Yemen has long been one of the poorest countries in the Middle East but conflict, which escalated 20 months ago, has made a bad situation much worse.
Families have been forced to flee, people have lost their jobs and livelihoods, and food is now so scarce and unaffordable that we are seeing a major hunger crisis.
Hunger has hit babies and children the hardest. Now, a third of all children under five – around 1.3 million youngsters – are acutely malnourished. Wth no end to the conflict in sight, this number is likely to grow.
Mothers are watching their babies die. When mothers who are malnourished themselves are no longer able to breastfeed their babies, they have had to resort to alternatives such as plain water or unpasteurised animal milk. For babies with especially low immune systems, this can lead to infection, diarrhoea and – at worst – death.
Yemen's health system is on the edge of collapse. Even when families can get their poorly children to the few health facilities still functioning, there aren't enough medical supplies or electricity to run life-saving incubators and other machines.
Ibrahim, 28, told our Yemeni colleagues at Save the Children why his nine-month-old son Ali was starving:
"There is not enough daily food for my children," he said. "I take some food like wheat and rice from the grocery and pay after I sell the sheep. My family misses the meat, fruits and vegetables; we do not have money to buy them because we are poor. Ali's body was so weak and he was always crying, not sleeping and refused to eat any food."
"When one of my family members gets sick I take them to Bajel hospital. There is a health facility just 5km from home but there aren't many health services available, they focus mostly on vaccinations as in this area there are no qualified doctors."
We must protect Yemen's children. The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has launched a Yemen Crisis Appeal to help provide food, malnutrition treatment, clean water, sanitation support and cash for the millions of people in Yemen in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. If you would like to support DEC's Yemen Crisis Appeal, please donate here.
Names changed to protect identity.
Photo credit: Mark Kaye
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Guest post: "In Yemen, mothers are watching their babies die"
25 replies
MumsnetGuestPosts · 15/12/2016 11:34
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TulipsInAJug ·
15/12/2016 22:26
I first heard about this from a Tearfund appeal, a few days before the DEC published its appeal. I donated immediately without knowing much about the details. Then it hit the news.
I always make a large donation at Christmas time so this year it was for Yemen. 
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