Yemen is a middle eastern country located south of Saudi Arabia with a population of 28.5 million as of 2018. It is a predominantly arab country with arabic being its official language and Islam being its’ religion.
Yemen has been plagued by war and unease since 2011 and the violence has taken a great toll on both the people and the country. With the violence unlawful airstrikes, torture, unfair detainment, and suspicious disappearances have come. Children under 18 have been forced to become soldiers and join in the fight. The truly ironic thing is that all of this destruction came from an attempt at a stable government for the Yemeni people.
Children continue to be killed and maimed in the conflict, while the damage and closure of schools and hospitals has disrupted access to education and health services, leaving children even more vulnerable and robbing them of their futures. Before COVID-19, around 2 million children were out of school. Because of the pandemic, schools have been closed around the country, leaving some 7.8 million children unable to access education.
Due to the war, Yemeni people are facing a shortage of many things they need to live such as clean water, food, medical supplies, and money. Currently over 17 million people are at risk of starving and 3.3 million children, new mothers, and pregnant women are suffering. There have been multiple disease outbreaks due to the lack of treatment available and it has put many at risk. This is made worse by the current Covid-19 outbreak which threatens countless more.
Hello, our names are Olesya Shanabrook and Grace Woods and the goal of our website is to spread awareness and hopefully gain help for the Yemeni people currently suffering. We noticed how little this issue was present in American media and news and decided to help in undoing that.