In a Rohingya refugee camp in the south-eastern district of Cox-Bazar in Bangladesh, children play happily with toys and brightly coloured learning tools, helped by their mothers.
For a brief time, these children – and their mothers – can forget their surroundings and find respite from the pain of being persecuted and forced from their homeland, thanks to the highly successful Humanitarian Play Lab program run by BRAC, an international development organisation based in Bangladesh.
Now, a research partnership with Monash Business School reveals how much immersing displaced mothers in simple activities like these can improve their mental health, creating huge benefits both for them and their children.