Oxfam's Kelsey-Rae Taylor speaks from Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh, to highlight the Rohingya refugee crisis. / Supplied
Kiwi Kelsey-Rae Taylor tried to prepare herself before visiting thousands of Myanmar's Rohingya peopl, displaced after fleeing violence and persecution.
Before her seven-day visit to the camp near Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, the communications advisor for Oxfam looked at photos and watched footage from the refugee camps.
"I thought I was preparing myself... but you can't really capture the scale of what is happening. A camp going on for miles, it's hard to describe that.
"I've never seen anything like it in my life. It's like stepping into another world."
Kiwi Kelsey Rae-Taylor, 28, has just returned from Bangladesh where she saw the suffering that Rohingya refugees are enduring. Photo / Supplied
The United Nations has described the military offensive that sparked the exodus as a "textbook example of ethnic cleansing". Myanmar's military claims it is fighting Rohingya militants and denies targeting civilians.
Oxfam is among several agencies working in the camps, focusing on providing clean water, sanitation and food security.
Rohingya refugees queue for water. Photo / Supplied
Taylor, 28, visited as part of her work with Oxfam.
The refugees, mainly women and children refugees — most have lost husbands and fathers in the conflict — face challenges in "everything you can imagine..
"The very basics of life — safe water, adequate food, safe shelter, safety, as women, from exploitation because there's poor lighting in the camps ... crowded conditions, waterborne diseases."
The charity is helping the women refugees stay safe by holding workshops and increasing lighting at the camps, Taylor says.
Shelter in the refugee camp is basic and there are fears structures may be washed away in the monsoon season. Photo / Supplied
There is malnutrition and shelter is basic. Refugees receive bamboo and tarpaulins on arrival to construct temporary homes, but because shelters had to be built on poor sites the conditions, including already woeful sanitation, are expected to worsen rapidly when 2.5m of rain falls in the three-month monsoon season.
Up to 150,000 homes are at risk of being washed away.
But the stories of heartbreak number much higher.
Among those Taylor met during her visit was a 35-year-old woman who walked constantly for five days with her eight children to reach relative safety.
The woman's husband died in the conflict and the journey, with so many little ones under her care, was harrowing, Taylor says.
"Her youngest son, who was 2, she had to tie him to her shoulder with a rope for five days. Her shoulder had swelled up to her neck but she said 'I knew that if I let him go I would never find him'."
Women are particularly at risk in the refugee camps. Photo / Supplied
The journey ended with a dangerous river crossing, where the woman watched others being washed away to their deaths.
"She was such an amazing woman. And her children. They were all so polite. Even though they'd come through this awful experience and they were now in these dreadful conditions, I could see she was the kind of mother who kept their faces clean, their collars turned down ... essentially she was just keeping her children happy and putting on a brave face.
"It was really humbling."
A woman and her baby in Kutupalong Camp for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Photo / Supplied
"It's a really interesting and powerful way to do something meaningful to help refugees."
What's it like to eat like a refugee for a week?
Ration pack contents for people in Bangladesh refugees camp • Rice – 420g in pack plus coupon for 1.5kg • Lentils – 170g • Dried chick peas – 85g • Tinned sardines – 106g • Tinned kidney beans – 400g • Vegetable oil – 300ml • Coupon for 400g flour
Alternative ingredients available for vegetarians, vegans or those with food allergies.
In her own words: A refugee's story
Nur* (age 35) – Unchiprang Camp
Nur* is a Rohingya refugee. Her husband was killed in the violence in Myanmar. On her own, she took her eight children on the arduous and perilous journey to safety in Bangladesh seven months ago.
The family now lives in a home of bamboo and tarpaulin, up a crowded hill accessed by stairs hewn roughly into the hillside.
Nur* (35), centre, with her children, aged from 2-18 in their home in Balukhali camp, Bangladesh. Photo / Supplied
The older children help with the running of the household, taking on tasks like going to the market to buy food with Oxfam's fresh food vouchers, collecting water or making adjustments to the house in preparation for the incoming cyclone season and monsoon.
There are concerns that when the rainy season comes, the steep stairs to Nur's home will become almost impassable and already strenuous essential tasks like collecting water or food will be made even harder.
"I get food rations of one bag of rice per month. I need to make this bag of rice last the whole month. One bag of rice is not enough for us. Because I have a large family. Sometimes I borrow rice and other essentials from my neighbours.
"Oxfam gives us a voucher so we can buy extra food - dried fish, chilli powder, yellow powder, green chilli, onion, salt, and eggs. We go to the shop with this voucher and can exchange it for things from the list of goods. With the vouchers, we are able to get some extra food - it's a big help.
"I cook lentils and dry fish with oil. This voucher helps us to get by. Because we don't have any other means to buy foods except with this voucher, we don't have any money.
"I can't buy fresh fish or meat because I don't have enough money. The cost of living is higher and higher every day.
"My husband is not alive, this is my agony. If their father was alive then he could help us. I feel sad for my children because I can't buy meat or fish for them. My children ask if they can eat grapes or other fruit but I can't afford to buy them these things. My children always ask for more food but I can't provide it. They need good food.
Kutupalong Camp for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Photo / Supplied
"My children have to work hard to collect firewood. They go out early in the morning and return in the late afternoon. It's a very hard task for them. My daughter who is 10 years old collects water, she helps to prepare rice, she washes clothes, after doing this she goes to school.
"There is nowhere for them to play.
"Life here is hard for us. It's hard to feed the family, it's difficult to move around the camps. We eat our dinner before sunset because we have no light in our tent. Sometimes we eat in the dark. We struggle to get firewood for cooking.
"This tent is unstable, it is not safe for me and my children. When the wind blows, my house starts to shake. I am afraid of when the monsoon and strong winds will come and shake my house.
"I'm really worried about a tropical cyclone. If there's a cyclone there is a good chance it will destroy my house. If I want to make my shelter more secure I need bamboo, wood, more tarpaulin, cement to make a proper floor. Without these materials I can't make my home safe. It's a big problem.
"When it rains, it becomes very difficult to go to the water point or the latrines. The roads become very slippery. We often fall down. It becomes very tough to move, to climb up and down from the steep hills.
"I want to live well with my children. I want to live here peacefully and modestly. But I can only provide for them if I receive help. I would like to buy toys for my children, so they have something to play with during the rainy season when they cannot go out..
"In Myanmar, they would come to our homes and rape us, beat us, and take away our men and children. No woman would be left unbeaten. They trampled over us with their boots. I was beaten two or three times.
"Our tears dried up, we lost our hunger. We had to go through such traumatic circumstances to reach safety.
"Oh my sons! We had to face such a challenge to come here, getting drenched in the rain or burning up in the sun. We had to crawl over hills. We had to endure such hardship.
"My shoulder swelled up to my neck as I had to carry my baby by fastening him with a rope. If he fell, I knew I'd lose him.
"We could not sleep in Myanmar because we were afraid but we can sleep well here in the camp. There, we could not sleep, we were always tense. But here we don't have that sort of fear."
