This post has been particularly hard for me to write. That is because I feel my words don’t do justice to the suffering that is happening to the Rohingya people group. One article I read offered an apology, and I will do the same.

We see many Rohingya patients at our clinic. I have only known their story since I started working at Ardas and I have been heartbroken by it. I can not fathom what these people have been through.

To the Rohingya people,

I’m sorry. I am sorry that I have sipped my latte, experienced abundance, and not thought of you. I am sorry that I haven’t shared your story more. I am sorry that our country as a whole has no idea who you are. I’m sorry that my words will not do justice to the horrors you have experienced. I’m sorry that you have had to suffer such evil, in silence, in isolation.

I will now do my best to tell you about the current crisis, who they are, their history of persecution, and how you can help.

Current Crisis:

The Rohingya, according to the UN, are the most persecuted minority group in the world. They are also the single largest “stateless” community in the world. Some are even calling what is happening to them a genocide.

The 1 million Rohingya living in Myanmar have been persecuted for decades but the conflict has escalated greatly in this past year. Since September of 2017, 600,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh.

There may be 300,000 more Rohingya refugees coming to Bangladesh in the coming months. The IRC states that it could be the fastest mass exodus they have seen since the Rwandan genocide.

There are reportedly 120,000 Rohingya still trapped in Myanmar, cut off from essential services and dependent on aid to survive.

The Rohingya refugees arrive at the Bengali camps traumatized, with their horrific stories following them. Women have seen their children slaughtered before their eyes, Rohingyas have been beheaded, and the women have been raped. I am not telling you these details as a fear or guilt tactic THIS IS REAL LIFE.

Carrying their trauma and their desperation for life, they arrive at the camp in Cox’s Bazaar, Bangladesh to then face inadequate health care, lack of food, lack of protection for women and children, inadequate shelter, and inadequate sanitation (according to a needs assessment by the International rescue commission).

Who are they?

The Rohingya are a Muslim minority group who have lived in Rakhine state (Arakan) region in Myanmar (Burma) for centuries. There is some evidence that this people group dates back to 800 AD. They are historically called Arakenese Indians. Ethnically, they are Indo-Aryan people.

What is their history of persecution?

The British ruled Myanmar for over a century, beginning with a series of wars in 1824. They worked for the British in rice fields, and sided with Britain in the second world war, while Burmese nationalists sided with Japan. This caused armed combat between the Burmese and the Rohingya.

The British were supposed to give the Rohingyas land in exchange for their support in the war, but they did not. They did, however, give them positions of power in the post-war government. Some Rohingyas used these positions to retaliate against the Burmese who had harmed them during the war.

The systematic persecution of the minority people group is said to date back to 1948 when they achieved independence from Britain.

In 1962, a military coup resulted in a one-party military state, who saw the Rohingyas as a threat to their “nationalist identity.”

Because the army saw the Rohingyas as foreigners, and they had no rights to protect them as citizens, the army killed, tortured, and raped them. They suffered forced labor, their social and political organizations were taken away from them, as well as their private businesses.

In 1977 the army launched a national drive to register citizens, the Rohingyas were considered illegal, so 200,000 fled to neighboring Bangladesh.

In 1982 the Citizenship Act of Myanmar was enacted, causing the Rohingya to be formally denied their citizenship. The law required that a person’s ancestors belong to a race or group present in Myanmar prior to British rule in 1823 in order to become a citizen. Even though there is evidence that the Rohingya ancestors date back centuries, the Burmese still classified them as illegal immigrants.

What do I do about it?

In high school, when I first experienced poverty and suffering in the developing world, I was struck and brought to tears for a long time at the stark contrast of my life to the lives of those I had just been with.

I could not get over the abundance of my life compared to the need and suffering of theirs.

My mom pointed out that I was placed where I am for a reason, I am supposed to be here. I was born into the family, state, country, skin, that I was supposed to be, and to rest in that. I would spend years struggling through this truth. I still do.

I have also come to rest in the fact that those of us given privilege, money, education, and a voice are meant to use it to advocate for those who are in need. We aren’t much different than the humans in need around the world (and in our cities) we just have been dealt different cultures and different circumstances.

Esther of the Bible also enjoyed a life of privilege. She was inside the gate of the kingdom, dressed in the finest clothes, and loved by the king of the kingdom.

But when the lives of her people were threatened, she stood up for them, stood up to the king, and asked that their lives be saved.

Though we may have different faiths than the Rohingya people, we can stand up for them because they are vulnerable. Aren’t the most vulnerable dear to God’s heart?

We can stand up for them because we will not stand for evil to be hidden, we will not stand for ignorance of social crises, we will not stand for women being raped, and their children being killed. We will not stand for enjoying our privileges while not thinking, praying for, and advocating on behalf of the most vulnerable among us.

Please, think of them. Think of them, and pray for them. Pray for the Rohingya to live and to experience the love of God.

From Ann Voskamp’s “Why you are here for such a time as this”:

“Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all your people suffer. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief will arise from some other place, but you and yours will die.” There are a thousand ways for your soul to die, to be the living dead.

You can look into eyes and hear the whisper from those outside the gate:

“You’ve got to use the life you’ve been given to give others life. If your life isn’t about giving relief — you don’t get real life. What does it profit a man to gain the whole world, but lose his own soul?”

You have got to use your position inside the gate for those outside the gate – or you’re in the position of losing everything. There are a thousand ways to be the living dead.

If you have any food in your fridge, any clothes in your closet, any small roof, rented or owned, over your head, you are richer than 75% of the rest of the world. We are the Esthers living inside the palace.

If you have anything saved in the bank, any bills in your wallet, any spare change in a jar, you are one of the top 8% wealthiest people in the world. We are the Esther’s living inside the gate.

If you can read these words right now, you have a gift 3 billion people right now don’t, if your stomach isn’t twisted in hunger pangs, you have a gift that 1 billion people right now don’t, if you know Christ, you have a gift that untold millions right now don’t. We are the ones living inside the gate.