Canadian Red Cross CEO Conrad Sauvé on the ground in Bangladesh

I'm here in Cox's Bazar district. It's a region of Bangladesh, where since August 25th, more than 600, 000 people have fled from Myanmar here to these makeshift camps. Of course, this is a very important Red Cross and Red Crescent operation, as well as many other humanitarian organizations are here. The challenges are really enormous and as we meet everybody here, everybody has a tragic story. People fled, everybody has a loss.

They lost a member of their family; their father, their mother, their brothers or sisters, a spouse. This is the story and these are people who have walked for tens of kilometers.

Leaving their home with very little with them, basically often just their clothes. They end up here in these camps. Unfortunately, this is rainy season. As you can see around me, there's mud everywhere and the needs are enormous. How are we addressing these needs? We're addressing them of course, with the basic necessities in terms of food, water, sanitation. You know, basically you’re creating cities for thousands, tens of thousands of people. You need to put in basic infrastructure for sanitation. And of course, people have all kinds of health issues. Health issues related to walking, so we've deployed a clinic here supported with the Norwegians and Finnish.

We have Canadian doctors and technicians here to provide basic health. How can Canadians help? I think you are helping in supporting the Red Cross. A lot of people ask me does it make a difference, providing help in these type of situations?

Let me tell you, just the presence, our presence here as humanitarians, the Red Cross here, the Red Crescent organization, the local organizations, provide hope and hope is everything for people in this situation.