Dearest supporters,

Back in July, you donated generously to help Hasinah Izhar and Dil Muhammad Rahman, a Rohingya refugee family whose story was featured in a NYTimes article written by Thomas Fuller and Chris Buckley: http://goo.gl/LtVhmN.

This update is to let you know that the family was notified of your contributions and the funds are in transfer! I meet the family last week when I traveled to Malaysia and met with one of the story's reporters,Thomas Fuller to check in on the family, inform them of the LaunchGood campaign, and offer them guidance on how to proceed with the first installment of the donations. 

A good friend of mine in Kuala Lumpur joined us to visit the family in Penang along with a translator. The experience (which also happened to be on my birthday!) was truly heart-warming and enlightening. Some of the details and highlights are listed below; 

Logistics:
— Figuring out how to get the funds to the family proved to be frustrating as the family has no legal status in Malaysia. We wanted to do so discreetly so as not to raise attention or make them targets. For safety reasons, it also made sense to give the family the money in installments. 

— They are very eager to register with the UN as refugees but the process is difficult and they risk arrest if they travel outside their home to submit the documents. 



Our visit:
-We arrived at the dilapidated shack shared by multiple families with some gifts Thomas had purchased for the 3 kids. While the kids enjoyed their new toy, game, and puzzle in the kitchen area, we huddled with the Dil Muhammad and Hasinah around a mattress on the floor of a small room. The mattress was the only piece of furniture in the room, but this particular room allowed us some privacy.

-Our translator Kabir, also Rohingya from Burma, currently resides in Kuala Lumpur and worked with the reporters on the original story. He relayed our story to the couple along with messages sent by you. The letters from readers of the NYTimes article and those that were moved to provide assistance to the family via our LaunchGood campaign were printed out to be read to the family.

The family's reaction:

— Dil Muhammad Rahman’s expressed his gratitude, "thousands and thousands of thanks to you all. A hidden angel has just come to us.”

— Hasinah in tears, claimed, "we don't have anyone in the world besides you." 

- We brought the family in cash the first of 3 installments (we exchanged $3500 of the $11,862 you raised into Malaysian Ringgits) will allow the family to pay off all their debts and have around $800 remaining. Aside from any fees associated from retrieving or exchanging the currency of the funds, all of the dollars raised from the LaunchGood online campaign, were/will be gifted to the family.

-Many of you expressed concern about reuniting the son Jubair with the family. There is not much we can do to assist with this, but the family may be able to find a round-about way to retrieve their oldest son. Those decisions will be up to the family, and the donations they've received will help sustain them however they choose. 

— The family is in contact with Jubair and Hasinah shared that in her last conversation with him about a month ago, he had pleaded to reunite with her in Bangladesh, offering to beg on the streets to provide for the family. As Hasinah wiped away tears, I could only imagine a mother's heartbreak at knowing she is unable to quell his grief and desperation.

Updates on the family:

— Dil Muhammad is constantly seeking work but is often prevented form attaining as he lacks an official UN refugee card. He's submitted multiple requests for one, but the distribution is limited and the process tedious. He has been arrested three times since the story ran, just for being in public without a card. One of the times the police only released him after he paid a bribe of 100 Ringgit. He is still struggling to find work and often only works around 7 to 15 days a month. Hasinah said she hasn't left their home in 8 months.

— Junaid, the second oldest, is picking up Malay fast and is somewhat conversant. Both he and his younger brother continue to attend school although the family hasn’t paid in at least 5 months. The brothers, along with welcomed neighborhood children, assembled their puzzle of the world and proudly shared their achievement with us.

-The baby girl enjoyed her gift of a toy duck on wheels and alternated from her watching her brothers the kitchen to the bedroom seeking the comfort of her parents arms.

A Godsend:

-My friend that I mentioned earlier proved to be a key component of this visit. Nur Aziz is of Malaysian descent and works in Kuala Lumpur. She joined this trip on a whim knowing very little about this family's story

-It was touching to see her sincere concern for the family. Watching her experience the same range of emotions that I went through in first learning of this family reminded me of how grateful we are to you, the donors, in alleviating some of their pain with your concern for them.

-When she learned that they eat only rice, sometimes with oil for each meal, and with meat maybe just one meal per month at most, she determined that we would be back that afternoon to eat with the family. Considering that food is cheap in Penang (prior to meeting the family, Nur and I ate prepared bags of rice with meat and sauce for about $.50), this was very hard to hear. 

-After we parted with the family, Nur, Kabir, and I, DID return with biryani (fancy seasoned rice with beef usually reserved for special occasions) to eat with them and some of their neighbors on their open "yard" area (concrete slab). We learned about some of the other refugees in the home, such as one young boy who fled from a refugee camp without his parents to escape to Malaysia via an unstable boat over the course of one horrifying month. He has managed to climb to the top of his class and remains motivated.

-Nur is eager to raise more awareness about the situation and rally more efforts in Kuala Lumpur where it will be much easier to coordinate aid. She has offered to handle the delivery of the remaining donation installments (which are still held at LaunchGood in the meantime) and even offered the family accommodations in her home if they wanted to travel to KL to try and submit requests for the UN refugee status. 

In gratitude:

I wanted to thank everyone who expressed their concerns for this family and the greater Rohingya refugee community. Your generous contributions to the LaunchGood campaign are making a world of difference already. Knowing that the success of any one of these children means representation and a voice for the whole Rohingya refugee community exaggerates this effort in helping one family.

I'd like to thank the writers of the NYTimes article, Thomas Fuller and Chris Buckley for bringing attention to this issue and for capturing Dil Muhammad and Hasinah's family in such a raw way. They went above and beyond in coordinating this effort despite their limited capacity as reporters.

I also owe Chris Blauvent, the Founder of LaunchGood a ton of gratitude for helping to set up the campaign, and featuring it on their website. He was also able to minimize the fees so that more of your $s would go directly to the family making this crowdfunding platform most attractive to us. 

Lastly, thank you dearly to Nur for carrying on these efforts in KL where so much more can be accomplished. This trip wouldn't have been the same without her.

The authors and Nur have agreed to share their contact information to those donors who would like to follow up in any capacity:

Thomas Fuller- tfuller@nytimes.com

Chris Buckely- christopher.buckley@nytimes.com

Nur Aziz- nurazlina@gmail.com