Asian University for Women helping Rohingya refugees into higher education as it marks its 10th anniversary
Bangladesh-based Asian University for Women has spent years gaining the trust of Rohingya community leaders to help provide disadvantaged young women with higher education; now it is also targeting garment factory workers
Since last August, nearly 700,000 members of Myanmar’s Rohingya community have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh. Ordinarily, the women among them would have few future prospects and little opportunity to find gainful employment. But this is one thing the Asian University for Women (AUW) in Bangladesh is trying to change, by helping women from the displaced Rohingya community into higher education to give them a brighter future.
The university has spent years working to gain the trust of the community’s leaders, and Rohingya women now make up just under 10 per cent of AUW’s student body, says Kamal Ahmad, CEO of the Bangladeshi university.
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Founded in 2008, the university – which celebrates its 10th anniversary this month– offers full scholarships to nearly all of its students, who are admitted on the basis of merit, regardless of their family’s income level.
Funded by independent charitable foundations and proceeds generated from gala events, the university has grown to enrol more than 700 students a year. Once its new purpose-built campus has been constructed, it will be able to provide learning for 3,000 women.
Establishing connections with hard-to-reach communities such as the Rohingya is not an easy task, Ahmad explains.