 Raju, a Sexual and Reproductive Health Volunteer supported by Community Partners International in Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Bangladesh, helps Rohingya women and girls to access health and hygiene services. (Jennifer de Perise/CPI) Raju, 51, lives in Kutupalong Refugee Camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh. She works as a Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) volunteer supported by Community Partners International (CPI) and local partner Green Hill helping Rohingya refugee women and girls to access essential health services. To mark International Women’s Day, Raju spoke to Community Partners International about her work and community, and the health and hygiene challenges faced by women and girls.
 Dr. Ashim in the Emergency Department at Sadar Hospital, Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. (Md. Dipu/CPI) When Dr. Ashim started working at the COVID-19 Isolation Unit at Sadar Hospital, Cox’s Bazar, in late 2020, Bangladesh was in the midst of a severe wave of COVID-19. “The pressure was very intense,” he explains. “We were overwhelmed with the number of patients. We had 20 beds but we were receiving more than 40 patients each day. We had to turn some patients away because we didn’t have enough space. The Emergency Department was also full.”
 A COVID-19 patient is treated at home in Myanmar with an oxygen concentrator provided by Community Partners International. (CPI/MCHS) Yan Win Soe, founder of the Myanmar Community Health Society (MCHS), knows well the personal tragedies that the third wave of COVID-19 unleashed on the people of Myanmar. “My elder sister got COVID-19 and died due to lack of oxygen at the critical time.”
 Volunteers supported by CPI help a woman to reach a COVID-19 vaccination center in Kutupalong Refugee Camp, Bangladesh. (CPI) Living in crowded and cramped conditions, Rohingya refugees sheltering in Bangladesh are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19. On August 10, 2021, amid a worrying spike in infections, the Government of Bangladesh launched the first phase of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign for refugees over 55 years of age in Kutupalong Refugee Camp. As the first line of health care, volunteers supported by Community Partners International (CPI) and local partner Green Hill mobilized to encourage and support eligible community members in Camps 1W and 4 to take up the vaccine.
Community Immunity: Rohingya Immunization Volunteers Poised to Support COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout5/4/2021
 Mohammad Taher is a Rohingya Community Immunization Volunteer supported by Community Partners International (CPI) and Green Hill in the world's largest refugee camp in Bangladesh. Each day, he visits households in his neighborhood to help pregnant and women and young children get vaccinated against deadly diseases.
 Dr. Masura (left) and Dr. Rony (right) at Sadar District Hospital in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh. (Md. Dipu/CPI) As the COVID-19 pandemic has placed increased pressure on health systems, newly-graduated young doctors around the world have stepped up and shouldered responsibility beyond their years and experience in order to provide care to people in need. This is particularly true in countries with fragile and under-resourced health systems like Bangladesh.
Community Partners International's intrepid Fecal Sludge Management team, aka the Sludgebusters, play a vital if unglamorous role keeping latrines safe and hygienic in the Rohingya refugee camps in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh.
An Epidemic Within a Pandemic: Safeguarding Myanmar's Newborns From Hepatitis B During COVID-197/27/2020
 Khin Aye and her newborn son who are participating in CPI's Stop Hep B @ Birth Project in South Dagon, Myanmar. Photo: Community Partners International "We have a real opportunity here to push back hepatitis B. With the right approach, we can free a generation of children in Myanmar from this debilitating and deadly virus.” Seven years ago, Khin Aye went for a routine prenatal check-up while pregnant with her first child. The hospital staff conducted a blood test. “When the test came back, they told me I had hepatitis B.”
 Thiri devotes her life to helping others in her community living with HIV. Photo: Chit Su Wai Aung for Community Partners International Thiri, 37, found out that she was HIV positive during a routine checkup while pregnant in 2013. She was afraid and alone. “I was so scared that others would find out that I had HIV so I didn’t leave the house for a long time. I couldn’t tell my parents.”
Community Voices: "I have to mix my daughter's TB pills with candy to persuade her to take them."9/17/2019
 Daw Thet Thet (center) with her daughter (left) and baby son (right) in Hlaingtharya Township, Yangon, Myanmar. Photo: Community Partners International Daw Thet Thet lives with her husband and two young daughters, a three-year-old and a baby of six months, in Hlaingtharya, a low-income suburb of Myanmar’s commercial capital, Yangon. A few months ago, Daw Thet Thet’s husband, a motorbike taxi driver, started coughing and having fever. Concerned about costs, they delayed seeking health care until the situation became serious.
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