Porimol Palma

Pope Francis' visit to Dhaka begins today. It will be a celebration of Bangladesh's tradition of harmonious living between people of various faiths and ethnicity, Catholic Church officials said.

Pope Francis faces a diplomatic test as he began his visit to Myanmar and Bangladesh, countries that attracted global attention following the Rohingya refugee crisis stemming from atrocities committed by Myanmar's army since late August.

Armed conflicts in Myanmar's Rakhine state have deescalated, but communal violence continues to force the Rohingyas to flee to Bangladesh, an official of Red Cross said.

UN food agency sees tough days ahead as it struggles to raise funds for continuing food support for over 800,000 Rohingyas amid conflicts in various parts of the world.

Shortage of family planning services may aggravate the health problems of Rohingya refugees, especially mothers and children suffering from malnutrition, say government officials and experts. Contraceptives are unpopular among Rohingyas largely for lack of education and awareness about family planning. Every Rohingya couple has six to seven children on average, say NGO officials at the refugee camps in Cox's Bazar.

The threat of infectious diseases looms large in Cox's Bazar Rohingya refugee camps as well as the local communities and beyond with hardly any sign of the Myanmar nationals going back anytime soon. Experts fear that the bordering district, where more than six lakh refugees are sheltered in overcrowded camps lacking pure water and sanitation facilities, is faced with a long-term public health challenge.

Nutrition is the foundation of human health, education and economic development, and yet it gets poor attention pulling back nations

The ever-growing Rohingya influx is a crisis not only for Bangladesh but also for the region as well as the entire world, UN Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh Robert D Watkins has said.

The efforts for Rohingya repatriation and creating secure conditions in Rakhine without engaging the United Nations would prove

The international communality's solidarity must match Bangladesh's efforts in dealing with the Rohingya refugee crisis, says the chief of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

On Friday noon, Asia Begum stood under the scorching sun, waiting by the roadside at Kutupalong for relief. She looked pale and tired. Her seven month old son, Yasin, tightly clung on to her arm.

Tasmin has lost everything, literally, when the Myanmar army burned down her house in Andaung village in Maundaw. But that is past and she has no time for that now. Her current concern is her eight-month-old son, Firozmin, who has been suffering from dysentery, fever and cough.

Amid a shortage of resources, the authorities are struggling to provide water, food, medicine, shelter and other basic needs to the huge number of Rohingyas streaming into Bangladesh from Myanmar every day.

While growing up in Myanmar's Rakhine, Noor Sabah, now 70, was constantly reminded the country didn't own her. Her movement was restricted and her access to education, health and other basic services was limited. People of her community also had to pay extra tax for getting married and building homes. Braving all these odds, they lived there for generations.

Noor Ankis looks pale, tired and terrified. The seven-month pregnant woman walked through jungles and hills for ten days and nights before reaching Ukhia's Bagguna, where a camp is being set up by the new arrivals from Myanmar. “I walked some distance, stopped to rest a little and began walking again. One child was in my arms and my father carried the other,” said Noor, 25.

Bangladesh faces an uphill challenge of providing shelter to tens of thousands of Rohingyas fleeing persecution in Myanmar's Rakhine State.

Shafiqa Begum was among the crowd chasing a minivan distributing food packets among starving Rohingyas near Tyingkhali Rohingya camp. Holding her eight-day-old daughter tightly to her chest, she tried her best to push through the thick throng. But before she could go near it, the van started to move back as it ran out of food.

The word "excruciating" can hardly describe the pain Simeen Hossain has been in since she lost her son in the Gulshan cafe attack.

The capital has a very high presence of Aedes mosquitoes that transmit viral diseases like dengue and chikungunya, posing a serious health threat.

Thousands of people living on the slopes of hills in Chittagong, Chittagong Hill Tracts and Cox's Bazar are exposed to landslides in the rainy season due to cutting of hills and unauthorised use of public land.