N East Lancashire charity has started construction work in Indonesia to build a ‘Village of Hope’ for the refugees of Rohingya.

The new village by the Al-Imdaad Foundation will support 44 families with 80 shelter homes, a medical clinic and a school for what UN has dubbed one of the ‘worlds most persecuted peoples’.

MORE TOP STORIES:

County director of Al-Imdaad, Abdussamad Mulla, said: “With an excellent response from the public over the month of Ramadhan, we appealed to help the Rohingya refugees and now construction work has started.

“The cost is just over £200,000 for this project and I personally want to thank all donors for their valuable contributions.”

The project was set up to help support thousands of refugees from Rohingya who where stranded at the coast of North Aceh, Indonesia in May.

Violence had previously broke out within the Rakhine state, leaving the predominately Muslim Rohingya community exposed to horrific acts of persecution and abuse causing many to flee east.

The project aims to ease their lives through providing adequate shelter and building other basic life facilities.

As well as shelters and a school, the village will include 22 sanitation facilities, two water tankers, a mosque, and play areas for children.

The Rohingya are a stateless group of 1.3 million that mainly live in Burma’s western-most Arakan state.

According to the UN refugee agency, more than 120,000 Rohingyas have boarded ships to flee abroad in the past three years. To view this project and others by the Al-Imdaad Foundation, visit: alimdaad.co.uk.