“My life is fatigue”… With these two words, Asma Mahfouz explained her living situation, even though the word fatigue sounds like a soft word to describe the condition of a woman in her fifties, whose husband died and left her eight children, in a country that has been experiencing intertwining crises for years.

Asma Mahfouz, a woman from Lahj governorate, poverty has brought her to the point where she has been unable to buy shoes for her orphan children, who have been without shoes since the decease of their only breadwinner, and paint with their bare feet the other side of the hell of war in the afflicted Yemen.

The situation of this family is not much different from that of the displaced Muhammad Abdulqawi, who supports five children and lives with five displaced families in one house in Sala district of Taiz governorate. Even this small house did not escape the war shells either.

Muhammad Abdulqawi, 42 years old, was injured by a shell shrapnel two years ago and suffers from a handicap in one of his feet. His wife suffers from blood pressure and diabetes. As a result of his poor financial condition, he was unable to educate his children, and his first and last concern is to provide a livelihood for his children.

Asma and Muhammad are miniature models of thousands of families in the governorates of Lahj and Taiz. However, their lives have become better today after the arrival of the food aid project financed by World Food Program (WFP) and implemented by HUMAN ACCESS.. What did this project offer to these families?

65,067 beneficiary families

This success occurred in a country ravaged by a humanitarian crisis, which is among the worst regionally and globally, according to UN estimates, and with more than 80% of its population currently needs some kind of aid. Based on all of the above, saving lives has become a priority for HUMAN ACCESS.

One of the fruits of the association’s efforts is to feed thousands of families in two Yemeni governorates through the food aid project, which comes in light of the food insecurity and with the growing threat of famine looming on the horizon.

The food aid project targeted 65,067 families in Sala district of Taiz governorate, and eleven districts in Lahj governorate, with the aim of enhancing food security for these families by providing basic food needs.

It was not indiscriminate targeting, but according to precise criteria and a transparent mechanism for families suffering from acute food insecurity, and based on assessments carried out by the project, which included 3 main components: food aid, food vouchers, and cash assistance.

Monthly aid

The beneficiary families were selected based on the criteria approved by the donor agency, the WFP. Then the project provided its services throughout 2020 to these families suffering from war and hunger.

There are now 7010 families in Sala district of Taiz governorate that receive a varied food basket on a monthly basis, and 15,130 families in Al-Qabbeitah district in Lahj governorate receive food vouchers on a monthly basis as well.

Moreover, there are 42,927 families, representing 304,362 individuals, who receive cash assistance in the districts of Al-Maqatira, Al-Madhariba Wal Arah, Al-Hadd, Halmin, Al-Malah, Yafe, Al-Maflahi, Yahar, Tor Al-Baha, and Habil Jabr in Lahj, thanks to this project. The distribution process was carried out in accordance with the requirements of public safety, taking into consideration the precautionary and preventive measures to confront Coronavirus disease, and providing the targeted people with awareness-raising methods related to cholera.

In this way, HUMAN ACCESS succeeded in strengthening the resilience of these families in the face of the conflict when it provided them with the requirements of livelihood, which became harsh for them with the continuation of the war, and even worsened with the Coronavirus pandemic.

This is what people need to avoid major famine in a country on the brink of total collapse. And humanitarian projects like this need HUMAN ACCESS as an active and reliable partner with the capacity to reach hundreds of thousands of people in need of assistance.