Sky reporter: Why I'm raising money for Rohingya orphan Zoora

I have spent more than 25 years as a journalist covering some of the worst disasters and conflicts around the world.

I have witnessed incredible suffering and hardship. But I have never got involved in personally trying to help one of the people who have had their lives destroyed.

Until now.

I believed that, as a reporter, bringing the plight of the world's most devastated communities to the world's attention, I was "doing my bit".

It is true that media coverage helps.

It can spur governments, charities and individuals into responding to a crisis. I really believe this is the case with the Rohingya exodus.

A young British doctor recently got in touch with me via Twitter to say my reports had inspired him to travel to the region and help 6,000 Rohingya refugees.

That should make me sleep better, shouldn't it?

But it is not enough. I have thought about the Rohingya refugees every single day since my first trip to Bangladesh in September.

There's not a night when I don't revisit the camps and the people in my dreams.

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It is easy to walk away from a story. We all lead busy lives. There are other stories to cover.

I have a young family that demand all my time and attention away from the newsroom. Often I have flown back from a story, landed at Heathrow airport and gone straight onto the school run. It is the most effective distraction.

But that was it. Here I was, on one of the trips to school, seeing all these happy children smartly dressed in their uniforms holding onto the protective hand of a loving parent. A normal childhood.

Yet less than 24 hours previously, I had sat cross legged on the mud floor of a bamboo shack.

Light filtered in through the gaps in the tarpaulin sheet strung across the roof to keep out the monsoon rain.

In front of me sat Zoora. She was crouched on one knee and shuffled her weight from side to side.

This was more a sign of nerves than any attempt to become comfortable.

Zoora did not make eye contact very easily and as I spoke to her through a translator she looked at the empty floor in front of her.

I began by explaining I was very sorry to intrude on her grief and I was aware that I would be making her relive the most traumatic moments of her life.

My justification for making her relive her ordeal, I said, was to tell the world what had happened to her and her family so that we could try and stop it happening to other Rohingya children and get help for all the Rohingya refugees.

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It was a bold claim and I was probably saying it to myself to make me feel better.

Zoora wasn't listening anyway. She was focused on some loose thread hanging from the tattered hem of her skirt, twirling it back and forth.

Then, in a soft, faltering voice Zoora began to tell me what had happened to her and her family.

"We were sitting around in the morning. They came firing and they burned the villages," she said.

"We ran off to the river and even on the riverbank they were shooting at us, chopping people up, burning people and people were dying and they were a lot of dead people.

"Then I jumped into the water and I was shot. After being shot, some people from the village carried me here."

Zoora's mother, father, brothers and sisters were all slaughtered by men "wearing green uniforms".

Tula Toli, the village where Zoora lived was massacred. Hundreds are reported to have been killed.

Witness statements are consistent with Zoora's account of a bonfire of bodies, children torn from their mothers and thrown onto the pyre.

She pulled down the top of her trousers to show me the healing bullet wound at the top of her thigh.

Zoora said the wound refused to heal properly at first but was better now that she had received medical treatment.

But she added that treatment was expensive and she was in debt.

Zoora was reunited with her 10-year-old-brother in the camp. He had been saved by neighbours from the village who had also fled for their lives.

They are the only remaining members of their family left alive.

I asked Zoora if she knew why her village had been attacked. She shrugged.

Then I asked her if she knew what would happen to her now. My question was met with a pained silence.

Zoora has every reason to be uncertain of her future. Inside the camp there is no guarantee of safety.

Just hours after meeting Zoora I met "Kasim", a sex trafficker. He told me "business was booming".

Among the new influx of Rohingya refugees were many girls and widows. All desperate and easy to exploit.

"Kasim" described how girls would be smuggled out of the camps to supply Bangladesh's notorious sex trade.

As "Kasim" talked, I saw Zoora's face. Alone, frightened and vulnerable.

Just the sort of child "Kasim" and his evil network would be targeting.

And this is what convinced me that I had to do something.

I had made vague promises about "the international community" helping or sending aid to this little girl who was still grieving for her dead parents.

I have heard many correspondents on other networks describing their experiences of covering the Rohingya exodus and almost without exception they all agree that this crisis is almost unmatched in its brutality and savagery.

Describing the mass killings in Rakhine State, Gabriel Gatehouse, BBC Newsnight's foreign correspondent, said: "I've covered IS in Iraq and Syria and the Rohingya story was by far the most disturbing I have covered."

During my three trips to the region I heard many harrowing tales, from widows, orphans and parents who had see their children butchered. So why am I helping Zoora?

Because she is particularly vulnerable.

There are many accounts of Rohingya girls of Zoora's age being married off.

Their parents cannot look after them anymore and may see this as a way out of their desperation.

The Guardian reports that some of these girls are now expecting their first babies.

We are reminded as professionals not to become emotionally involved.

There are ethical issues that need to be considered. I know too that there is a danger in singling out one individual for help.

I've considered all off this over and over again. I have Bangladeshi friends who are experienced in working with non-governmental organisations specialising in micro-finance.

I also know a Rohingya refugee who now works with international aid organisations and lives in the same camp as Zoora. So they will be nearby to help when needed.

As I said, I have never done this before. But I have children just a little younger than Zoora.

They will know the love and warmth of a parent and enjoy my protection throughout their childhoods.

Zoora will never experience this again and if I can do even a little bit to help her, I will.

:: Ashish is raising money for 12-year-old Zoora to ensure she can attend school and has funding for clothes and books. To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/rohingya-orphan