By: RO Maung Shwe
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – In a narrow bamboo shelter tucked deep within the refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, a young Rohingya man sits before a laptop with a cracked screen. His name is Yaser Arafat, and through lines of code, long nights, and an unshakable dream, he has built something extraordinary—Skillvite, a Rohingya-led online education platform offering courses and books in his community’s own language.
This is not just the story of an app—it’s the story of survival, resistance, and one young man’s mission to ensure that even in exile, learning never stops.
A Childhood Disrupted by Genocide
Yaser was born in Myo Thu Gyi (Hainda Para), a Rohingya village in Maungdaw, Arakan State, Myanmar. His early years were spent in the classroom of a local madrasa and public school, where he nurtured a deep love for learning. But in 2017, everything changed.
“When the military came, it wasn’t just violence—it was the erasure of our entire existence,” he says.
That year, Myanmar’s military launched a brutal campaign against the Rohingya population. Thousands were killed, homes burned, villages razed. Yaser, just a teenager, fled with his family to Bangladesh, escaping the flames that engulfed his childhood home.
“We didn’t run to seek a better life. We ran to stay alive.”
Searching for Education in the Shadows of Exile
Life in the refugee camps brought safety—but also stagnation. Like thousands of Rohingya youth, Yaser found himself cut off from formal education.
“For years, I wandered from NGO programs to informal centers, looking for something meaningful. But nothing lasted. Nothing went beyond basic literacy,” he recalls.
But Yaser wasn’t ready to give up. A self-proclaimed “tech lover since childhood,” he turned to the only classroom left open to him—the internet. Using borrowed smartphones and limited mobile data, he taught himself app development, graphic design, communication skills, and video editing. He downloaded free PDFs. He watched YouTube tutorials. Slowly, he began to rebuild the future that had been stolen from him.
“I realized that I didn’t need permission to learn. I just needed the will.”
The Idea That Sparked a Movement
As Yaser developed his skills, another realization hit him—most online content was in English or Bangla. For thousands of Rohingya youth in the camps, these were barriers too high to climb.
“Without education in our own language, we are lost,” he says. “Most of our mothers and sisters never had access to school. If we don’t create platforms for them, who will?”
This question led to the birth of Skillvite—a digital platform designed to bring accessible education to the Rohingya, in Rohingya.
Skillvite: Learning, Our Way
Launched officially on May 2, 2024, Skillvite offers five core services:
- Recorded video courses
- Live interactive classes
- A digital library of over 600 free books and counting
- Course notes to support deeper understanding
- Interactive Q&A sessions for active learning
The platform covers everything from computer basics, spoken English, and business skills to personal development, storytelling, and science. But perhaps its most radical offering is this: everything is built by a Rohingya youth, for Rohingya learners—without financial backing or institutional support.
“I design the interface, create the videos, manage the content, and pay the server fees myself. It costs around 10,000 BDT a month. I fund it from the small stipend I get working with NGOs.”
Language as Resistance, Technology as Liberation
Yaser faced many hurdles trying to publish Skillvite as an app. “Google asked for legal documents—citizenship, tax IDs. As a refugee, I have none of these,” he says. When he borrowed a friend’s ID to apply, the app was banned.
Still, he kept building—two to three hours a day, often under candlelight. When the app was blocked, he pivoted to a website. Today, Skillvite has over 1,500 users, with more signing up each week.
“What started as a dream is now real. People message me asking how to use it. I see teenagers sharing it with friends. It’s working.”
The Voices of Learners
The platform has already touched dozens of lives.
“I studied till Grade 9 in Myanmar,” says one student. “After fleeing to Bangladesh, I thought my education was over. But Skillvite gave me back a piece of that dream—in my own language.”
Another shared,
“For years, I searched online for courses in Rohingya. I started to feel like our language had no value. But Skillvite changed that. Now I believe: our language matters.”
More Than a Platform: A Cultural Uprising
Skillvite’s mission goes beyond education. It’s a form of cultural preservation. In a world where the Rohingya have been stripped of citizenship, rights, and voice, Skillvite says: we still exist, and we are learning.
Yaser dreams of expanding the platform—adding new languages, collaborating with refugee educators, and turning Skillvite into a digital school for stateless communities.
“Education is not just a right. For us, it’s survival. It’s proof that we are still here.”
A Call for Solidarity
Today, Yaser continues to work alone—editing videos, managing user queries, writing course materials. He receives no salary. No grant. Only determination.
“I don’t know how long I can afford to run Skillvite,” he admits. “But I started this for my people. I’ll continue—with or without support.”
Skillvite is not perfect. It’s not sleek or corporate. But it is honest, raw, and revolutionary—an education platform built in the world’s most marginalized place, run by someone who refuses to be forgotten.
To the World, From a Refugee Camp
In a bamboo shelter lit by determination, Yaser Arafat is building what the world denied him—a future. And he’s offering it to thousands of others.
“Don’t wait for perfect conditions to start something,” he says. “Start now. Start with what you have. I had nothing—but I had a reason.”
