Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh: Before moving to Cox’s Bazar, Mr. Md. Nur Hossain was a junior school teacher in Myanmar and actively contributed to his community. Unfortunately, as a Rohingya Muslim, his entire family was forced to relocate from Myanmar to Bangladesh to flee from persecution in his home country.
As of October 2022, over 943,000 stateless Rohingya refugees reside in camps around Cox’s Bazar district. The vast majority live in 34 extremely congested refugee camps with the Kutupalong-Balukhali Expansion Site hosting over 635,000 Rohingya refugees. Most of the refugees reaching Bangladesh are women and children, and about 40 per cent are under the age of 12.
Due to limited employment and livelihood opportunities, youth and adolescent refugees are resorting to negative coping mechanisms. To decrease the risk of drug use and other negative social and health outcomes, UNODC, in collaboration with UNHCR, is currently piloting cycles of the
Strong Families Programme in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar.
Strong Families is an evidence-based
family skills programme that supports caregivers and children in building numerous skills to strengthen family functioning and interactions, benefiting the children’s health and safe development. It is designed for families caring for children in humanitarian or other stressful and challenging circumstances. The programme has three components: caregiver sessions, child sessions, and family sessions. And in the short term seeks to improve parenting confidence and skills, decreased coercive parenting, reduce children’s challenging behaviours, and improved communication and relationships, among other goals.
“I had many issues with my family due to the uncertainty here in Bangladesh. After [participating] in the sessions of this training with my spouse and my daughter we are mentally relieved from many issues”, Mr. Md. Nur Hossain, a participant in the Strong Families Programme, explained.
Similarly, Mr. Md. Siddiq extolled the benefits of Strong Families, “During the sessions, my son and my wife were really surprised that how this training is having a positive impact on our daily life and our understanding of relationships”. In turn, Ms. Jaheda Begum emphasized, “The techniques for relieving stress are really helpful in maintaining our anger issues under control”.
“The program was really helpful for me and my family to develop a positive and good relationship with my children”, said Ms. Deldara Begom, also a participant in the Strong Families Programme. “I would suggest continuing the program, if possible, in different families in all the [refugee] Camps. It will really help the families (…) to understand the values of a good family and how to maintain a meaningful bond with their children”, Ms. Begom concludes.
Over 300 refugee families participated, which included more than 622 caregivers and 620 children. Overall, the Strong Families programme has proven to delay initiation of substance abuse, prevent and reduce early aggressive behaviour and delinquency, reduce anti-social peer affiliation, and increase peer pressure resistance skills.
The Strong Families Programme supports the achievement of several targets under SDG 3, 4, 5 and 16: SDG 3.5 on ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being for all at all ages; SDG 4.1, 4.5 and 4.7 on ensuring inclusive and equitable quality education and promoting lifelong learning opportunities for all; SDG 5.2 on achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls; and SDG 16.1 and 16.2 on promoting peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, providing access to justice for all and building effective accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
Sources
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2022/June/building-stronger-families-to-prevent-drug-use-and-trafficking-among-rohingya-refugees-in-bangladesh.html
https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/prevention/strong-families.html
https://www.unocha.org/rohingya-refugee-crisis
https://www.unhcr.org/rohingya-emergency.html
https://www.unodc.org/documents/southeasterneurope/Article_22-_Strong_Families_afghan_refugees_serbia.pdf
https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-020-08701-w
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35206366/