Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh has become the world’s largest refugee camp, as hundreds of thousands of Rohingya families fled genocidal violence in Myanmar in 2017.

BRAC is recognised as the primary responder to the Rohingya refugee crisis. Building on decades of work to support Rohingya refugees escaping persecution in Myanmar, the BRAC Humanitarian Crisis Management Programme (HCMP) is providing food, shelter, education and, vitally, healthcare to this highly vulnerable population. Healthcare is a crucial component, not least because the COVID-19 pandemic introduced a new complexity to supporting the Rohingya. In light of this and other public health issues, multiple development agencies, including BRAC, have sought to build public hand washing facilities in the Rohingya refugee camps.

However, research conducted in similar contexts has highlighted a significant challenge: the provision of soap and water alone is not sufficient to encourage children to practice handwashing with soap in a humanitarian context. While access to soap and water is a critical first step, the focus shifts to influencing behavioural change.

This research aims to increase handwashing with soap among Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar by designing an intervention to promote the use of public handwashing stations and evaluate its impact through an experimental trial.

The study aims to contribute to the broader hygiene science literature by quantifying the impacts of behaviour change interventions and enriching the understanding of hygiene practices within refugee camp settings.

• Research Team Members: Dilhan Perera, Dr Dan Brown, Caitlin Court,Tess M Roberts & Made Budi Putra