Children are dying of hunger in Yemen right now

[27pounds17]

www.theguardian.com/global-development/2018/nov/02/end-war-yemen-children-conflict-escalates-around-hodeidah-hospital

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/nov/02/children-dying-war-zones-targeted-impunity

AIBU to wonder how in this day and age this is still happening? What is the UK doing and are we selling arms to the region? It's absolutely heart breaking, what can we do?

From the article

Words cannot do justice to the moral depravity on display. Children are deliberately targeted for killing, abduction, rape and recruitment into armed groups. Others are treated as “collateral damage” in attacks on civilian infrastructure. Schools – and schoolchildren – are regarded as legitimate military targets. They are bombed in their classrooms or, especially if they are girls, assaulted for the crime of attending school. Obstructing humanitarian aid is now a standard military tactic, depriving children of access to food and medical aid

It's difficult for lay people to understand what's going on in the region.

This is a picture of Amal a 7 year old girls who died of starvation.

www.nytimes.com/2018/11/01/world/middleeast/yemen-starvation-amal-hussain.html

I hesitated before posting this as it would be so telling if MN decided to put a trigger warning in the title. I am against hyperbolic News images but to the poster who said dc in the UK are starving, what do you feel about this girl?

It's positively medieval to shrug this off or start with what about, what about.

It's terrible, I agree.
It's not as simple as 'stop selling arms'. There's the politics of the region, the location and all that oil to think about.
As I said, I'm not saying it's right.

It’s heinous. It’s been going on there for a few years and getting worse. God knows what the answer is but it’s terrible that the world know this is happening and are too mercenary/petrified, to intervene. And no kids going hungry in the UK is NOT even vaguely comparable. These people are being systematically and deliberately starved. It’s genocide.

Why is Saudi Arabia attacking Yemen?

Yanbu it’s horrifying. I feel so inept and pathetic saying this but what do we do? I don’t even know which charity would be best to donate to after the latest scandals.

I don’t even know which charity would be best to donate to after the latest scandals.

I don't know either, I don't trust the charities anymore after the scandals of the last few years. Especially the ones involving male staff exploiting local girls and woman. How much of our donated money is spent on actually helping those in need? There is also the issue of corruption and bribery.

We hear about this in the news we see the images and we have no idea what we can meaningfully do and achieve.

27pounds17

I recent stat I found was a average of 10% of every donation goes to the people you think it’s going to.

It's heartbreaking.

In the article, it says that child Amal was being fed in the hospital but she was sick and still died the help must have been too late.

www.islamic-relief.org.uk/yemen-emergency-appeal/

www.bbc.com/news/world-39248860

www.msf.org.uk/country/yemen

Thanks for posting OP. I donated earlier in the year, then I'm sorry to say forgot this was still going on. That's bad I know. Will watch the thread for ideas on how to help.

It is terrible.

I don't know what the answer is, but I do do what I can.

You can support starving children here and try to help internationally too, it doesn't have to be one or the other.

We give to our local foodbank regularly, we sponsor a child in the Philippines and we give to Barnabas Fund. It is a Christian charity, but I'm ok with that, they are very transparent about how much of your money goes to the actual cause, and this has been verified independently.

I'd love for governments to get their act together and essentially sort the world out, but while that's busy not happening I'd rather do what I can than do nothing just because governments are useless.

Heart-breaking reading about animal charities being prioritised over humans. I love animals, we have several rescue pets and I'm a vegetarian, but vulnerable humans should be the priority.

Redneck, your 10% claim is absolute nonsense. Do you get a kick out of misleading people? It's something you do frequently.

Here are some stats on where charitable funds go:

www.redcross.org.uk/get-involved/donate/donation-questions/how-we-spend-the-money-we-receive
www.msf.org.uk/how-we-spend-your-money
www.oxfam.org.uk/donate/how-we-spend-your-money

I've been shouting about Yemen for the past 3 years on social media and no one wants to listen. Most people don't know where Yemen is let alone about children being starved to death by aid blockades. People are trying to get aid in but it's just not reaching the right people 😭

I'm of the original Live Aid generation. I supported it for years and, despite what people's feeling are about Geldof, the charity is still going, doing what they do! They do their best in a world that is hardly ever fair, where being fair would make a huge difference!

They started doing everything wrong, much of the money went astray, lined the pockets of already rich dictators. Lots and lots of mistakes were made. Lots and lots of money as wasted. They are slowly, very slowly, getting somethings right, but they still fall down and fail to deliver.

www.spin.com/featured/live-aid-the-terrible-truth-ethiopia-bob-geldof-feature/

Sadly you can replace the name of the charity with almost every other well known aid giving charity there is and get much the same story. Same errors, same waste, same inability to make truly meaningful changes.

So nowadays I look at those pictures and think "Why am I being asked again? I know if I donate the money will be wasted, that child and many others will die"

It is not good enough for anyone to shout anywhere "What are you doing whilst these children starve?" What you need to do OP is lobby your MP, get them to raise questions in The House. There has to be a fundamental shift in charitable thinking for any meaningful changes to be made.

DO NOT join one of the many charity activist groups who are trying to make governments apply sanctions, trying to raise awareness and shame politician in many countries - that is a pointless exercise that only the very naive undertake for long.

DO research smaller charities that work in smaller areas, supplying a specific 'thing'. They are many and varied, you will find a couple that make perfect sense to you!

I used to support Tractors for Africa. It was a college wide choice: students rebuilt old tractors and sent them to more arable based areas across Africa. Some students went over to see what happened and they learned how Africa farmers maintain machinery using coca cola cans!!!!

I also used to support a well known water project, but stopped when I realised the lack of continued funding. So now I support African Medical and Research Foundation and Farm-Africa, who focus on sustainable solutions.

I also support a local rapid response charity, Rapid UK/International, mainly because I know someone who works with them.

And I don't forget the children in the UK, I volunteer at a local food bank.

As others have said, do the small things you can see make a difference!

Its disgusting that stuff like this still goes on. It really is. Same as how apparently loads of people have no clean water to drink. There is more than enough to go round, so why on earth is this seen as acceptable, just because its not on our doorstep.

Unfortunately if you read up about this country it is totally corrupt, I would guess most aid money does not get to its intended recepitants.

The population in 2004 was 20 million in 2016 27 million with very little water, this will get worse with global warming.

If the U.K. did not sell arms to this country many others would, including China.

No easy solutions

It is sad.
But I am more concerned about the people in the UK who are dying of starvation and abuse.
Before I adopted my children they were as small babies put into hospital to be fed by tube as they were so starved by their birth mother.
It is happening in your town behind closed doors. Yet so many people have no idea.

sadwithkiddies You are amazing for having adopted children and for giving them a safe and caring upbringing.

May I ask you why you thinks one cannot be concerned about both, children in need here in the UK and the genocide in Yemen? What is happening in Yemen can hardly be compared in any meaningful way to neglectful parenting in the UK. I wonder where the either or mentality comes from? I give to food banks --and don't vote for tories and am a remainer-, I could probably do more but why would that make me less concerned about sheer scale of misery in Yemen? Do the children in Yemen not also deserve to live with dignity?

It’s really disappointing when people use the usual lines of “what about kids here?” Or “I’m more concerned about the children in the UK”. They’re children and it shouldn’t matter where they come from!

In Yemen right now over 1.8 million children are suffering from malnutrition - that’s when their bodies are so deprived of nutrients and food that they waste away. Did you know that right now in Yemen, at least one child dies ever 10 minutes? I’m sorry but we do NOT see that in the UK, where there is government support and programmes which can help children and families in need.

Yet in Yemen, people are essentially trapped. Money is worth nothing. There’s no escaping to another country. Ports are blocked. So very little food is getting in and few people are getting out.

Beyond the lack of food, there have been issue with water supplies and a major cholera epidemic broke out last year affecting millions of people. Cholera can kill or leave people debilitated for life.

The crisis in Yemen is quickly becoming the largest humanitarian disaster since World War II. But people CAN make a difference.

Donate to charities who are able to work in Yemen and get lifesaving foods and medicine to people who need it most right now. After all, the UN is warning it could become the worst famine in decades affecting over 14m people.

There are great charities out there, including the big ones who can often be more effective at getting more aid to where it’s needed (due to buying power for supplies and influence and access). Do your research - it’s bollocks that only 10% gets to the frontline. Some examples of great charities to donate to are MSF, UNICEF and International Rescue Committee among many others.

It is not just Yemen.
Southern Sudan, Somalia, parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda are all experiencing hunger. As are parts of Northern Nigeria and the Chad basin pretty much anywhere where there is chronic drought and ongoing conflict.
The DRC has a triple whammy of hunger, conflict and an Ebola outbreak.
It is horrific

I've only recently started trying to read up about and understand the situation in the Middle East. It is horrendously complicated. Why does the UK sell arms to Saudi Arabia? Probably because that's a way of keeping Iran from over-running the area.

It's not even as easy as it being the Shia versus the Sunni. There are a whole load of other allegiances involved.

In some respects, local wars are useful as a means of keeping the focus away from the corruption and nepotism of the moneyed families.

Just today, the BBC World News reported a UN/Red Crescent aid convoy reaching a refugee camp on the Syria/Jordan border. That was the first since January. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-46084546?

I don't think anyone knows how to resolve situations like that in the Middle East. It's probably not a good idea for aid agencies and charities to talk about how much money they have to use as bribes to local militias to get aid convoys through.

I agree that you one can help children both abroad and in the UK.
I think though people here saying we don't see this level of malnutrition in the UK are sadly mistaken - you are simply lucky not to have seen it. Some of us have not had that luxury.
My children have not had that luxury. It does exist- albeit on a much smaller scale thankfully! We are fortunate in the UK that social services, the NHS, police etc exist to protect our children from the horror that other children experience. But let's not fool ourselves that it never happens because it does - plenty of foster and adoptive parents will testify to that.
Lots of us do both also - give to food banks, sponsor a child, water aid etc... but my first thought will always always be the UK and what is happening here.

Horrendous. There's a fair bit of reporting in the nytimes about this, although some of the photographs are very distressing.

I am going to donate some money to Doctors Without Borders who are working over there. Charity navigatior is a good reference for anyone wanting advice on who to donate to. Link below:

www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=628

I have always liked Doctors Without Borders IdentifyasTired - do you know how trustworthy they are?

I think the war in Yemen is a bit like climate change. People feel so powerless to help that they just don't bother even engaging with it.

With Yemen, writing to your MP etc will achieve nothing. The power in that region is with Saudi Arabia and the US.

This week Donald Trump's administration has begun applying serious pressure for a ceasefire. Let's hope something comes of that - while the Saudis are still on the back foot after the Khasoggi debacle.

@user1497863568 this is a fairly old article now, but there's quite a lot of information in it which might help to answer your question:

edition.cnn.com/2015/03/26/middleeast/yemen-saudi-arabia-offensive-why-now/index.html