NPR

A Simple Way To Make Toilets Friendlier For Women In Refugee Camps

On a visit to Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh, a toilet expert was thrilled to find a thoughtful innovation.
These toilets in the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh were designed to be friendlier for pregnant women by giving them something to grab onto when using a squat latrine. At left: A long bamboo pole was installed next to a latrine from Oxfam International. At right: A metal handle sits alongside a squat toilet provided by the Bangladesh Red Cross and the Danish Red Cross.

Last month, I discovered a wonderful innovation in an oppressive place — the Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.

The camps host members of the Rohingya ethnic group, many of whom fled Myanmar in 2017 in response to widespread violence. Almost one million of them live in these camps along the Bangladesh coast.

It's a precarious existence. Little shelters and toilet facilities perch on hillsides that are vulnerable to landslides during monsoon season.

I was part of a team from and the . Our main mission was to look at sanitation. And so we examined the latrines.

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