DHAKA听鈥斕鼴usy with his brushes beneath a tarpaulin roof, Rohingya artist Ansar Ullah works on a mural depicting a giant vial of听coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)听vaccine towering over the ramshackle homes of the world鈥檚 largest refugee settlement in Bangladesh.听
More than 700,000 Rohingya who fled Myanmar in 2017 live in Bangladesh鈥檚 refugee camps, where a vaccination drive scheduled to start in March has been postponed indefinitely due to delays in supplies from the COVAX program, the United Nations said.听
COVID-19 cases have remained relatively low despite a recent uptick, but the artists said many refugees have misconceptions about the coronavirus vaccines, which they aim to allay through their work.听
鈥淔irstly, we hope someone or some听organization sees this painting and helps us get vaccines. Our camps are crowded and we need them the most,”听Mr.听Ullah, 26, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone.听
鈥淭here are also fears about the vaccine in our camps. Some are scared they might die or that their health might worsen because of the injection. We want to address these rumors, so that when the vaccine does come, everybody takes it,鈥澨齢e added.听
Painted ahead of Sunday鈥檚 World Refugee Day by a dozen artists, the mural also depicts a refugee receiving the jab and a man using a megaphone to challenge vaccine hesitancy and encourage camp residents to get vaccinated as soon as possible.听
鈥淔ear and stigma around COVID-19 has proven to be a major barrier to people getting tested,鈥澨齃ouise Donovan, a spokesperson for the听office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), said by e-mail.听
鈥淗ence major efforts are being undertaken to ensure that refugees have adequate information when the vaccination campaign will begin,鈥澨齭he added.听
Mr.听Ullah and his fellow artists are supported by New York-based nonprofit听, and their project is the latest in a series of arts-based initiatives aimed at tackling issues in the camps听鈥听from gender-based violence to mental health concerns.听
THE WEDDING SINGER
Rohingya singer Nabi Hossain used to perform at weddings back home in Myanmar, but last year the 50-year-old visited homes around the camps to sing songs about the importance of wearing face masks and respecting social distancing.听
鈥淭he same messages are given by authorities through megaphones, but people understand the messages better through music,鈥澨齭aid听Mr.听Hossain, 50, who was forced to leave for Bangladesh after his village was destroyed during a military crackdown.听
UN investigators later concluded that Myanmar’s military campaign was executed with听鈥済enocidal intent.鈥澨齅yanmar denies that, saying the army was battling an insurgency.听
While most of听Mr.听Hossain鈥檚 family made it safely across the border, two of his sisters who lived in another village were killed.听
Mr.听Hossain said he still grieved for his sisters, but that singing songs about them brought some relief.听
鈥淚t鈥檚 not just me. Many Rohingya have lost their relatives. They ask me to sing about them. They cry when I sing about those days. But they also laugh when I sing happy songs. Some of them even record the songs and take them back,鈥澨齢e added.听
Max Frieder, executive director and co-founder of听Artolution, said he had witnessed听鈥渕assive improvements鈥澨齣n the mental health of the artists he has worked with in recent years.听
鈥淭he shifts we鈥檝e seen are not always quantitative, but qualitative … We鈥檝e seen our artists, many of whom have had听traumatizing experiences, go from becoming victims to survivors to becoming agents of social change,鈥澨齢e said.听
Numerous murals adorn the plastic and bamboo structures at the camps in Cox鈥檚 Bazar, a city in southeastern Bangladesh, and many contain broader references to Rohingya culture.听
One shows an elephant crossing the river Naf, which thousands of Rohingya had to pass as they fled Myanmar four years ago, and being welcomed by a rooster symbolizing Bangladesh.听
Even when the听artists听work in partnership with UN agencies and are given set themes, camp residents come up with the ideas for the murals听鈥听often after a discussion about key social issues with other members of the community,听Mr.听Frieder said.听
鈥楳UST FOR SURVIVAL鈥
Before the pandemic, theater听was widely used in the camps to highlight residents鈥櫶齝oncerns, too.听
The Bangladesh Institute of Theatre Arts (BITA), a nonprofit, organized more than 1,200 plays on issues including trafficking, drug abuse and early marriage, and the entity鈥檚 executive director, Sisir Dutta, said they had raised awareness.听
鈥淭ake the trafficking cases. Initially many adolescents didn鈥檛 even know the term, let alone the dangers. But when they could听visualize it, they understood how brokers worked and how their life could be in danger,鈥澨齢e said.听
Many arts-based projects have seen their activities reduced during the pandemic, said听Ms.听Donovan, but she added that the UNHCR aimed to boost community-led art projects later in the year in partnership with groups like听Artolution.听
Another of the COVID-19 mural painters, Ayla Akter, 18, said the artistic initiatives were听鈥渁 must for survival鈥澨齣n the camps.听
鈥淎s long as we sit together and paint, life in the camp feels really good,鈥澨齭he said.听鈥淚 don鈥檛 really have anything else to look forward to. This gives my mind peace.鈥澨斕Naimul Karim/听Thomson Reuters Foundation听
