Being able to sit once more in a bright and airy room – and in her own home – makes a welcome change for Amina.*
She and her family were among 145,000 people displaced during inter-communal violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state four years ago. Around 20,000 homes were destroyed, Amina's among them.
Last year she was among some 25,000 of the internally displaced people, or IDPs, who were able to leave their temporary shelters and rebuild their homes themselves – through a process led by the Myanmar Government.
"I'm glad that we're living here now – this is a good house, much better than the temporary shelter," she said, sitting in her home on raised stilts near the sandy banks of one of the many rivers and waterways that weave their way through the coastal state, and flow on to the Bay of Bengal.
During their displacement, Amina and her young family lived in a shared longhouse with seven other families. Cramped and often dark, the temporary shelters have a short lifespan and deteriorate over time, worsening conditions for its inhabitants. (Courtesy of UNHCR)
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