No space to stand
Aktar struggled to keep up with her husband and his mother as they headed back to the hut with a black plastic roof and mud floor that is Mohammed's new home. There were four adults and two children already living in the cramped space where it is difficult to stand upright.Rohingya woman Hasina Aktar and her newborn baby Mohammed Jubayed Aktar face a life-and-death struggle in the wave of more than 530,000 Rohingya who have fled ethnic strife in Myanmar in the past eight weeks | AFPFatima, the mother-in-law, proudly cradled the infant outside as neighbours came to congratulate her. "He has already lost weight since yesterday," she told them. Aktar seemed on the verge of collapse and went inside the hut. On returning to check on the family two days later, an AFP correspondent found the father Mohammed Reaj had gone out looking for work. He had a job as a rickshaw driver but took two days off for the birth of his son, and when he returned the owner had given the taxi to another desperate candidate. The grandmother had gone to visit relatives in the neighbouring Balukhali camp. Without money, she had to walk the seven kilometres in the heat and was not expected back until the next day. Still wrapped in the towel, Mohammed Jubayed slept on a mat in a corner of the hut among pots and pans. "When the ground hurts him, he cries," said the mother. He vomits when taking his mother's milk and she was also worried about the white colour of his faeces. But overall Mohammed was surviving well even though he still has no clothes. "I can only feed him four or five times a day, I just don't have enough milk," said the mother, still exhausted from the birth. Nur Kalima, Aktar's three-year-old daughter, made her presence felt in the background. She wants some of the attention being given to her new brother. But Aktar has to devote her time to making a meal of rice with a little salt. Getting wood to make a cooking fire is becoming increasingly difficult. When the family first arrived at Kutupalong four months ago, they collected wood in the hills. The trees have all been razed to make way for huts and wood has to be bought with cash. It is another burden for the family with little money. Amid the hammering of new shelters being built, and the horns and queues around humanitarian food trucks making a delivery, Mohammed Jubayed slept soundly for the moment with his little fists closed.