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Preparing for the Monsoon Season in Bangladesh

All Integral Members involved in the Rakhine Refugee Crisis worked with fellow Members Tear Netherlands and ZOA to enable them to access vital funds for life-saving relief for Rohingya refugees …

Photo: Medair, Nath Fauveau

ZOA, with Medair and World Concern as implementing partners, and Tear Netherlands, with Tearfund (UK) and their partner CCDB as implementers, have been able to access institutional funding of 1m Euros to prepare for this year’s monsoon.  The region is already experiencing flooding and landslides, with cyclones expected later in the season.

Martha Zonneveld, Disaster Response Coordinator at Tear Netherlands, says: “Due to the limited media attention it is hard to raise additional private funds for the ongoing Rakhine Refugee Crisis. Institutional funding is therefore crucial. We are grateful for the collaboration within Integral Alliance, which has made access to these funds, and relief for those in need, possible.”

Fiona Boshoff, Integral’s CEO explains how an Integral mapping exercise was key to accessing this funding.  “We asked all of our Members with work in Bangladesh to provide information on their country offices, income over a number of years, their partners and capacity in country. This enabled ZOA and Tear Netherlands to demonstrate the extent of their reach in Bangladesh through their membership of Integral. They were then scored on their capacity and history in country, which through Integral is much greater than on their own.”

Fiona continues, “By freely sharing their information, they enabled resources to be released for the work of Integral Members in Bangladesh. The funding received is a demonstration of the benefits of collaboration within Integral.”

 
More than 900,000 Rohingya  refugees are now living in Bangladesh. More than half a million are living in the world’s largest refugee settlement, the Kutupalong-Balukhali Settlements in Cox’s Bazar. The urgency of this situation is exacerbated by the Monsoon, which has already brought some flooding and landslides, with potential for increased spread of disease and a high risk of cyclones.