�鶹Լ�� Media Action Feed

Preparing for Cyclone Amphan in the COVID-19 pandemic

2020-05-21T08:51:31+00:00

A �鶹Լ�� Media Action cameraman films in a COVID-19 isolation centre in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. Photo by Khandokar Hasanul Banna, �鶹Լ�� Media Action

Nearly a million Rohingya people still live in refugee camps in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. Having survived terrible violence, they now face the dual threats of the first confirmed cases of COVID-19, and flooding and landslides from Cyclone Amphan. Here is how �鶹Լ�� Media Action is helping people prepare and cope.

Bangladesh is well-versed in cyclone preparation – but preparing for a cyclone in a time of global pandemic is something that perhaps no one in living memory has done before.

Cyclone Amphan has not hit Cox’s Bazar directly, but the camps have still been affected by high winds, heavy rain and flooding. And across Bangladesh, the choices have been stark: evacuate an estimated 2 million people in coastal areas into crowded shelters and risk spreading COVID-19, or continue strict physical distancing and risk more people dying in this enormous storm.

�鶹Լ�� Media Action’s work on preparing for natural threats like cyclones in Bangladesh dates back to 2013. We work closely with government and other agencies, using media and communication to ensure our audiences understand what to do, where to go and how to seek help before, during and after a cyclone.

In coastal areas, people are well-versed in evacuation procedures thanks in part to trusted information carried on local media – it is information that has saved lives.

But because of COVID-19, our team has had to move quickly to redesign procedures and advice to reflect the additional threats posed by the virus, and then to ensure these are communicated to people clearly so that they understand and adapt accordingly.

An infographic demonstrates how to filter and boil water so it is safe for drinking. Credit: �鶹Լ�� Media Action

In the aftermath of a cyclone, people need access to clean water – often requiring purification drops or tablets – as well as food, sanitation, emergency shelter and medical help. All of these procedures and practices now need to be adapted to the risk of COVID-19, so that we don’t advise people to do anything that might be harmful.

In Cox’s Bazar, with the first few cases of COVID-19 now confirmed, people are already worried. Our teams have been working hard to explain the concepts of isolation and quarantine – to show what’s inside an isolation centre, for instance, and to talk to doctors and health-care workers so that the idea of seeking medical help is less frightening. We continue to talk to the community to find out their concerns, and share these across other humanitarian agencies so they can respond and adapt to community needs.

At the same time, we’re providing information in local language about what emergency cyclone warnings mean, where and how to evacuate, and critical survival information – including water purification, hygiene practices, and avoiding waterborne diseases.

We’ve also supported health workers by producing easy to understand videos on hygiene practices in health settings and how to safely use PPE.

These are incredibly challenging times in which to work, especially when our staff are facing movement restrictions and their own challenges in keeping safe and healthy.

We’ve adapted the way we work and deliver our programming, delivering much of our support to the humanitarian sector in online sessions – covering solutions for how NGOs can continue to communicate and respond with the Rohingya population amid physical distancing restrictions.

Every second counts in a crisis. Experience and expertise in local contexts and cultures, and strong relationships with donors, NGOs, local governments and communities themselves, make all the difference in moving quickly to save lives with trusted information.

Richard Lace is the Country Director for �鶹Լ�� Media Action Bangladesh.

�鶹Լ�� Media Action has been working on COVID-19 response in Bangladesh, including Cox’s Bazar, with the support of H2H, funded through the Department for International Development.

Our work in Cox’s Bazar, where we work with Translators Without Borders and Ground Truth Solutions, is funded through EU Humanitarian Aid in partnership with Action Against Hunger; DFID through UNOPS, and UNHCR.

Audience research in the time of COVID-19

2020-04-17T15:43:14+00:00

Research team observing handwashing practices in Accham, Nepal in early 2019 to inform a recent WASH project

At �鶹Լ�� Media Action, audiences are at the heart of everything we do. To understand our audiences and our impact, our work begins and ends with research – and this remains true even in a time of crisis.

As we respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, research helps us to understand our audiences’ perceptions and concerns relating to the disease, as well as what information they need to make decisions and keep their families safe. This in turn enables our production teams to produce trusted, clear and actionable media and communication content that reaches people – including vulnerable communities – at scale, stands out in a sea of competing information (not all of which is true or helpful), and ultimately saves lives.

But how can research teams continue their vital work when they’re working at a distance from production colleagues, when the pace of production is so fast, and when face-to-face field work is out of the question?

Adapting our pre-testing methods

It can be difficult to keep pace with the need for rapid programme development when it comes to producing COVID-19 communications content. But it’s not good enough to say ‘we don’t have time to test’. You might get a piece of content on air or online more quickly – but the impact may be lost if the tone isn’t culturally appropriate, language about physical distancing too confusing, or your call to action is not clear enough for audiences.

So our message is simple: wherever possible, ‘pre-test, pre-test, pre-test’.

There are ways of gaining quick feedback under lockdown. Whilst working from home, our research team in Myanmar recently conducted some pre-testing of one of our new COVID-19 public service announcements (PSA) with their friends and families. They found that respondents could recall the key information points from the PSA – about washing your hands and covering your face when coughing – and felt it was particularly engaging because of the traditional music and lively delivery, making it unique from more serious PSAs they had seen on other media platforms. They recommended that the production team continue with this positive, encouraging tone to engage audiences.

A scene from one of our COVID-19 public service announcements in Myanmar

Inspired by this example, our research team in Indonesia are also testing content with friends and family via telephone and social media, as well as getting back in touch with a group of young people who recently took part in qualitative research about climate change. They’re setting up closed Facebook groups through which they can pre-test content, such as short new radio dramas tackling COVID-19 misinformation and rumours, to receive rapid feedback. It’s a similar story in Afghanistan, where we’re using social media to recruit volunteers for online focus group discussions. We’re currently exploring new ways to pre-test, such as contacting respondents and playing content via mobile.

Utilising local networks and contacts

With field work limited by local restrictions on movement, we’re relying on our wide-reaching networks and contacts nurtured over the years to help us access respondents and continue our vital research – to ensure programming reflects people’s changing needs.

For example, in Zambia, we’re working closely with our national network of community journalists – developed through years of work strengthening community radio in the country – to help us understand the needs and concerns of hard-to-reach audiences. We’re looking to set up simple, safe and physically distant mobile surveys for them to run in their communities to help us understand how perceptions of, and concerns about, the pandemic differ across rural and urban areas.

Similarly, in Bangladesh, where access to Cox’s Bazar refugee camp is now restricted, our researchers are making regular phone calls to our network of Rohingya volunteers to continue taking the pulse of the community. We’re sharing the insights gained – including persistent, widely circulating COVID-19 rumours and how to counter them – through our longstanding ‘What Matters?’ bulletin in partnership with Translators Without Borders.

And in Cambodia, where our researchers had been in the midst of a panel evaluation for our popular youth project Klahan9 (Brave 9), we’re pivoting the focus of our research to include perceptions on COVID-19. The team is also exploring how to draw upon our network of Klahan9 youth ambassadors to tell us more about how they and their communities are experiencing the pandemic.

The �鶹Լ�� Media Action Data Portal - an open source portal containing a wealth of our existing audience research

Revisiting our existing data and building partnerships

To respect our audiences, it’s important that we use our existing insights relevant to COVID-19 and not conduct research for the sake of it.

Many of our teams around the world have been looking carefully at our wealth of existing audience research (much of which is open source and available on our website and Data Portal), re-analysing the data to draw out new insights around media access and usage among vulnerable audiences such as older people or people with disabilities. We’re also pulling out useful data from previous projects around health and hygiene – for instance, barriers to, and enablers of, good water, sanitation and hygiene practices in Nepal, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Externally, we are building relationships with organisations across key sectors (including market research, academic and humanitarian) which are producing surveys and collecting useful insights on COVID-19 – such as ACAPs, Innovations for Poverty Action, Kantar and the International Survey on Coronavirus, for information relevant to our projects.

Cross-country collaboration

Despite restrictions around freedom of movement, researchers at our London headquarters and across our network of country offices are working more closely than ever before – sharing expertise, exchanging COVID-19 research tips and tricks, and comparing cultural insights through regular calls and online forums. And we’re supporting our country offices virtually from London to better analyse their digital performance and monitor online chatter about the pandemic – using tools such as Crowdtangle’s COVID-19 tracking to help production teams fine-tune their outputs.

Encouragingly, there are early signs that our work is paying off. Some of the COVID-19 PSAs produced by our Myanmar team, for instance, are achieving record levels of online engagement. The Ministry of Health has even asked to make this PSA (watched nearly 3 million times and shared by 46,000+ people) official, for broadcast through national TV partners.

The situation is changing rapidly. But we will continue to innovate and review research methodologies to ensure we’re providing essential insights to production colleagues, and best serving our audiences.

The COVID-19 ‘info-demic’: A view from Bangladesh

2020-03-18T11:12:22+00:00

Rumours, mis- and dis-information about COVID-19 are spreading rapidly around the world and can be almost as harmful as the virus itself. Hear from our Senior Project Manager in Bangladesh, Kate Gunn, about the latest developments from our new global communications initiative tackling the COVID-19 ‘info-demic’.

Proper hand hygiene is key to the COVID-19 response

From working on �鶹Լ�� Media Action’s response to the Rohingya refugee crisis for the past 18+ months, I’ve seen firsthand how media and communication have the power to save lives.

The same is true in a health crisis. Trusted, accurate and timely information can help communities prevent or reduce the spread of disease, and guide those affected towards services and treatment.

This trusted information is needed now more than ever as countries across the world – including here in Bangladesh – take action against the COVID-19 pandemic and work to save lives.

There is so much misinformation swirling – from how the virus is transmitted, to where it has come from, to false rumours about its prevention and treatment. All of these can endanger people’s lives. I’m leading �鶹Լ�� Media Action’s new project, in partnership with Translators without Borders, Internews and Evidence Aid, to deliver clear, fact-based social media content to counter this ‘info-demic’.

There is a lot of content already being produced by a range of development, health and humanitarian organisations and by government departments to dispel misinformation, including the catchy Vietnamese song and animated video “Ghen Cô Vy” which has even sparked a viral TikTok dance challenge. There are many enthusiastic community-level producers too.

Still from the Vietnam Health Ministry's video "Ghen Co Vy"

But while much of this content is really good, some of it we describe as “yes, but…” efforts: mixed messages which might reinforce behaviours that risk transmission of the virus, for instance, showing people in crowds on the street, standing too close together or shaking hands.

So our challenge is not only creating content that applies to our country, our region and globally, but also working to help others do the same.

In Bangladesh, from where we’re managing the project, the situation is changing rapidly. Our main challenge is to keep our public service announcements, video clips and materials (some of which you can see here) up-to-date with official government and World Health Organization advice, and also to meet the fast-evolving concerns and needs of our audiences.

An example of the content we're producing in Bangladesh around hand hygiene and coughing/sneezing etiquette

In Cox’s Bazar, home to vast Rohingya refugee camps, and in other areas of the country where media don’t reach reliably, we usually rely on being able to share our content face-to-face with people – such as in community events and listener groups. We also know that community outreach activities strengthen what goes out on mass media, because we can discuss and interact directly with our audiences.

But, under current circumstances, there is likely to be less opportunity for that. Outreach staff will become more constrained in the level of contact they can have with communities as regulations on social distancing take hold. This is a huge challenge which also puts already vulnerable audiences at risk – imagine living in a rural community right now and facing the spread of COVID-19, with no access to any source of information about what it is or how to protect yourself.

To help address this, we’re already working to make sure that front-line staff in healthcare facilities also have access to our content and receive basic training in how to communicate it, so that communities are still getting access to that vital trusted information.

With the situation developing so quickly, it’s hard to predict what will change tomorrow – let alone next week. But with our team’s experience in humanitarian response communication, and collaboration across our �鶹Լ�� Media Action country offices, we are doing all we can to provide audiences with trusted, accurate and engaging content that can save lives.

Kate Gunn is Senior Project Manager in our Bangladesh office.

Our COVID-19 response work is funded by the H2H Network with the support of the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID). For more information, click here.

And if you’re a media professional seeking advice on how best to report during public health emergencies, check out our recent blog with top tips here.

How can media help? Research from six humanitarian crises.

2019-08-19T08:30:24+00:00

To coincide with World Humanitarian Day, �鶹Լ�� Media Action has launched a new humanitarian microsite, which uses data from six of its humanitarian evaluations to build evidence on how media can help people affected by crises. This blog originally appeared on Evidence Aid.

�鶹Լ�� Media Action has been broadcasting ‘Lifeline’ programmes to support communities affected by humanitarian crises since 2001.

Research is central to how �鶹Լ�� Media Action works. Understanding the needs and priorities of the audience is crucial for developing good media content, and rigorous research helps us understand programmes’ impact. This dedication to audience research, even in crisis situations, was one of the things that really struck me when I started working at �鶹Լ�� Media Action four years ago.

In 2015, the organisation decided to pull together data from four humanitarian project evaluations, to understand what role media can play for audiences affected by crises across the world. This synthesis involved recoding qualitative data from these evaluations into a research framework, which applies the OECD-DAC criteria (which are widely used in humanitarian evaluations) to media interventions.

We have now expanded what started as a report into a microsite, with data and videos illustrating humanitarian programming from crises in Lebanon and Jordan, Gaza, West Africa, Nepal, Somalia and Bangladesh.

For me, the most interesting finding is the similarity in how people affected by different crises feel about Lifeline programmes. People appreciated hearing voices of people like them sharing their experiences and solutions. Many said that the programmes made them feel more hopeful and less isolated. The synthesis has helped us understand what is most important to people affected by crisis, namely accurate, practical information; empathetic presenters who speak the language of the listener and represent their situation fully; and having a platform to voice concerns and hold government and aid agencies to account.

It has also highlighted challenges: while mass media is good at reaching many people quickly on a wide range of topics, it struggles to provide hyper localised information, such as the status of health clinics or where to buy building materials. This is where partnerships between local media and humanitarian partners are so important, and much of the evidence speaks to the importance of strong partnerships. For example, audiences say they trust information when they hear the same thing from different sources.

Coordination between media and humanitarian partners on the ground is crucial to achieve consistency, and programme makers are reliant on humanitarian partners sharing up-to-date, reliable information on air. The benefits of building trust between humanitarian and media partners before a crisis are discussed in the ‘preparedness’ case studies on the microsite.

Partnerships are important in research too. Sharing research in crises helps us to build the evidence on what role communication initiatives can play. For example, in the Rohingya response, similar studies carried out by �鶹Լ�� Media Action and our partners Internews and Translators without Borders at different time points, have shown a steady increase in the proportion of Rohingya refugees who feel they have enough information to make decisions for themselves and their families – providing evidence that our consortium project is doing something right.

�鶹Լ�� Media Action uses a research framework to guide our evaluation of humanitarian projects. This allows us to systematically build the evidence base for the role of media in a crisis. We hope that humanitarian and media partners will use and build on this framework, so that we can continue to develop our understanding of what does and doesn’t work during these crises, and work together to build an evidence base that will improve decision making in the future.

Hear Me Too: a drama to tackle violence against Rohingya women in Cox’s Bazar

2018-11-24T09:03:49+00:00

For International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, we hear first-hand from Sarah Bradshaw, Training Manager for �鶹Լ�� Academy International and experienced radio producer/director. Sarah worked with our teams in Bangladesh to develop a new radio drama to change attitudes towards gender-based violence.

Rohingya women in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

Sarah:

The first thing I hear in the refugee camp is, “Rohingya women can do anything, I can do anything.”

Ayesha, about 60, shows us into her makeshift home with grace and warmth. My �鶹Լ�� Media Action colleagues and I sit on the beaten earth floor of her plastic hut dwelling. We’re in one of the biggest refugee camps in the world: Kutupalong, just outside Cox’s Bazar in southern Bangladesh.

Her welcome is impressive and humbling. She has her baby grandson in her arms. His mother and father are conspicuous by their absence. We don’t ask where they are.

Four writers, a drama director and I are in the camp to talk to any of the Rohingya refugees kind enough to give us their time. But unlike so many of the journalists and NGO workers present, we’re not here to talk about their recent traumatic experiences, instead we want to know about life in the camp and how they’re coping now.

Earlier in the year, the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs granted funding to Norwegian Church Aid and �鶹Լ�� Media Action to create a radio drama for Rohingya communities, specifically to help women and girls. As the project’s radio drama consultant, I’m here to help shape the production team’s ideas into a 20-episode synopsis.

Listening to real women’s stories

�鶹Լ�� Media Action often uses drama as a way to approach sensitive issues, and one of them is what NGOs call Gender-Based Violence, or GBV. This laudably non-judgmental expression is new to me and I can see the advantage of its neutrality. This term respects cultural practices, whereas terms such as ‘wife beating’, ‘sexual assault’ or ‘grievous bodily harm’ could be seen as pejorative and risk shutting down conversations around the issue. By understanding the experiences of Rohingya women and girls, and exploring them openly, this new radio drama has the opportunity to help address sexual violence and abuse.

Back in the office, my Media Action colleagues presented their excellent new research into GBV among the Rohingya community in Cox’s Bazar. It revealed that many Rohingya women experience forms of GBV such as child marriage, intimate partner violence and sexual abuse. In the context of a poorly-lit, overcrowded camp, the risks intensify. This research is an invaluable resource, providing accurate evidence which the team can consult when trying out new plot lines.

Sarah and the Bangladesh Team developing storylines for the radio drama

Changing the story

We know that character-led, long form drama has the power to shift opinions, and the hope is that this serial will subtly increase knowledge around GBV through stories with which both men and women can empathise. This drama, created specifically for the Rohingya crisis, will also inform people about the support services available to them in the camp.

But perhaps the drama’s true power is presenting the flip-side, illustrating the largely untapped potential of women and girls.

So the team and I got down to the job of sticking plot lines to the wall, creating the stories for each character over 20 episodes. The writing and directing team were used to working for screen, so I ran a couple of workshops on the relationship between radio scriptwriting and sound effects. The team tried out their draft scripts with their backs turned to the actors – the test was whether they could ‘see’ in their mind’s eye what was physically happening in the scene and which character was talking.

And the production team aren’t alone, the Rohingya audience is unused to radio drama too. One of the challenges is to ensure that the audience understand that the episodes aren’t a real, fly-on-the-wall documentary, but fiction.

Entertaining and informing

The refugees in Kutupalong have little to do and face an uncertain future in their new home of Bangladesh. A drama that could entertain and distract a bored and traumatised people, even for a moment, must be useful. But crucially, it also has the potential to get them talking, asking wider questions around their situation: it could be massive.

Back in the camp, Ayesha walks us up the hill on which her hut is precariously perched. Together, we look out over the vast camp, past the trees and the water to Myanmar. �鶹Լ��.

Perhaps it might come as a surprise to the menfolk in her community to hear Ayesha talk to us so fluently, confidently, proudly about her skills as a net maker. So we have given her a voice – basing one of our characters on her.

After all she can do anything.

Sarah Bradshaw has worked for �鶹Լ�� Radio Drama as a producer, director and writer. She’s also worked as a consultant for �鶹Լ�� Media Action’s very own Life in Lulu.

Our new radio drama for Rohingya communities is currently in piloting and is due to air in Cox’s Bazar in early 2019. To find out more about how we’re responding to the Rohingya crisis and how listening to those affected informs our work, take a look at this short video.

If you’d like to learn more about how drama can be an effective tool for tackling sensitive issues such as gender-based violence, you might like to read this blog written by our Executive Director, Caroline Nursey, last year.

Information is aid: empowering Rohingya women in Cox’s Bazar

2018-08-21T14:43:07+00:00

On the first anniversary of the Rohingya crisis, one of our humanitarian workers on the ground in Bangladesh tells how a radio programme helped a mother keep her baby son healthy.

“I have learnt lots of new things from the radio programme, especially when the doctor advised about different health issues and encouraged me to visit nearer health care centres along with my husband when my children got sick.” Saiyada, Kutupalong camp, Bangladesh.

For the last seven months I’ve been working in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, as part of �鶹Լ�� Media Action’s response to the Rohingya crisis. We help humanitarian organisations better understand the needs of the hundreds of thousands of people currently living in the camps and ensure displaced Rohingya people and the host communities receive the vital, often life-saving, information they need to support themselves and their families.

I have helped set up listener groups especially for women, giving them the chance to listen to, and discuss, some of the most pressing issues affecting their lives right now. As a woman, I am able to enter the homes of Rohingya women on a regular basis to hear their thoughts and concerns first-hand.

I first met 25-year-old Saiyada when I was setting up listener groups in Kutupalong camp. She had fled from Myanmar to Bangladesh with her family in October 2017 when she was three months pregnant.

Since January 2018, a group of around 20 people have been gathering on a weekly basis in front of her makeshift home – some are regulars, and some come and go. At these gatherings, they listen to a podcast produced by �鶹Լ�� Media Action, comprised of highlights from the radio show Beggunor Lai (For Everyone). The programme is made by the Bangladesh state broadcaster, Bangladesh Betar, with support from �鶹Լ�� Media Action and UNICEF, and provides refugees and host communities with the vital, sometimes life-saving, information they need to support themselves in day-to-day camp life.

Saiyada started listening to Beggunor Lai inside her home, sometimes joined by her husband. But after a few months, she began hosting the listener groups where fellow women in the camp came together to hear the podcast and discuss the issues raised in the show with each other.

After hearing an episode about health, Saiyada was motivated to visit her nearest health centre with her husband. She had been experiencing difficulties with her pregnancy and the doctor she heard on the programme prompted listeners to seek professional advice. Saiyada was seen quickly by a doctor who helped her with her symptoms, resulting in the healthy arrival of a baby boy – Abdul.

Then in June of this year, Abdul unfortunately fell sick. Her husband took him to the health centre, but returned without a solution. Empowered by advice she received via our podcast, Saiyada convinced her husband that she should accompany him to the health centre and explain the symptoms to the doctor as she had been monitoring her son’s illness closely. The following day, they both returned to see the doctor and Saiyada was able to properly explain the issues herself, resulting in the doctor prescribing appropriate medication and their son quickly recovering.

“Now I am telling my neighbours to listen this radio program – which has opened my eyes”, Saiyada said.

The majority of Rohingya women are typically confined to the home and reliant on male members of the family to access any sort of information, including how and where to access different kinds of aid. This can be particularly difficult for women who unfortunately don’t have male members of family – for instance those who have been widowed or separated from their fathers or brothers. Given that women make up just over half of the population in Cox’s Bazar, this creates a huge information vacuum.

That’s where �鶹Լ�� Media Action comes in and why listening groups are so important for women like Saiyada.

Information is aid

You may think that the most important types of aid needed by those affected by the Rohingya crisis are food, shelter and water. But timely and reliable information is also crucial so that people can know where and how to access aid in the first place.

Listener groups are a rapidly growing and increasingly relevant and effective mechanism for providing information and advice to displaced Rohingya communities, as well as for collecting views, opinions and feedback to inform the humanitarian response to the crisis.

For Saiyada, the information she received via Beggunor Lai and the listener group both prompted her to take action for her child’s health, but also informed her where she could go and who she could speak to in order to get the help she and her family needed.

Receiving the right information at the right time empowered her in the decision-making process for her family’s wellbeing. I feel proud to play a part in helping to improve the lives of Rohingya women, like Saiyada, by engaging them through our radio programmes and podcasts.

Mukta Roy is a Humanitarian Officer in Bangladesh.

Saturday 25th August marks the first anniversary of the start of the Rohingya emergency, which in August 2017 saw an unprecedented number of Rohingya refugees flee from Myanmar’s Rakhine State across the border into neighbouring Bangladesh - specifically in the district of Cox’s Bazar.

�鶹Լ�� Media Action has been at the heart of the response to the Rohingya emergency from the very start, ensuring refugees and host communities have access to vital information and can convey their needs to humanitarian agencies on the ground.

We’ve helped set up and support 233 listener groups currently operating in 12 camps, like the one described by Mukta, and the number is growing rapidly.

�鶹Լ�� Media Action’s support to radio broadcasters in Cox’s Bazar is funded by UNICEF. Our work training and supporting listener groups is funded by IOM, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) and UNICEF.

Understanding the Rohingya crisis: A Researcher’s diary

2018-05-15T15:11:33+00:00

“My husband was killed in Myanmar, and I had to flee with my children, leaving everything behind. I didn’t know where I am going. But, after coming to this camp I am living a much better life.” Rohingya widow, Kutupalong camp, Bangladesh.

In late January I visited the Rohingya camps in Cox’s Bazar to find out how the community gets its information and the media they preferred – to inform the humanitarian programmes we’re supporting local broadcasters to make in response to the emergency.

It was my first visit and I had mixed feelings – empowered at being part of this huge emergency response, yet not ready to confront the brutal reality of what so many people had faced.

While designing any research we always map the ethical considerations before we go to the field. I was hesitant to ask people to relive difficult experiences, and very conscious that Rohingya people are managing extreme trauma.

However, whilst people were distressed I felt the interviews acted as a catharsis for them as they talked about their past and expressed their fears about what the future held.

Many aid agencies around the world are responding to this unprecedented humanitarian crisis after more than 670,000 Rohingya people fled into Bangladesh last year. However, the illiteracy rate is high, so people living in the camps are often not aware they’re entitled to relief or how to access the services available.

This is where �鶹Լ�� Media Action comes in.

Since October 2017 we’ve been supporting local partners to make humanitarian programmes in the local dialect - which is, largely, understood by Rohingya people in the camps and the host communities in Cox’s Bazar.

But, we wanted to do more to reach the affected communities.

So, through focus groups we explored how people are able to access information. It was fascinating.

We discovered the Rohingya people in the camps get information via word of mouth from “Majhis”, selected leaders who, in turn, acquire information from aid workers. Religious leaders are also a trusted authority.

The majority of Rohingya are Muslims. Women tend to leave the home only if they have something important to do – and they cover themselves up while outside. “We pray during our breaks and talk to our neighbours, that is our only entertainment,” as one woman told me.

It means that many women rely on the men in their family for information – and those without male relatives (such as the large number of women who were widowed before leaving Myanmar) find it even harder to find out what is going on.

Most women have no access to mobile phones and even men, who own a phone struggle to recharge them because there is little electricity in the camps.

In other humanitarian emergencies, such as in Jordan and Darfur, our listener groups have helped vulnerable people – such as women and children – to get information and support each other.

But here, whilst some women feel able to come to the listening group, others only attend if they are women-led, women-only groups and held inside homes or shelters.

Face-to-face communication

These research insights are being used to shape our communication plans – radio programmes, podcasts, vital face-to-face information at community hubs as well as sharing our content for the door-to-door communication carried out by UNICEF and other partners. And, we now know that making content aimed at women, as well as training and providing this content to information workers at the places that women (and children) are able to visit - is key.

But to continue making effective programming for displaced people and host communities (many of whom told us of their concerns about losing land, trees and other assets), there is still more we need to understand. For example, how we can work with the local and religious leaders to disseminate information using their networks. Likewise, we need to find a way to disseminate our media content further in the areas with scarce electricity. And, we need to continue to find ways to connect, support and inform female-led families and other vulnerable groups.

Without a doubt this is complex humanitarian emergency – where information is aid – so we continue to strive to reach those most affected with vital and life-saving information.

Aniqa Hossain is a Research Officer in Bangladesh

With our support, Bangladesh’s state broadcaster and Radio Naf have now broadcast over 100 episodes of the radio programme Beggunar Lai (For Everyone), with our support Radio Naf is now producing Shishur Hashi (Children’s Smile) a programme aimed at children. A monthly programme called Betar Sanglap (Radio Dialogue) - aired by the state broadcaster – is offering a space for the local Bangladeshi communities affected by the emergency to ask questions and share their views with local officials and aid providers.

�鶹Լ�� Media Action’s work within the Rohingya emergency response is funded by Global Affairs Canada, the UK Department for International Development and UNICEF; and is delivered in partnership with Action Against Hunger and IOM.

Rohingya crisis: When information is a matter of life and death

2018-02-07T11:06:08+00:00

The scale of the humanitarian crisis is visible on the road winding away from Cox's Bazar long before you reach the camps.

Empty aid trucks head back to town as the landscape shifts from palm trees to rice fields and then hillsides full of shacks with orange and blue plastic sheeting for roofs.

These camps are now home to nearly 860,000 Rohingya people who have fled violence in Myanmar - with more than 600,000 arriving since August 2017. That's more than the population of Sheffield.

There is no disguising that it's a major emergency and getting bigger and more complicated. It is predicted that 48,000 babies will be born into these conditions where poor sanitation increases the risk that deadly diseases will spread quickly. People are traumatised: they have left behind their homes and livelihoods and witnessed unspeakable violence. Many are now at risk of exploitation by criminals.

Caroline Nursey viewing the camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh

In a situation like this, access to information is as important as food, water and shelter - it saves lives. And we are there, supporting our local radio station to produce Lifeline radio programmes providing vital information to Rohingya people on how to survive, cope and recover.

Beggunor Lai (For Everyone) is broadcast locally on Bangladesh Betar, Bangladesh's state broadcaster and Radio Naf, a community radio station. With our support, Radio Naf also produces Shishur Hashi (Children) a programme aimed at children, who make up more than half of those displaced from Myanmar.

I visited Cox's Bazar to see first-hand how we're delivering this life-saving work and the impact it is having. People gathered around a wind-up radio in one of the day centres set up in the camp - a makeshift structure with a corrugated iron roof - and it was clear that access to information is a critical need. I also met our team and local broadcasters who all felt proud and enthusiastic to be producing programmes that are making life bearable for people in desperate need.

Programmes have given advice on getting vaccinated against cholera and diphtheria, finding clean water, nutrition and keeping children and other vulnerable people safe. As cyclone season approached, the shows explained how to strengthen temporary shelters in preparation for storms.

And they give Rohingya people a voice through phone-ins and vox pops - vital for mental well-being.

Women and children listening to Beggunor Lai (For Everyone) in Cox's Bazar

The programmes - funded by Unicef - are broadcast in the local Chittagong dialect that the Rohingya people can understand. And we are working with a range of partners to set up listening groups, like the one I saw, because few people have radios of their own.

There are serious problems in store unless more land becomes available to build secure shelters before the monsoon season starts in April. The hillside camps are at risk of serious mudslides, and disease will spread if floods pollute water points.

And the next stage - with a new tranche of UN funding - involves us working with Internews and Translators Without Borders to strengthen the two-way communication between people affected by the crisis and aid providers so that Rohingya people can help shape the services and information that they receive.

I have never come across a crisis where communication is recognised as such an integral part of the humanitarian response - thanks in large part to our work in Bangladesh over many years to help prepare for natural disasters. The work is impressive - but there is much more to be done.