Beyond Conflict: 3 yr Rohingya project with GDC

Beyond Conflict is pleased to announce a new three-year project to support Rohingya refugees and frontline workers in the Cox’s Bazar camp in Bangladesh, via our partner Global Development Consortium (GDC).

The work will run for three years from autumn 2025. The Rohingya refugee crisis began in 2017 when more than a million people fled the genocide in Myanmar, taking refuge in the Bangladeshi refugee camp, which remains one of the largest in the world. It has often been described as a forgotten humanitarian crisis, as focus has been drawn to crises elsewhere in the world.

Children and the elderly have been the groups that have suffered the most. The Rohingya refugees have faced loss on an unimaginable scale, losing families, entire communities and the country they called home. Their very identity is under threat. Eight years on, they live in limbo in the Cox’s Bazar camp with minimal food and medical support. Our partner GDC Director, Golam Abbas, is also working as a special advisor to the Bangladesh Prime Minister Mohammed Yunus, the Nobel Peace Prize recipient, to find solutions to this refugee crisis within the country and internationally.

Helping children and the elderly

BC is pleased to be able to reaffirm our commitment to the Rohingya refugees by funding a project with GDC to deliver Phase Two. This will: mitigate the mental health stresses of frontline workers in seven Bangladeshi NGOs working with Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazaar; re-establish the mental health referral pathway; and deliver a small multi-generational programme with mothers, toddlers and elderly people.

Edna Fernandes, Beyond Conflict Co-Founder and Executive Director, said:

“We are delighted to partner with GDC again to extend our work in the Rohingya refugee camp. Today 1.5 million refugees live in the camp and 50 per cent of those in the camp are children or young people, so we believe this project is essential to protecting their mental health as they represent the future of the Rohingya people. Our work with GDC is small compared to the scale of suffering in the camp, but together we aim to work to shine a light on the continued suffering of the Rohingyas in a bid to draw more support.”

BC Chair Gillian Dare also welcomed the project, which represents a new phase in our partnership with GDC. Dare and GDC Director Golam Abbas, signed the MOU for the project in London.

Refugees and frontline workers

The project begins this autumn and comprises of the following: 

1. establish a structured referral pathway and helpline for NGO staff to access national professional mental health personnel and services on behalf of Rohingya refugees;
2. extend the pilot for mental health training of frontline workers in seven local NGOs working inside the camp;
3. develop the contents of the training and development of training materials;
4. identify the recipients of the mother and toddler programme, implement and deliver an agreed portfolio of activities to be carried out; and
5. identify an inter-generational group of elderly people to partner with younger women & children.

The project will be evaluated throughout and impact reports and case studies will be shared on our website.

In the summer of 2025, Prime Minister Yunus and Mr Abbas took ambassadors from 40 countries across Asia, the Middle East, the US, UK and Europe into the camp to witness the problem first hand and discuss possible ways forward, including possible repatriation. GDC and BC continue to work together to advocate for this cause.

If you wish to support this work, please contact Beyond Conflict.