Wednesday, 25 May, 2022
The escalation of the conflict in Yemen led to the emergence of many humanitarian issues, most of which are related to health and nutrition, particularly for those who live in rural areas. Al-Akamah and Bani Zedan are two of the remote areas in Maghreb Anss district - Dhamar Governorate, where most of the residents are food and nutrition insecure. Moreover, for a long time, people in these villages have suffered from a lack of humanitarian assistance due to access constraints. All of these factors had resulted in an increase the number of malnutrition cases among children, and pregnant and lactating women. To help with the reduction of morbidity and mortality among the children U5 and PLW, YFCA incorporation with WFP implemented the promotion of preventive and lifesaving nutrition intervention in these villages.
YFCA team has faced several barriers to delivering assistance to residents of these villages due to the lack of paved roads. The only available road is bumpy and narrow. The combination of many factors such as distance, challenging terrain and lack of transport can have a life and death impact on reaching there. When the rapid response is critical, and despite all the challenges, our team had found a way to deliver the assistance using primitive means of transportation. ''People were doomed to watch their children weaken day by day, having no alternative but to hope for better days to come since the choice of taking their children to the health facility was not so easy, as they need to walk for 12 hours to reach the nearest health facility” one of the community health volunteers said.
In addition to distributing the nutrition supplements, the community health volunteers have been conducting sessions in order to raise the awareness of the community on the importance of breastfeeding and nutritional needs of young children and pregnant and lactating women and the nutritive feeding for all. Now residents of Alakamah and Bani Zedan become more aware of the benefits of a balanced healthy diet. “When we were surveyed by CHVs, we did not expect that the nutrition assistance would be delivered to our villages, for years we have been deprived of humanitarian assistance,” says one of Al-Akamah residents, ''thanks to the great effort of the team, people of Al-Akamah and Bani Zedan are now provided with the nutrition aids in their village by the community health volunteers “he added.
With a big smile on their face, villagers and CHVs have expressed their gratitude and appreciation to WFP and YFCA for implementing this program in their homeland.
YFCA team has faced several barriers to delivering assistance to residents of these villages due to the lack of paved roads. The only available road is bumpy and narrow. The combination of many factors such as distance, challenging terrain and lack of transport can have a life and death impact on reaching there. When the rapid response is critical, and despite all the challenges, our team had found a way to deliver the assistance using primitive means of transportation. ''People were doomed to watch their children weaken day by day, having no alternative but to hope for better days to come since the choice of taking their children to the health facility was not so easy, as they need to walk for 12 hours to reach the nearest health facility” one of the community health volunteers said.
In addition to distributing the nutrition supplements, the community health volunteers have been conducting sessions in order to raise the awareness of the community on the importance of breastfeeding and nutritional needs of young children and pregnant and lactating women and the nutritive feeding for all. Now residents of Alakamah and Bani Zedan become more aware of the benefits of a balanced healthy diet. “When we were surveyed by CHVs, we did not expect that the nutrition assistance would be delivered to our villages, for years we have been deprived of humanitarian assistance,” says one of Al-Akamah residents, ''thanks to the great effort of the team, people of Al-Akamah and Bani Zedan are now provided with the nutrition aids in their village by the community health volunteers “he added.
With a big smile on their face, villagers and CHVs have expressed their gratitude and appreciation to WFP and YFCA for implementing this program in their homeland.
