Impact: Creating child-friendly spaces in refugee camps

Today, Taslima lives in the worlds largest refugee camp in Coxs Bazar, Bangladesh, home to 890,000 refugees. More than half are children.

In October 2017, World Vision opened it’s first child-friendly space there, protecting kids from exploitation and abuse (threats can become more common in the midst or aftermath of an emergency). Today there are 12 child-friendly spaces(CFS) for kids aged 5-12 in the camps. 

Taslima is one of 1,700 enrolled. While the CFS doesn’t offer formal education, it’s a safe, fun place where children can play, learn and regain a sense of normalcy in their disrupted lives. Apart from playing and drawing sessions, children are given awareness on personal hygiene and child protection.

Taslima wants to be a teacher, “I love children”, she says confidently looking up from her notebook lined with numbers and sentences. 

“I need to study so that I can teach children from our community when I grow up and help other people”. Taslima has been displaced from her town in Rohingya, Myanmar.