Love Bomb 2018: Fighting for the Rohingya

On February 10th Reload Love will launch its 4th annual Love Bomb – a forty-eight-hour virtual giving campaign to bring aid to children throughout the world who’ve been impacted by the horror of terrorism. This year, a portion of the funds raised will help children of the Rohingya tribe.

So, who are the Rohingya?

Though this tribe of people in Myanmar has remained obscure for some time, you may’ve heard their name in the news recently. They are at the center of one of the world’s fastest growing humanitarian crises, as they are systematically being expunged through state-sponsored genocide.

In Myanmar, the Rohingya are seen as wanderers, infidels, and outcasts. They are a stateless Muslim minority of roughly 1 million people who have never been recognized as citizens, or as one of the 135 ethnic groups in their country. They have long been viewed as outlaws and illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, even though many of them were born, and have only ever known life, in Myanmar. Historically, the Rohingya have been discriminated against in laws/politics, education, and employment. And now they are facing genocide.

After several years of ongoing civil conflict, the latest string of violence erupted in August of 2017, when the Arakhan Rohingya Resistance Army coordinated attacks against more than twenty Myanmar police stations and an army base. The Myanmar military then took action with a full-blown assault, not merely against the Arakhan Rohingya Resistance Army, which has been deemed by them as a terrorist organization, but also against the civilian population.

This assault has taken on the form of “ethnic cleansing,” with villages being burned down, women and young girls being systematically raped, and various civilians being killed/tortured. Myanmar authorities have also laid landmines along the Myanmar/Bangladesh border of Rakhine state, resulting in further deaths and great bodily harm as the Rohingya try to flee to Bangladesh. The atrocities against children are horrific, with reports of beheadings and burnings.

Of the more than 600,000 Rohingya people who have fled to Bangladesh, it is estimated that at least 200,000 of them are children.

That’s where Reload Love comes in.

In previous years, our Love Bomb enabled us to give aid to children in the form of practical needs like food, clothing, relief and medical supplies, and to address the trauma they’ve experienced by building playgrounds and restoring normalcy in their lives. This year, a portion of the funds raised will support projects that aid the Rohingyan children.

During the weekend of February 10-11, consider donating to the Love Bomb as we fight fire with love and wield our hearts to help these precious children in the name of Jesus. Any amount- big or small- will help us arm children with hope.

At at the end of the day, that is what we all crave: HOPE.

Join the Lovement today by donating and following us on social media @ireloadlove.

“You, Lord, hear the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, defending the fatherless and the oppressed, so that mere earthly mortals will never again strike terror.”
Psalm 10:17-18