‘It Is a Different World’

Through the narrow, dusty pathways of the camps, various NGO initiatives in the form of training centres and women-friendly spaces have emerged to teach women, according to one NGO worker, ‘vocational pathways to sustainable livelihoods’, by providing knowledge on topics such as self-empowerment, confidence-building, and gender equality. Many of my interlocutors alluded to the fact that the presence of humanitarian aid organizations provided opportunities that they were not afforded before in Myanmar, such as special assistance and training on domestic abuse and other forms of gender-based violence, for example. These had a profound effect on the way gender relations and roles were changing in the camps, particularly the way gender divisions of labour and ideas were reshaped. Khatun Khalamma found that the presence of a large number of humanitarian agencies and increased NGO initiatives introduced Rohingyas to ‘things we are not used to’. She tells me:

The UN Inter-Agency Response Team, in cooperation with the Bangladeshi government, led the coordination of the humanitarian response, including other development initiatives and programming. Strolling through the camps in the mornings among the bustle of activity in the markets, one can see men gathered around tables in makeshift teahouses watching news on television sets and women indoors tending to the housework. One notices Rohingyas, young and old, holding mobile phone sets and watching the news and connecting to loved ones across borders and oceans. (Note that a mobile phone blackout by the Bangladeshi government took place starting in the fall of 2019 – when I conducted my fieldwork in 2017–2018, they were still readily available and in use.) The arrival of NGOs brought access to technology, television sets in the bazaars, and the presence of the international community through NGO workers, fieldworkers, researchers, and other regular foreign involvement.