Cold Weather Causes Problems for Yemen's Displaced Women and Children

This blog is written by Najwa Mekki, Communications Officer for UNICEF in the Middle East and North Africa. From 22-28 January she visited Yemen and made a trip to Amran to meet some of the women and children displaced by conflict in the country's troubled north.

Ever since the raging conflict has driven her from her home in Saada to the city of Amran, Fatma has been praying day and night for the fighting to end so that she could be reunited with her two married daughters who stayed behind, one of them a mother of 10. Her prayers will only be heard if the two warring parties agree to a cessation of hostilities.

All promises of hope have so far been dim, including a recent ceasefire offer by the rebels which the government turned down. Until a permanent solution is reached, Fatma and the more than 250,000 persons who have been displaced by the conflict since it first erupted in 2004 will continue to live away from their homes, in camps for displaced persons or scattered among host communities in the governorates of Amran and Hajjah.

I met Fatma in Amran City a few days ago when I was there to see the distribution of hygiene kits for 200 internally displaced families. The kits were donated to UNICEF and included soap, diapers, sanitary napkins, detergent, and other hygiene items. Distribution was carried out with support from Yemen Women's Union.

The city of Amran is only a 30 minute drive from the capital Sanaa but the long wait at checkpoints can turn that into a one and a half hour trip. As of December 23, Amran governorate is home to an estimated 5,200 displaced families. Nearly half of these, or some 20,000 persons, live in Amran City, scattered among the host population.

Fatma, along with many families from Saada, arrived to Amran five months ago when the conflict escalated. She has been sharing a rented apartment with relatives, all displaced like her. The five families - or 28 persons - have made up for the limited space by pitching two tents in the front yard which serve as men's sleeping quarters.

One of her other daughters, 15-year-old Shohra, works to help improve hygiene conditions in her community. After receiving a hygiene promotion training from Oxfam, a UNICEF partner, Shohra now goes door-to-door teaching women how they can help protect their children from the risk of diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases.

"I tell mothers and children that they have to wash their hands before and after they eat, after they use the bathroom, and before they prepare food," she proudly says.

A few houses down the road, 10 families, made up of 50 persons, share a four-bedroom house. They have been renting the house for the past two months, paying 40,000 rials -or US$200 - which the women have helped raise by selling their gold. They had no money for February's rent, and the landlord was threatening to evict them.

One of the tenants is Ahlam. An adult literacy teacher back in Saada, she and her family had to flee Saada during the month of Ramadan.

"We had houses back home," She said. "But we left with just the clothes on our back. Our children are not used to the cold weather, and many of them have no warm clothes."

Children run around the neighbourhood barefoot. In addition to the obvious signs of chronic malnutrition, many also seem to suffer from upper respiratory infections. As part of its efforts to assist children affected by the fighting, UNICEF has already distributed warm clothing to more than 20,000 children in Saada town as well as in the governorates of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah.

But in a conflict where thousands of civilians are unable to flee to safer areas, access remains an issue and the needs remain daunting.