The child malnutrition rate in Myanmar is the highest in the region, and inside the Ohn Taw Gyi Camp, where kids persecuted for their religious beliefs are housed, it doesn't show signs of slowing down any time soon.
Living her whole life in the crowded, dirty camp with limited food, clean water, education and health care, 1-year-old Dosmeda Bibi is on the verge of death.
Food is so limited in the camp that on bad days, her mother, Hameda Begum, told The Associated Press that she can only scrape up a few pieces of rice for her child to eat.
"I'm scared she won't live much longer," Begum confessed to AP.
Bibi's skin sits tightly on her bones and her stomach is bloated. She is so weak that she cannot flip from her back to her stomach without her mother's assistance.
Bibi is just one of the many children suffering in the Buddhist camps.
"Naked boys and girls run barefoot on the muddy, narrow pathways, or play in pools of raw sewage, exposing them to potential waterborne diseases that kill. Some have black hair tinged with patches of red or blond, a tell-tale sign of nutrient deficiency commonly seen in places experiencing famine," reports AP.
In Myanmar 23 percent of the state's people suffer from malnutrition, according to AP. The World Health Organization's emergency level for malnutrition currently stands at 15 percent.
Last month, Yanghee Lee, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, visited the area.
"The situation is deplorable," she told AP.
Buddhist mobs in 2012 reportedly chased over 140,000 Muslims from their homes into camps. Those who escaped the camps live a life filled with systematic discrimination, with restrictions on their movement and limited access to basic needs including food and water.
Despite the hard times, there is some hope for Dosmeda. She is currently getting care from France-based Action Against Hunger, one of the only foreign aid organizations in Myanmar that is allowed to operate within the camps.
