For Rohingya families, the food budget is squeezing school too

When a family's food support gets smaller, the effects can reach the classroom. A September 28 report from Bangladesh's Rohingya camps describes parents struggling to cover ordinary needs, with children caught in the middle.

Mohammed Dullah, a 59-year-old father in a household of nine, told Inter Press Service that his family's monthly food assistance had fallen from 12 dollars to seven dollars per person. He said the lower amount made essentials such as clothes, education and a more varied diet harder to afford.

His 15-year-old son had left school to work in a market, the report said. That is one family's experience, rather than a measure of every household in the camps. But it shows why an argument about aid amounts cannot be separated from children's daily lives.

What changed, and when?

The September report describes the effects of an existing system. It does not report a new across-the-board reduction announced that day.

In an April explanation, the World Food Programme said it was moving to assistance based on assessed need. In Cox's Bazar, the monthly amounts were 12, 10 or seven dollars per person, depending on a household's level of food insecurity.

WFP said the approach was not driven by funding considerations and that each level was designed to cover minimum food needs after taking available resources into account. It also said all Rohingya refugees remained food insecure, although the degree varied.

That explanation and the families' accounts describe different parts of the problem. An aid calculation may aim to close a food gap. A parent still has to manage the rest of the household budget, including costs that a food allowance does not cover.

Limited ways to make up the difference

Associated Press reporting in April described restrictions on formal employment for refugees in the camps. Many fled Myanmar following military attacks in 2017. Without normal access to jobs, replacing lost support is especially difficult.

The wider outlook is also worrying. In an August warning, Save the Children said 35 percent of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh were projected to face crisis or emergency levels of hunger between September and December. That was a projection, not a completed count of conditions across those months.

The organisation called for sustained support and attention to children's needs. For young readers elsewhere, the human connection is painfully clear: a teenager's education can become part of the household's survival calculation.

The immediate challenge is to make assistance match what families actually face, while protecting children's chance to keep learning. A meal and a future should not have to compete for the same few dollars.