Yemen is considered one of the poorest, least developed countries in the world, ranking at 154 out of 187 countries on the 2011 UNDP Human Development Index. It is currently facing a challenging period of political transition following a 10-month conflict ending former president Ali Abdullah Saleh’s 33-year rule.

According to the World Food Program over five million people – 22 percent of the Yemeni population – were severely food insecure and unable to produce or buy the food they needed, an 87 percent increase from the 2009 CFSS (Comprehensive Food Security Survey) report. In addition, another five million people are moderately food insecure and at risk of becoming severely food insecure due to the rise in food and fuel prices, amid ongoing civil unrest. In total, around 10 million people in Yemen are food insecure – 44.5 percent of the population – and have limited or no access to sufficient, nutritious food, and are eating a poor or borderline diet according to international health standards.

UNICEF has warned that children in Yemen are the most affected by the food crisis. Yemen has the second highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world, behind Afghanistan. 58 percent of Yemen’s children under the age of five are stunted by malnutrition. "In Yemen, there are over 250,000 children who suffer from severe, acute malnutrition, which means they could die very soon. This is almost as many as there were in Somalia during the height of the crisis last year," said UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake, while touring a hospital in a recent visit to Yemen.
Colette Fearon, Oxfam’s Country Director in Yemen, said: “Yemen is dealing with a catastrophic food crisis and people really need our help. People are getting into worrying levels of debt just to get food for their families – and surviving on a meager diet of tea and bread.’
Yemen, now more than ever, is facing an intensifying inter-related political and humanitarian crisis. The humanitarian condition in Yemen is deteriorating further also due to the internal displacement of over 500,000 people and the significant influx of refugees to Yemen via the Red Sea, despite its unstable condition. Based on UNCHR’s August 2012 Fact Sheet a total of 227,266 refugees are currently in Yemen.
Yemen’s planning and international cooperation minister, Mohammed Al-Saadi told donors the national unity government needed $11.9 billion in the short term, yet donors only pledged $6.4 billion in the last meeting held on 3 September 2012 in Riyadh. Saudi Arabia pledged $3.25 billion, including a $1 billion loan to Yemen’s Central Bank, the US said it would provide $345 million for security, humanitarian and development assistance to Yemen; of that $117 million is for humanitarian assistance. The UK pledged to donate $317 million.
The need for foreign aid is a vital necessity in Yemen based on the above-mentioned facts. However, Yemeni activists are skeptical in regards to foreign donations. Some worry that it creates a pattern of dependency. Safa Mubgar, a member of the Independent Yemen Group, said in response “to those who fear aid-dependency, I agree; but the man has to survive long enough to be taught to fish. He needs a fish to eat today.”

Certainly emergency aid and short-term solutions are not the best remedy to Yemen’s problems, but they are urgently needed now to counter the humanitarian crisis. Yet, long term development planning and investment projects, which create job opportunities, generate income, and boost Yemen’s economy is what is needed to move away from aid dependency.

Others doubt any of the funds will actually reach the intended beneficiaries, and believe it is more likely to end up in the accounts of corrupt Yemeni officials. Joy Singhal, manager of Oxfam’s humanitarian response in Yemen in an interview also reiterated the concern that the money will not actually reach those in need. “I would just like to put a word of caution there, because we do not know where that money is going to be spent, we do not know when that money is going to arrive, and we don’t know how much of that money is going to be spent on humanitarian needs which are most critical right now,” he said.

While 10 million people go hungry daily, there are people who deny or are unaware that a crisis exists, sadly in Yemen too. In addition foreign donors are also reluctant to pour any funds into Yemen due to the fragile security condition and the high corruption rate.

These concerns were addressed in the last meeting in Riyadh as pointed by Wael Zakout, World Bank Country Manager for Yemen, who outlined the commitments made by the government and the international community to ensure that the aid reaches “quickly, transparently, and efficiently.” He adds “in addition to the pledges, the meeting endorsed the Mutual Accountability Framework (MAF) that outlines the commitments of both Yemen’s Government of National Reconciliation and the donor community during the transition period”… “The government has committed to take the necessary steps to investigate high level officials who are involved in corruption and is committed now to establish a special court to accelerate the prosecution of corruption cases and ensure that those convicted serve their sentences.”

On September 27, the Friends of Yemen group – chaired by the UK and Saudi Arabia – are meeting again in New York to discuss the situation in Yemen. In solidarity with the people of Yemen, Awssan Kamal a Yemeni activist and member of the Yemen Development and Relief Forum (YRDF) spearheaded the launch of the “Hungry for Yemen” campaign. The campaign was endorsed by The Yemen Peace Project , Independent Yemen Group, Yemen Relief & Development Forum and The Yemeni American Coalition for Change and other international non-governmental organizations and independent activists. It aims to encourage people to either fast or skip lunch on the 27th in order to raise awareness of the dire humanitarian situation 10 million Yemenis face everyday. The campaign is also targeted at UK Foreign Secretary William Hague and Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal as co-chairs of the Friends of Yemen meeting in addition to the US, EU and UN, urging them and other world leaders to prioritize immediate and sufficient funding of the UN’s appeal for Yemen’s emergency needs. The United Nations Humanitarian Plan for Yemen requires $585 million to provide necessary assistance and is currently $304 million short from the required funds.

While world leaders will be discussing Yemen’s long and short term goals in the upcoming Friends of Yemen meeting, the International aid agencies working in Yemen have stressed that the humanitarian emergency relief must be on the top of their agenda. There are also some local organizations such as Hemat Shabab who have been working to feed hungry families in Yemen, yet their work is limited and they also lack proper funding. The Yemeni civil society have also echoed that the humanitarian crisis is derailing the transition process and should be the key to any funding for Yemen, in their last civil society meeting held in Riyadh, and so has the Yemeni diaspora by organizing the “Hungry for Change” campaign.

What Yemen needs mostly now from the International Community are actions not promises, and food not just pledges. Donors must respond now before the crisis deepens further. The significant funds pledged at the Friends of Yemen meetings for Yemen’s security and stability need to be turned into humanitarian aid immediately to keep people alive and save Yemen’s future generation. There can never be any stability nor safety in Yemen when 44% of the population are facing hunger daily and their main concern is to find food for themselves and their family. People in Yemen are depending on the humanitarian support of the International Community to address the pressing needs on the ground and equally important in providing solutions that would break the hunger cycle, such as development and investment projects, youth training and employment programs and empowering local communities through revenue generating projects.

The children are our future and in Yemen children represent more than 50% of the population, which is 24 million, thus amounting to more than 12 million. They are the victims of poverty, political instability and malnutrition. According to the WFP " half of Yemen's children are chronically malnourished and 1 out of 10 does not live to reach the age of five".

A survey by Yemen's Ministry of public Health and Population supported by UNICEF in the coastal town of Hodeida found a global acute malnutrition (GAM) rate of 31.7 percent, nearly 60 percent of children were underweight and 54.5 percent stunted, meaning their height was too low for their age, a sign of longer-term malnutrition.

In the southern Abyan Governorate, a battleground with ongoing fights, a UNICEF survey in September found a GAM rate of 18.6 percent, of which 3.9 percent were severe cases. Nearly half of the children surveyed in northern Hajjah were underweight and 43.6 percent were stunted. In short, according to a recent report by Oxfam more than one in three children in Yemen are severely stunted.

"Widespread poverty, food insecurity, malnutrition, unemployement, low levels of education, high gender disparities, rapid population growth and insufficient access to safe water and land", is what characterizes Yemen according to the WFP, conditions which have been further aggravated by the current political crisis, taking a toll on Yemeni children and impacting their psycosocial well being.

Listen to the children's own words

According to Geert Cappelaere, director of UNICEF in Yemen, in a recent interview with Willam Lambers an author who wrote numerous books and articles about hunger, "one in three children reported feeling unsafe, sad, or frustrated, and suffered from diminshed hope, fear, anger and hatred as well as experiencing difficulty sleeping. One in four experienced difficulties concentrating, and establishing trustful relationships."

This video shows children role playing the recent violence in Yemen:

At least 94 children have been killed and 240 others wounded by gunshots or shelling in Yemen since civil unrest began in February 2011, according to UNICEF.

UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported over 170 schools were damaged or destroyed as a result of six rounds of conflict in Saada. In a more recent report by UNICEF "nearly a quarter of a million of children across Yemen have difficulties attending schools" due to the fact that "more than 180 schools in different parts of the country have been occupied or attacked by armed forces and groups or by displaced communities." A survey conducted by Oxfam concluded that "one in five said they had taken their children out of school to help the family earn their daily bread and nearly two-thirds were skipping meals."

One of many heart breaking stories of Yemeni children suffering published in the Global Post reads as follows:

"Amry’s eldest son, 9-year-old Majd, walks the five kilometers to school each morning. But his two younger sisters Naema and Salama no longer join him.

“Our Dad withdrew us because we didn't have any clothes or books,” Naema said, leading a donkey down to the well to fetch water.

“We wash dishes, bake, cook and clean. We would love to be studying in school instead of staying at home,” Naema said. “With school you can be a doctor, but without school you cannot.”

And so, uneducated through lack of food, Naema and Salama will join the 70 percent of Yemeni women who are illiterate in the nation that has consistently ranked lowest in the Global Gender Gap index.

With no classes to occupy them, Amry said he would soon be searching for husbands for Naema and Salama, eager to earn the best dowry possible for marrying off his daughters, around $1,000 each if they married into another poor family."

Children growing in Yemen, the poorest country in the Arab world, have little opportunity for education and development, traumatized by the violence sadly do not know when their next meal will be.

Some of you are parents and do our best to protect and provide for your children, many parents in Yemen don't have the ability to even do so. Children in Yemen need your help, please spread the word, donate and make a difference in their lives.