In June 2023, MSF together with a social designer collaborated with Rohingya storytellers, young artists and bamboo weavers in Kutupalong refugee camp. Together, they created a story-panel illustrating traditional kyssa (folktales), to share Rohingya culture and messages with young patients and families in MSF’s clinics, and to the world, marking six years since the mass exodus of Rohingya from Myanmar.

TRANSCRIPT

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To mark six years

since the mass exodus

of Rohingya from Myanmar



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A Rohingya community

and MSF partnered

to create a story-panel

for children in our care



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illustrating a

Rohingya kyssa

(folktale).



[Speaker: Ruhul, MSF staff member]

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The story that you’re going to make,



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with the crow and the banyan tree,



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it will make us lighter,



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of feeling,



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when we see the situation.





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Reminding us and connecting us



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with our heart to the land.



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That is separating,

little by little,



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particularly for the young generation.



[Speaker: Tasman Munro, social designer]

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We’re here in Kutapalong

refugee camp in Bangladesh



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to come together,



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share stories about culture,



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practice culture,



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in a way that



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reinforces it, values it.



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We started with a kyssa gathering

where the storyteller



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shared a range of stories



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around health, education,

keeping culture strong.



[Yakub]

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In our Rohingya culture,



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the kyssa are something that

make the people understand.



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There are some kyssa for lessons,



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some make the people think



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some make the people healthy.



[Tile]

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Young people were

invited to illustrate

kyssa stories and to

create their own.



[Speaker: Habiba, Rohingya youth]

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It’s good that from this we know

about the journey of Rohingya.



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It’s a unique way of telling

it for the first time.



[Speaker: Khan Aziz, Rohingya youth]

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Our houses used to look like

this in Myanmar.



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Here are our fences,



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where children used to play.



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Women would work in the home,



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and people used to plant rice.



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In the same village

there were many houses.



[Speaker: Ruhul]

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We have some locally made sound,



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locally made dancing.



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We have our own language.



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We have our own religious practice.



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Our cultural wearing is the longyi and shirt.



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One thing I’m very proud of, myself,

being a Rohingya,



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we have generosity.



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No matter how poor I am,



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people always show generosity.



[Speaker: Nurus Safar, bamboo weaver]

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When we used to work under

the banyan tree and chat.





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Many people could gather and we could

teach others and share the feeling.



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We could enjoy making there.



[Speaker: Habiba]

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At that time I was a kid, so I can’t remember.



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So far I can see many things

in the culture have changed.



[Speaker: Ruhul]

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I’m really impressed with

the children involvement.



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Because they are our future.



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If they don’t [get] involved,

[in] such activities,



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For us, it is not easy



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to maintain our culture.



[Speaker: Yakub]

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I remember a man told me



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in the Bangladesh refugee camp



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if a community would lose their culture



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it is very easy for that community

to be lost from the world.