Save the Rohingya from Genocide

TWELVE-YEAR-OLD Fatima was at home with her parents, eight brothers and sisters, and grandmother when they first saw it: Flames shooting into the night sky of her Rohingya village, Chut Pyin, in Myanmar.

Terrified, the family fled their house. But they were waiting for them from behind. A ring of uniformed soldiers opened fire on Fatima’s family as they tried to escape their home. Down went Fatima’s father, mother, 10-year-old sister, and brother in a hail of automatic weapons fire. Shot in the back.

“I fell down, but my neighbor grabbed me and carried me,” said Fatima, shot in the back of her right leg above the knee.

Fatima’s story—documented alongside dozens of other identically corroborating firsthand accounts in Amnesty International’s just released ‘My World Is Finished’: Rohingya Targeted Crimes Against Humanity in Myanmar—tells of the genocide and catastrophic humanitarian crisis on a scale of such massive brutality and human cruelty as to defy belief.

And the Zakat Foundation is there—has been there, not newly, but for 10 years—helping heal, feed, water, clothe, house, and succor the shot, orphaned, sick, and suffering—with your generous gifts.

Your donations have saved thousands of lives; and your continuous support can save thousands more. Our field staff and volunteers are on the ground providing:

• Medical treatment to the wounded, sick, and exhausted Rohingya refugees at the Zakat Foundation of America medical camp on the border between Myanmar and Bangladesh, staffed with five doctors, several nurses and aids.

• Food packages to the starving.

• Liters of water to the thirsty, often severely dehydrated.

• Hygiene kits containing soap, toothbrushes and toothpaste, feminine products, and shampoo/conditioner

• Tarps for building weatherproof portable shelters.

• Sleeping mats and blankets.

• Cooking utensils and pots

Your help has never been more needed. Look at the toll.

• More than 3,000 people, overwhelmingly Rohingya, have been killed since August, according to the UNHCR.

• A staggering 600,000 Rohingya refugees have crossed into Bangladesh since August 25, according to the UNHCR, with that figure projected to rise to a million by year’s end, according to Save the Children. This number includes 600,000 children, many orphaned or unattended and so exposed to exploitation and human trafficking.

• Another 200,000 Rohingya are estimated to be hiding in Myanmar’s jungles and other places in Rakhine State, according to UNHCR.

• Exhausted, starving, and dispossessed, the Rohingya refugees arriving in Bangladesh daily face mass death from lack of food, water, and shelter, according to Save the Children.

• 200 Rohingya villages and habitations have been incinerated in northern Rakhine State in the same time period, as evidenced by satellite imagery.

• “Security forces surround a village, shoot people fleeing in panic and then torch houses to the ground….[in] systematic attacks and forcible deportation of civilians, according to Amnesty International’s Crisis Response Director. These are crimes against humanity by international law.