"The whole world cannot compensate me for the loss of my father." With these words, the 12-year-old child Ayman sums up the tragedy of being an orphan. He lost his father months ago in Taiz governorate due to the cholera epidemic spreading in Yemen, and he and his family faced a harsh fate.

The child Ayman is one of millions of children who have become orphans in Yemen. Thinking about the future has become a major concern for them in light of dark crises and in a country that is considered one of the most dangerous regions in the world for children, according to UN reports.

The Yemeni crisis has had a major impact on orphans, pushing them towards dangerous paths. There are no accurate statistics on their number due to the ongoing conflict. However, there are unofficial statistics that estimate their number at one million and one hundred thousand orphans, which is a large number in a country with a population of about 39 million people. Nevertheless, the actual number is likely to be much higher.

The path of humanitarian support for orphans

There are many serious social, psychological, and economic effects of being an orphan. It is of utmost importance to work on meeting their needs so that they can live in dignity, like other children living in the care of their families, and to compensate them for some of what they have lost due to the loss of the breadwinner.

Recognizing the urgent need to provide full care and protection for orphans, HUMAN ACCESS association has established a special sector to sponsor and care for orphans since its establishment in 1990. The goal of this initiative is to consolidate the path of humanitarian support for orphans and create the necessary psychological, social, and health environment for them to be positive individuals in Yemeni society.

The orphan sponsorship and care sector has focused, highly influential goals for serving orphans, such as providing cash assistance to meet their basic needs, sponsoring their education to enable them to enroll, and allocating various activities and programs to ensure that they are healthy, educated, recreational, and socially involved.

A part of this effort is also to establish the concept of solidarity, empower orphans with social and life skills, boost their self-esteem, as well as train, assist, and empower families that support orphans economically, and provide them with the resources and capabilities they need to operate their own businesses and transform their lives economically.

Orphan Sponsorship and Care

80,000 orphan beneficiaries

Since its establishment, the Orphan Sponsorship and Care Sector has succeeded in sponsoring 80,000 male and female orphans throughout Yemen, of whom 26,000 are currently sponsored with the support of donors and philanthropists.

This effort embodies the great role played by HUMAN ACCESS in caring for orphans and providing for their needs to ensure that they grow up in a healthy environment and strive to prepare them for the future in the best possible way.

In a special statement, Riyadh Mohammed, the association Executive Director, said that caring for orphans is not just a humanitarian duty, "but a trust that we bear with pride and responsibility, as they are an important segment of society, and we always strive to be a source of hope and real support for them."

Riyadh stressed that the work of the orphan sponsorship and care sector is an essential contribution to supporting and assisting this group, adding: "We are grateful to the supporters of this important sector, which still needs support to provide more care for orphans and offer the necessary means to protect them."

A human tragedy and a lifeline

In 2020, Fatima Ali, 26, was forced to flee with her husband and two children from Sana'a governorate to Marib city in search of livelihood and income. Displacement has harsh consequences in a country where access to basic services is very limited.

As misfortunes never come singly, this woman was shocked by the early and sudden death of her husband in 2022, finding herself alone facing great challenges in a war-torn country.

This widowed woman was forced to support her two children, "Ramy and Rima," who were shocked by the decease of their father.

Fatima described her tragedy by saying: "I was greatly shocked, I lived in very difficult circumstances, I was unable to meet the simplest requirements, my life became hell, and my biggest concern was to provide food for my children."

In the midst of the desert of despair, a door of hope opened when HUMAN ACCESS, in partnership with the International Islamic Charity Organization (IICO), qualified Fatima in the field of sewing, and then gave her a sewing and embroidery machine with her basic supplies to engage into the labor market and earn a living.

As a result of her economic empowerment, Fatima successfully emerged from the disaster that befell her, as she became a seamstress and began to attract many customers for the quality of her work. She no longer relied on humanitarian aid to feed her children.

Here is Fatima describing her situation today by saying: "I feel safe now. I have become able to meet the needs of my children and educate them. I will never forget your support for me, as you saved my life and the lives of my children."

As is the case with Fatima's family, there are thousands of families who support orphans and have benefited from this program.

A broad social umbrella

During 2024, a total 67,618 orphans in various regions of Yemen benefited from the Orphan Sponsorship and Care Sector’s interventions through 14 humanitarian projects in various fields.

These interventions involved cash and educational sponsorships, educational programs, supply of school bags and uniforms, cultural and recreational activities, food baskets, and Eid and winter clothing, in addition to income-generating economic programs to improve their living conditions, various health support, and much more.

With the university student sponsorship program, over 220 male and female students were benefited, while more than 1,100 income-generating productive projects were provided to families supporting orphans after training them in the profession and preparing them to manage small projects that would provide them with a decent living.

In the absence of these vital humanitarian interventions, the situation of these beneficiary orphans would have been much worse, and their suffering would not have ended with their father's death, but may have lasted throughout their lives, considering the worst humanitarian crisis in the world and the high rates of unemployment and poverty in Yemen.

This all confirms the leadership of the Orphan Sponsorship and Care Sector, managed by HUMAN ACCESS, as an important social umbrella that works according to well-studied and purposeful plans to alleviate the suffering of orphans, protect their rights, bring joy to their hearts and of their families, and make them feel community cooperation and solidarity.