The Community Groups programme expanded to 30 camps (35 locations) with 150 community groups comprised of over 3,490 unpaid volunteers. The community groups collectively identified and prioritised needs of their communities, designed and implemented 5,859 service projects. 35 female youth groups with 630 active members were formed in 2020. In 2020, the 79% increase in the number of all community groups corresponded to the threefold increase of their impact within the camps. Community groups focused on raising awareness on COVID-19, protection risks, and implemented service projects including improving infrastructure, Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR), and promoting meaningful participation. UNHCR also conducted trainings on disability, conflict resolution, community engagement, gender, leadership and interpersonal communication to build the capacity of these volunteers and equip them with the skills and expertise.
UNHCR facilitated orientations on roles and responsibilities and code of conduct for the elected refugee leaders in the four camps with camp governance structures in place and built their capacity with the trainings on site management, coordination, and mediation. The staff conducted targeted needs assessment for 70 female representatives who constitute 47% of all elected leaders. Elected representatives supported the Camp in Charge (CiC’s), UNHCR and humanitarian partners in planning, implementation and monitoring of services and played an active role in raising awareness on COVID-19.
Community-based complaints mechanism in the form of 23 Information Service Centres received 63,756 complaints (36,437 male, 25,376 female and 1,943 unspecified) which were responded with information sought and assistance in referrals to services requested. Information Service Centres together with Community Centres organised small-scale group discussions utilising multi-media communication materials such as podcasts and videos facilitated by trained partner staff and refugees on various topics of communities’ interests and concerns, including but not limited to COVID-19, cyclone and services available in the camps.
Community Outreach Members (COMs) conducted 82,635 outreach sessions reaching 439,219 refugees covering health, hygiene, COVID-19 prevention and response, emergency preparedness, and a range of general protection issues. 2,236 outreach sessions were conducted on the importance of wearing masks and their safe usage. Sessions were also conducted with refugees on mask making training, with over 11,000 masks being made by refugees. A total of 55,727 home visits and 14,518 monitoring visits were conducted, reaching 246,337 refugees. UNHCR implemented an elderly care project with targeted support visits to elderly refugees by 248 specially trained COMs. To address the increase in child marriage occurrence during the lockdown COM trainers conducted 3,567 child marriage related training sessions for 19,228 refugees. Through the Saturday Solidarity Project, 549 projects were completed in collaboration with the community, including neighbourhood cleaning, education activities, sport and handicrafts training projects.
UNHCR established coordination with Rohingya Community Based Organisations (CBOs) across the camps, and supported capacity building, by conducting trainings on effective community engagement, communication, facilitation and listening group formation, SGBV.
UNHCR also established and capacitated community networks of 800 imams and 328 female religious teachers with the aim of promoting community-based solutions to needs. Imams and female religious teachers have conducted 49,222 awareness sessions related to COVID-19, reaching out to 899,222 individuals in 28 camps. Awareness sessions with imams and female religious teachers focused on COVID-19, monsoon and cyclone preparedness and protection issues.