In the refugee camp, food and water were very scarce. After six months in the camps, my mother, who had a certificate in nursing, was offered a job in the hospital. Soon after, she was promoted and sent to France to complete her degree in French. My siblings and I had to stay behind with friends of hers when she left. Living without our mother was very difficult. I could not attend school because I had to stay home and take care of my siblings. When my mother returned we were able to live together again. My mother would go to school while I remained at home to care for my siblings. I had to cook food, wash clothes, clean the house, and anything else that needed to be done. Life continued like this for three years before my mother was asked if she would be willing to go to the United States.

My family is very fortunate to have been able to get out of the refugee camp and seek a better life. Unfortunately, not many families are as lucky as we have been. The Darfur genocide, although sadly no longer in the media as it was in the past, not only continues to this day, but has actually been escalating. Every day, families struggle for primary needs, such as food, water, and clothing. Women and girls are sexually assaulted every day. People long for safety and security, yearn for their land, and dream of living normal lives again. Seeing my people suffer makes me very sad because I understand what they are going through.

While in the refugee camp, I remember feeling empty. I felt helpless, like my destiny was not in my own hands. Being in America has allowed me to take back my destiny: the world is at my fingertips. I want to use the opportunities given to me to speak up for those whose voices cannot be heard; I feel that this is my purpose in life. I want to show them that there is a life other than that they see in the refugee camps – beyond the killings, the rapes, and the hunger. When I first came to the United States, I remember kids making fun of me because I could not speak English very well. Today, I am ranked number one in my class.

As the rest of Hughes poem goes “I’se still goin’, honey, I’se still climbin’.” As my high school years are ending, I am looking forward to going to college and pursuing my dream of double majoring in Public Health and Law. In Darfur, and in the refugee camps, sick patients cannot receive proper treatment because of monetary issues. It is my dream to open a non-profit hospital to offer the highest level of treatment at little to no cost to patients. Law school is also one of my goals because I want to represent the helpless and speak up for those who are unable to, such as women who are sexually assaulted and people whose lands have been stolen.

My passion for my people drives me to give 100% at all times. My mother and I have founded an organization called the Najwa Foundation—named after my mother—that helps women and children in Darfur and in the refugee camps in Chad. In understanding that women are the backbone of every family and every society, we provide humanitarian aid and education to women and girls. This is just the beginning. I dream to someday be the President of Sudan and to restore peace and security to my land and to create unity amongst my people.

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Siham Hassan is a Sudanese student and Darfur Genocide survivor. She arrived in the United States in 2010 at the age of nine from the refugee camps of Chad and recently graduated from high school. 

Fast forwarding to the recent crisis, although many cannot fathom it, extremist Buddhists have committed vast human rights abuses against the majority-Muslim ethnic group. In 2012, violence resulted in a mass exodus of the Rohingya. Buddhist monks and nationalists started burning Rohingya homes because a group of Rohingya men were accused of raping and killing a Buddhist woman. Hundreds of Rohingya were killed following this incident, in what Human Rights Watch called crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Indeed, approximately 662,400 Rohingya have been internally displaced since 2015. In addition to internal displacement, the Rohingya are seeking refuge throughout the region, including in Bangladesh, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand. Bangladesh formally hosts hundreds of thousands of refugees registered under the UNHCR, 100,000 unregistered refugees, and recently received an influx of 11,000 Rohingya in one day. In September, the country announced it would produce special identity cards for the Rohingya refugees in order to regulate migration numbers. Although Bangladesh has accepted a great number of refugees, there is a clear lack of proper and adequate infrastructure due to the increasing number of Rohingya refugees. Additionally, the camps are becoming overpopulated. There is high concern of disease spreading easily, especially cholera and tuberculosis. As the flow of refugees continues to increase, the number of aid organizations who are responding to the crisis have increased as well. However, local and foreign aid organizations are struggling to deliver aid to the camps. The Bangladesh government announced that they do not plan to give refugee status to Rohingya who have recently arrived in the country, as they expect the Rohingya to return home in the future. Rohingya refugees are stateless, and many have not been able to register with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).The differences between camps for registered and unregistered refugees are stark, as unregistered refugees are essentially “illegal foreigners”, susceptible to arrest at any time, and restricted from UNHCR services such as education centers, healthcare, and food sacks. Many lack humanitarian assistance, live without documentation, and struggle to find protection from the United Nations or the country to which they fled.

There is more that the international community can and must do in order to protect the Rohingya. Recent public condemnations, while important, will not suffice. Although there has been an increased recognition of the Rohingya crisis and members of the international community have called it a genocide, such as Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister and President Erdoğan of Turkey, many Southeast Asian states are still not establishing legal protections for the Rohingya refugees. Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN, a regional intergovernmental organization) members must further their efforts to ratify the United Nations Refugee Convention to help refugees and distribute proper resources to them. Only two of the ten ASEAN member states, Cambodia and the Philippines, have signed on to the 1951 Convention and its 1967 Protocol. As the Rohingya crisis continues to escalate, the international community, UNHCR, and ASEAN members must work together both to find effective means to alleviate the conflict and to provide additional humanitarian relief to those in refugee camps. The international community must be proactive in assisting the Rohingya with asylum and issue sanctions against the Burmese government in order to demonstrate unified efforts to end this humanitarian crisis.

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Rujjares Hansapiromchok is a senior at California State University, Northridge, double majoring in Political Science and Religious Studies, with a minor in African Studies. She is currently a team member of the Communications Task Force for STAND, after learning about STAND during her internship at Jewish World Watch in Los Angeles. She is passionate about genocide and mass atrocities prevention and hopes to work in the field of peace and conflict resolution in the future.