Myanmar: One priceless phone call keeps hope alive

Living on the outskirts of Sittwe Town in Rakhine State, Myanmar, where transport and communication networks have been severely disrupted since the resumption of hostilities, Daw Be Be has had to wait more than six months just to hear her grandson's voice on the phone and know that he is safe. "I longed to hear my grandson call me 'mom' like he used to when he was with me," she says.

The four-year-old boy and his mother – Daw Be Be's daughter – had left home to go to Malaysia in June 2023. "My daughter wanted to join her husband who was working in Malaysia. There was no news about them for more than a month and then I got the unfortunate news that my daughter was detained in a prison in the Ayeyarwaddy region. What was worse was that my 4-year-old grandson was not with her and his whereabouts were not known. I was extremely worried about him. He is just a child who cannot take care of himself; I wondered what he would do without his mother," shares Daw Be Be. Desperate to trace her grandson's whereabouts, she contacted humanitarian organizations working in the village for help and eventually in October 2023 connected with the International Committee of the Red Cross's (ICRC) team in Sittwe.