Aid agency helps Rohingya women to learn needlecraft

COX’S BAZAR

A Turkish-German aid organization teaches needlecraft to Rohingya women who have been staying in camps in Cox's Bazar city in Bangladesh after fleeing violence in Myanmar.

Germany-based Turkish Avrupa Yetim-Der (International Help Organization for Orphans) first opened a course on needlecraft and later donated sewing machines for 15 women who completed the course.

One of the women who participated in the course is Sayma Akhter, who lost her husband and had to flee with her two children, told Anadolu Agency that she joined the training to forget her suffering.

Akhter said that she could only survive with donations after losing her husband: “I was in the middle of persecution with my two children and I had to flee.”

“I am doing textile work to look after my orphans. God bless Turks who provided us such opportunity,” she added.

Huseyin Ates, a representative of the Avrupa Yetim-Der said that they launched the course to help especially women who lost their husbands and had to look after their children on their own.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world's most persecuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

According to Amnesty International, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly children, and women, fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community.

Reporting by Ali Tepe:Writing by Handan Kazanci