Anjali Patel
Rohingya Refugees in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh
According to UNHCR there have been over 700,000 refugees who fled Myanmar due to fear of persecution since 2017.[1] Cox’s Bazar is located in South-East Bangladesh and there are approximately one million Rohingya refugees residing there.[2] There are several challenges displaced people in this camp face such as inadequate access to clean water and sanitation as well as not having enough space to properly social distance during the COVID-19 pandemic.[3] Although many Rohingya refugees were fleeing violence in their homelands, several who arrived to Cox’s Bazar camps also witness violence from non-state armed actors.[4] Matters of food security such as aid programs, food access, food sovereignty, and cultural identity are tied with these circumstances. This blog post provides an introductory exploration of these topics in Cox’s Bazar with several resources to learn more.
Amid the challenges listed above, tackling food insecurity in Cox’s Bazar also poses a major obstacle. According to USAID, the U.S. government provided over $100 million in food aid for refugees in Cox’s Bazar and other organizations such as World Food Programme (WFP) and World Vision (WV) are also involved in initiatives to strengthen food security.[5] An update this fall indicates that WFP and WV delivered over 12,000 tons of food aid to people residing in Cox’s Bazar.[6] Recipients of the aid receive physical staple food items such as lentils and oil; however, WFP is developing a new system that gives recipients vouchers to be able to purchase a wider variety of foods themselves.[7] According to an August update by the Food Security Cluster, over 85% of refugees in Cox’s Bazar who receive food aid are now receiving the vouchers.[8] This update increases autonomy for those who lack access to enough food as recipients can purchase whatever they desire or need. Food sovereignty is inherently difficult to achieve in refugee communities given the urgency of circumstance and legal obstacles such as not being able to work certain jobs in another country and afford adequate nutrition. While the immediacy of the situation lends itself to laying more emphasis on food access as opposed to sovereignty, a program like this can practice food sovereignty in a very microscopic, subtle way under the limitations present.
NGOs have also worked with local communities to implement communal spaces for cooking and learning. Community Kitchens are present throughout Cox’s Bazar and serve as a space for many Rohingya refugees, especially women, to gather, cook safely in an enclosed area, socialize, and exchange recipes and other information.[9] While these community kitchens were temporarily closed due to the global pandemic, several since July are gradually opening up again with social distancing measures as World Vision is facilitating COVID-19 awareness sessions.[10] These spaces also prevent deforestation and reduce pollution since many refugees had to previously rely on wood and other materials to ignite fires to cook within or right outside their homes in Cox’s Bazar.[11]
In conversations of food access for refugees, it is important to touch on how cooking certain flavors and meals is a way many displaced people connect with their heritage away from home. Learning about specific dishes also provides outsiders with insight into a community’s identity. For this reason, I want to reference a World Food Programme Insight story about a Rohingya refugee family in Cox’s Bazar making a spice mix native to their homeland to use in their dishes.[12] The spice mix consists of several ingredients including long pepper, turmeric, cumin, cinnamon, and more. The recipe can be found here.[13]
To learn more about the conditions of Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar in the realm of food aid and security, visit the many resources outlined in the references. To donate to World Food Program’s projects in Cox Bazar, click here.
Syrian Refugees in Za’atari Camp, Jordan
As there are millions of refugees from Syria world-wide, about 80,000 have found themselves living in Za’atari Camp in Jordan, constructed in 2012.[14] Jordan witnessed a massive influx of refugees due to widespread violence in Syria that arose in 2011. Since many displaced Syrians have made a home for themselves in Za’atari refugee camp, this blog examines initiatives that aim to expand food security as well as aspects of cultural identity related to food.
An August update by UNHCR discusses that food aid in the camp consists of blockchain currency distributed to camp residents that can be used at specific grocery markets run by World Food Programme. There is also an initiative called Healthy Kitchen Project that offers meals to refugee students.[15] The blockchain technology is called Building Blocks and refills digital currency on recipients’ account on a monthly basis.[16] The digital currency method allows for increased agency in what food items recipients can choose to purchase at the markets.[17] In addition to these major programs, there are other initiatives in the camp that pertain to food. It is difficult to cultivate food in Za’atari Camp due to the desert terrain and lack of adequate water.[18] To navigate these challenges, Syrian refugees along with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and University of Sheffield scientists are utilizing water and foam from old mattresses to practice hydroponic farming because this technique requires significantly less water and does not utilize soil or harmful chemicals.[19] This innovative initiative is able to work around issues of large land requirements for crop production as Syrian refugees can grow cucumber, tomatoes, and other foods without needing much space. This technique also allows for refugees in the camp to have the knowledge and skill set to be able to grow their own food, increasing food sovereignty even within such confining circumstances.
Along with practical food aid initiatives that seek to build food access and sovereignty, cultural and communal aspects of food also hold significance for many Syrians in Za’atari camp. An article on SBS highlights that food is a way for some Syrians inhabiting the camp to be able to pursue a livelihood while simultaneously maintaining connection with their traditions.[20] The article goes on to feature a man and his son who bake and sell bread in the camp as a way to do just that. It is important to note that because of the magnitude of Za’atari Camp, news outlets such as PBS have delved into the ways the refugee camp has evolved into an economy since the camp hosts thousands of refugee-run businesses.[21] A community recipe book called “Za’atari Refugee Cookbook: Relevance, Challenges and Design Considerations” from 2017 explores the ways recipe sharing in the camp has been integral to demonstrating affection towards fellow community members, and keep various heritages alive as Syrians in the camp do not just come from one region.[22] Food seems to provide an outlet that is practical in preserving identity, fulfills a basic necessity, beneficial to stimulating local economies, and cultivates relationships within the Za’atari camp community.
These are just a couple of the programs and aspects of cultural identity related to food access and sovereignty that can be found in Za’atari Camp. The resources below provide more information on the projects referenced throughout this blog. To donate to food programming for Syrian refugees in Jordan, click here.
Venezuelan Refugees in Colombia
Over 4 million Venezuelans have had to flee their homes for a variety of reasons including poor government security and lack of access to basic necessities.[23] According to International Organization for Migration (IOM) there are more than 1.5 million Venezuelan refugees in Colombia.[24] Throughout this year, COVID-19 has imposed several challenges for Venezuelans in Colombia, as many lost employment and chose to return to their home country.[25] Under these circumstances, accessing proper food and nutrition can be difficult. This post explores food insecurity for Venezuelan refugees, projects aiming to alleviate it, and the cultural significance of traditional cuisine through migration.
Venezuelans witnessed economic conditions that made agriculture as a trade yield less income, making it more difficult to pursue as a livelihood.[26] There is also not enough gasoline in the country which affects transportation, a vital component in the food system to distribute crops and other food items.[27] Therefore, lack of access to food is one of the major reasons millions of Venezuelans flee their homes, and the COVID-19 pandemic only exacerbated the issue.[28] A May update reports that the World Food Programme in partnership with Food for Peace, a U.S. government initiative, has provided over $56 million in food items and food vouchers for Venezuelans seeking refuge in countries including Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru.[29]
It is important to note that migration journeys can be long. For example, the New York Times features a story of a Venezuelan mother who traveled 1,500 miles with her family back and forth from Colombia to Venezuela over the duration of six months.[30] Therefore, food access programming must also address the millions of migrants on the day to day move, in addition to those who have already arrived at their termed destination. Cucuta is a city in Colombia that borders Venezuela and while there are migrants who are residing there for longer periods of time, there are also several who are just traveling through the area.[31] In the city there is a food truck part of an NGO called World Central Kitchen that specifically provides meals for displaced Venezuelans, and continued to operate in take-out style even during the beginning of the global pandemic in March.[32] In conversations of global food security, many raise the point that distribution is actually the challenge rather than amount of food in the world. Related to this theme of food waste and distribution, the food truck actually receives good potatoes from Colombian farmers that simply do not look perfect since these are the ones often wasted in the commercial setting despite being fine to eat.[33]
Like many refugee communities around the world, Venezuelans in Colombia have utilized food as a means to obtain work and share their traditional flavors with host communities. Although Venezuelan and Colombian cuisine may have a lot of similar dishes, there are still signature variations woven into regional identity. Venezuelans in Colombia have started selling arepas, small circular foods made out of dough that can be filled with a variety of ingredients such as meats and cheeses. Venezuelans have been combining their traditional arepa recipes with popular Colombian foods.[34] The Christian Science Monitor highlights a Venezuelan refugee who opened an Arepa café expressing appreciation and pride in Colombians regularly purchasing and enjoying arepas with Venezuelan flavors.[35] Through stories of migration, both the fusion of flavors and the sentiments of pride in dishes from a specific community, play a significant role in identity formation over the course of several years and historic events.
There are several aid efforts especially on the local scale working to feed Venezuelan refugees in Colombia especially in the midst of COVID-19. This blog post just provides an introduction, but I encourage you to learn more by checking out any of the references below. To donate to World Food Programme providing food aid to Venezuelan refugees, click here.
Notes
[1] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “Rohingya Emergency,” accessed December 9, 2020, https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/rohingya-emergency.html. [2] Rebecca Ratcliffe et al., “Cox's Bazar Refugee Camps: Where Social Distancing Is Impossible,” The Guardian (Guardian News and Media), accessed December 9, 2020, https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2020/jun/29/not-fit-for-a-human-coronavirus-in-coxs-bazar-refugee-camps. [3] Ibid [4] “Bangladesh: Rohingya Refugees' Safety Must Be Ensured amid Violent Clashes in Cox's Bazaar,” Amnesty International, October 9, 2020, https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/10/bangladesh-rohingya-refugees-safety-must-be-ensured-amid-violent-clashes-in-coxs-bazaar/. [5] “Food Assistance Fact Sheet - Bangladesh: Food Assistance,” U.S. Agency for International Development, March 31, 2020, https://www.usaid.gov/bangladesh/food-assistance. [6] “World Food Programme and World Vision: Putting Food on the Table for 54,200 Rohingya Refugee Households-One Family at a Time,” Homepage, accessed December 9, 2020, https://www.wvi.org/stories/world-vision-rohingya-refugee-response/world-food-programme-and-world-vision-putting-food. [7] Ibid. [8] “News,” Rohingya: three years into the crisis | Food Security Cluster, accessed December 9, 2020, https://fscluster.org/news/rohingya-three-years-crisis. [9] Tarek Mahmud, “Community Kitchens: A Place of Sharing for Rohingya Women,” Dhaka Tribune, March 2, 2018, https://www.dhakatribune.com/bangladesh/2018/02/19/community-kitchen-rohingya-women-refugee-camp/. [10] “Rohingya Refugee Response COVID-19 Report September 2020” (World Vision Bangladesh, n.d.), p. 6.https://www.wvi.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/Rohingya%20Refugee%20Response%20COVID-19%20Report.pdf [11] “World Vision Community Kitchens Are the ‘Heart of the Home’ for Refugee Mothers,” Homepage, June 11, 2019, https://www.wvi.org/stories/myanmar-bangladesh-refugee-crisis/world-vision-community-kitchens-are-heart-home-refugee. [12] Brook duBois, “A Masala Recipe Spells Home for Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh,” Medium (World Food Programme Insight, February 17, 2020), https://insight.wfp.org/a-family-recipe-a-sense-of-home-115ed5731bae. [13] Ibid. [14] “Life in Za'atari, the Largest Syrian Refugee Camp in the World,” Oxfam International, August 6, 2020, https://www.oxfam.org/en/life-zaatari-largest-syrian-refugee-camp-world. [15] UNHCR, “ ZAATARI CAMP FACT SHEET August 2020” (UNHCR, n.d.), pp. 4-5.https://reporting.unhcr.org/sites/default/files/UNHCR%20Jordan%20Zaatari%20Refugee%20Camp%20Fact%20Sheet%20-%20August%202020.pdf [16] Poornima Apte, “How Blockchain Is Bringing Food Security to Refugees,” Dell Technologies, July 29, 2019, https://www.delltechnologies.com/en-us/perspectives/how-blockchain-is-bringing-food-security-to-refugees/. [17] Ibid [18] Aasim Saleem, “These Refugees Are Growing Vegetables in the Desert,” InfoMigrants (Infomigrants, August 19, 2020), https://www.infomigrants.net/en/post/26724/these-refugees-are-growing-vegetables-in-the-desert. [19] Ibid. [20] Adam Liaw, “A Baker and His 13-Year-Old Son Preserve Their Syrian Culture through Baking Bread at a Refugee Camp,” Food, June 26, 2018, https://www.sbs.com.au/food/article/2018/06/26/baker-and-his-13-year-old-son-preserve-their-syrian-culture-through-baking-bread. [21] PBS NewsHour, “World's Largest Syrian Refugee Camp Has Developed Its Own Economy,” PBS (Public Broadcasting Service, June 18, 2016), https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/worlds-largest-syrian-refugee-camp-has-developed-its-own-economy. [22] Karen E Fisher et al., “Abstract and Introduction,” in Za’Atari Refugee Cookbook: Relevance, Challenges AndDesign Considerations, ed. Eiad Yafi (Denver, Colorado, 2017), p. 3.http://library.usc.edu.ph/ACM/CHI%202017/2exab/ea2576.pdf [23] United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, “Venezuela Situation,” UNHCR, accessed December 9, 2020, https://www.unhcr.org/en-us/venezuela-emergency.html. [24]“Venezuelan Refugee and Migrant Crisis,” International Organization for Migration, May 15, 2020, https://www.iom.int/venezuela-refugee-and-migrant-crisis. [25]Julie Turkewitz and Isayen Herrera, “A Mother, Her Son - and Their 1,500-Mile Search for Home,” The New York Times (The New York Times, November 27, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/world/americas/coronavirus-migrants-venezuela.html. [26] John Otis, “Venezuela's Food Chain Is Breaking, and Millions Go Hungry,” The Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company, October 1, 2020), https://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuelas-food-chain-is-breaking-and-millions-go-hungry-11601544601. [27] Ibid [28]“Assisting Refugees Affected by Covid-19 in Colombia,” Humanity & Inclusion, accessed December 9, 2020, https://www.hi-us.org/news_venezuela_assisting_refugees_affected_by_covid_19_in_colombia. [29]“FOOD ASSISTANCE FACT SHEET VENEZUELA REGIONAL RESPONSE May 2020” (USAID, n.d.), p. 1. https://www.usaid.gov/sites/default/files/documents/1866/5_27_20_-_FFP_Fact_Sheet_-_Venezuela_-_FINAL.pdf [30]Julie Turkewitz and Isayen Herrera, “A Mother, Her Son - and Their 1,500-Mile Search for Home,” The New York Times (The New York Times, November 27, 2020), https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/27/world/americas/coronavirus-migrants-venezuela.html. [31] Teresa Welsh, “Colombia's Imperfect Potatoes Find Purpose at Venezuela Border,” Devex (Devex, March 23, 2020), https://www.devex.com/news/colombia-s-imperfect-potatoes-find-purpose-at-venezuela-border-96822. [32] Ibid. [33] Ibid [34] Christine Armario, “For Venezuelan Migrants, Culinary Staple Takes on Greater Significance,” The Christian Science Monitor (The Christian Science Monitor, July 16, 2019), https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2019/0716/For-Venezuelan-migrants-culinary-staple-takes-on-greater-significance. [35] Ibid
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