## **Annual Report 2022/2023** 

This was a challenging a year for us coming out of the pandemic and lockdown restrictions in terms of what we could achieve, nonetheless RANE has been as active as possible given the circumstances. We continued to offer aid relief and in this financial year we saw 2 Ramadan! RANE trustees agreed to release Ramadan food parcels helping almost 300 families in both the Ramadan with food and clothing for children. 

Collaboration and joint working 

RANE works closely with the British Rohingya Community (BRC) and Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK). 

On 14th July 2022 both the chair of RANE Habib Rahman and the president of Burmese Rohingya Organisation UK (BROUK) Tun Khin attended a Tribunal hearing to support an Asylum application of a Rohingya family living in Newcastle upon Tyne. This family along with another family have now received their Asylum. Both the families are living in Newcastle with their respective family. 


Political Campaign in the UK 

One of RANE's main objectives is to continue with the political campaign, to raise public awareness and we have continued to organise various online public meetings with members of the public as well as with local, national and international politicians. RANE in collaboration with a number of organisations organised **Rohingya Genocide Remembrance day - 26th August 2022** held at the Roma Access Centre in Newcastle upon Tyne. 

On 25 August 2022, Rohingya Action North East marked the 5th Anniversary of the Rohingya Genocide Remembrance Day by holding an exhibition of photographs taken by Rohingya refugees in the camps of Bangladesh. 

The exhibiting photographers were Zahangir Alam, Haider Ali, Salim Ullah Armany, Mohammed Hossain, Noor Hossain, Mainul Islam, Abul Kalam, Mohammed Salim Khan, Abdul Monaf and one photographer who wishes to remain anonymous. 



RANE's chair Habib Rahman opened the proceedings. RANE's Trustees Ann Schofield and Henna Ahmed and two Rohingya teenagers who are now settled in Newcastle - Amna Amir Hossain and Amani Amir Hossain. Peter Saggar addressed the situation in Myanmar. Ann Schofield and Henna Ahmed emphasised the critical need for providing support to refugee women in the camps. 

Also attending were members of Amnesty International from Newcastle and Sunderland, members from the Unison and Unite trade unions & Bill Corcoran of the Tyneside Irish Centre. Newcastle Councillors Abdul Samad and Dr Juna Sathian were in attendance. 

In attendance was British based Journalist and Documentary Filmmaker Shafiur Rahman, the curator of the exhibition, thanked Habib Rahman for showcasing the work of Rohingya photographers. He then gave a short speech about his experiences at the Bangladesh/Myanmar border in 2017 and a brief overview of the photographs in the exhibition. 














Amna Amir Hossain  and Amani Amir Hossain - "The Geordie Rohingya girls". Resettled in Newcastle and attending Excelsior Academy Newcastle 




The exhibition consisted of 14 images by 10 Rohingya photographers.  Shafiur Rahman said 

"This collection of photographs by Rohingya refugees is very different from the usual media depiction of Rohingya in Bangladesh. Photographs in the media reduce the complexity of refugee life, and deliberately emphasise negative profiling. There is a persistent strategy to attribute unfavourable characteristics to the Rohingya and to explicitly and implicitly suggest that they are socially undesirable and a burden. In the 5 years since 2017, an image landscape has been created which is hostile and bears little relationship to the ground realities of refugee life. In short, the media portrayal of the Rohingya in Bangladesh feeds the politics of hate and exclusion. 

....In this collection the Rohingya photographers have been able to exercise their choice about what to portray and how to portray it. Their photographs reflect their emotions, their memories, their challenges and even their interests. There is daring, and there is risk taking. One of the photographers in this exhibition has been locked up in jail. Another one was interrogated for 9 hours and beaten. Several have had their phones checked and/or confiscated. One was made to do sit ups because the Armed Police Battalion officer in the camps found something he didn’t like in the photographer’s phone...." 




## Ramadan Food parcel distribution at the camp: 

Some of the consented images of the Ramadan 2022 and 2023 relief 


















|Rohingya Action North East|||
|---|---|---|
|Projected Income & Expenditures|||
|For The Period 01 Apr 2022 To 31|Mar 2023||
|Balance carried forward||£6,184.75|
|Public Donation||£194.46|
|Total||£6,379.21|
|Less Expenses|||
|Wages & Salary|£0.00||
|Web &donation platform management|<br>£530.00||
|Printing/Resources/Photo Exhibition|£586.68||
|Rent, Rate, Power|£0.00||
|Phone & Stationery|£0.00||
|Relief Work|£3,000.00||
|||£4,116.68|
|Excess income over Expenditure||£2,262.53|