but unfortunately, I could not breastfeed my child, who was also ill.”

Many of the Rohingya refugees in Pidie told Al Jazeera they finally feel safe, after years of living in impoverished conditions, in crowded and increasingly dangerous camps in Bangladesh. They have been registered as a refugee and receive a stipend from the International Organisation for Migration (IOM). They are not allowed to work.

Formin, who only gave one name, and many of the other refugees said they are also traumatised from their lives in Myanmar, years after escaping a campaign of violence against Rohingya people carried out by security forces. Indonesia hosts about 12,000 refugees of which 1,000 are Rohingya.

“They burned our home and forced us to leave. They killed my father as we were leaving. I left the country to save my life, crossing mountains. It was a difficult journey,” Formin said about the 2017 military crackdown in Myanmar.

“And in Bangladesh, we suffered a lot. People in the camps were fighting. People were dragged into the mountains and beaten. That’s why we came here.”

Formin gave birth to her second child, Mohammad Adib in June at a hospital in Aceh.

He is the youngest resident of the temporary shelter in Pidie where 153 Rohingya refugees live. The camp is supported by the UN refugee agency, with assistance from the local government.

They have been living in the facility for six months.

“My hope is for my children to experience the freedom to roam around,” Formin said.

“My life has passed in a certain way. I want my children’s lives to be beautiful. I want my children to know what happiness is.”

Formin gave birth to Mohammad in a hospital in Aceh. “People in this country have taken great care of me,” she said. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

The family of four lives in this room at the temporary shelter in Pidie. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Dr Arika Abubaker and other health workers from the Pidie Health Service visit the Rohingya refugees several times a week. “We cannot say their living conditions are ideal, but I guess this is the safest place for them at the moment,” she said. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Dr Arika said they are also trying to work on ‘trauma healing’ with the refugees. On some of the walls at the shelter, a five-year-old Rohingya boy has drawn pictures of a boat at sea. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Most of the adults in the shelter said they left Bangladesh with the best interests of their children in mind. ‘I want to go to a country where my children can find peace,’ one mother said. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

There are 19 children under the age of five living at the temporary shelter. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

The children receive informal lessons while at the shelter but there are barriers which make it difficult to enrol in local schools. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Dance classes are organised by community groups, intended to provide a chance for Rohingya children to make friends with locals in the community. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Some of the Rohingya children can already speak basic Indonesian. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Activities like cleaning the compound provide a good way to pass the time. There are rosters pasted on the walls to indicate who is responsible for particular chores. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Preparing lunch is a communal activity, with several people working together even on just one dish. These men are cooking a dish called salong, a traditional curry. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

The Rohingya refugees have used dirt and water to build stoves by hand. Each stove takes two days to make, including drying time. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Families have their own rooms at the shelter. Single women are put into one large room and single men in another. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

One woman likened the shelter to a ‘prison’, with nothing to do but chores like laundry, while having no certainty about what the future holds. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]

Many of the parents at the shelter said their only hope is that the children here will have a better life than theirs. [Jessica Washington/Al Jazeera]