Most Dangerous Place on Earth to be a Child
Right now, children in Yemen are facing the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Years of brutal conflict have pushed Yemen deep into crisis. An alarming 80% of the population are in need of help, including 12.9 million children. That’s almost every boy and girl in Yemen in desperate need of our help.
The conflict has left over 2.7 million children out of school, robbing them of their futures. Health systems are on the verge of collapse and the country is on the brink of famine. Less than half of health centers are functional and over 2.2 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition and need urgent treatment.
Yemen has become one the worst places on earth to be a child. Since the conflict began, an average of six children have been killed or maimed every day. No place in Yemen is safe for children.
UNICEF is Fighting to Save Children’s Lives
Our teams are working tirelessly to provide Yemen’s children with critical service and supplies. We are leading the response to nutrition and water, sanitation and hygiene. We are supporting children’s education and providing child protection services
This year, UNICEF’s response will focus on improving basic health care services for children, providing urgent treatment for malnutrition and ensuring children are vaccinated to protect them from preventable illness.
We will rebuild and rehabilitate schools, provide learning materials and support teacher training to ensure children can continue learning and don’t get left behind.
YEMEN'S HUNGER CRISIS
children are suffering from acute malnutrition and need urgent help.
Fighting Hunger and Preventing Famine
The conflict in Yemen has pushed families further into poverty. With little income parents are struggling to afford food. An estimated 80% of the population are now in debt and are struggling to pay for food, water, transportation and vital health services, with devastating consequences to children’s health.
Right now, 2.2 million are acutely malnourished, that’s half of all children under the age of five. More than 500,000 children are suffering from the most visible and dangerous form of undernutrition – Severe Acute Malnutrition (SAM). These children need urgent lifesaving treatment to survive.
With your support, we can continue to scale up our response to Yemen’s hunger crisis. Together we can work to admit and treat children suffering with SAM, by sending urgently needed life-saving supplies like therapeutic food. We can work to keep health centres open and millions of malnourished children with micronutrient supplements.
You should see the children when they come in and you start treating them. When they begin to recover the first thing they do is look you in the eyes, and smile. That smile is what motivates you, what keeps you going because you want those children to survive and have a normal childhood, to be able to go to school and play.
- Dr. Karanveer Singh, Nutrition Manager UNICEF Yemen
Hanadi’s Story
Hanadi, two and a half was admitted to the UNICEF supported children’s ward at Sabeen hospital in Sana’a, Yemen’s capital city. She was suffering from violent diarrhoea and vomiting and is extremely malnourished, weighing just 7 kilos.
With no wage coming in since Hanadi’s father was injured in an accident at work, and fierce fighting cutting off supply routes, the family had been surviving on handouts from neighbours and on bread whenever they could find it.
Mazen Recovers
Born into conflict, all eighteen months of Mazen’s life have been a struggle. Our teams met Mazen when he was admitted to a UNICEF supported hospital in Sana’a Yemen. There he was diagnosed with acute malnutrition and a skin disease.
He was placed on a treatment plan of therapeutic food and slowly began to recover. Although he has gained weight and is responding well to treatment, Mazen’s malnutrition has sadly caused damage to his eye.
Fatma and Saleh
“I was in pain seeing my baby sick, but he is now getting better. Before he had a fever, diarrhea and now he is improving. I thank go every day even though I have many hurdles ahead of me.”
Fatma, a Somali refugee living in Aden, Yemen for over 13 years, tells our team how grateful she is to see her baby recover from acute malnutrition. Saleh, who is a twin, is receiving round the clock care at the UNICEF supported hospital.
WASH Services and the Outbreak of Disease in Yemen
Clean water is critical to children’s health and survival. Yemen is one of the world’s most water-scarce countries and the conflict has made the situation so much worse. Across Yemen, 18 million people urgently need water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) assistance.
In 2017, UNICEF helped contain one of the world’s worst cholera outbreaks in history. We did this by raising awareness amongst vulnerable communities, providing clean water and sanitation services, vaccinating millions of children against cholera, deploying rapid response teams to meet the urgent needs of people in affected areas, scaling up our response to treat children already infected.
The threat of another outbreak still looms. Right now, 8 million children are at risk from the threat of another cholera outbreak.
Help Save A Child's Life
More than 2 million children are suffering from acute malnutrition. They urgently need your help. Donate now and help provide life-saving supplies to children in desperate need.
