16 THE ADVOCATE
INTERNATIONAL
UNICEF: Yemen now facing “worst humanitarian crisis in the world” KATHY KIM
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ive years of civil war has left Yemen decimated since March 2015, where children have become the most vulnerable collateral damage in a war fought by adults. The onset of COVID-19 in Yemen means they face a pandemic with alarming shortages in clean water and soap, on top of existing epidemics of cholera and vaccine-preventable diseases. UNICEF released a report in June describing Yemen as the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world”. Over 35 frontlines remain active across the country as violence persistently blights lives, leaving 12.3 million children in desperate need of humanitarian aid. A global pandemic is just one emergency layered upon the reality that Yemen’s health services are on the verge of collapse as 10.2 million children do not have access to basic healthcare and health workers are going unpaid for 3 years amidst a ravaged economy. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health revealed that more than 6,600 children under the age of five in Yemen could die over the next six months from preventable conditions such as diarrhea, respiratory tract infections and malnutrition, as COVID-19 weakens already fragile health systems and disrupts life-saving services.
UNICEF is currently the world’s largest development. humanitarian response program in Yemen, Dwyer argued that the solution is twowhere the very services keeping children fold. First, a longer-term peace resolution alive are facing an economic crisis. must be sought. In the meantime, urgent Yemen suffered the world’s worst humanitarian programs need to be concholera outbreak in April 2017 with more tinued in the communities. than 2.39 million suspected cases and “We need every country in the world, over 3,795 deaths. The disease remains all of the global community, to make pervasive today, where a quarter of those sure that we continue to advocate for a affected are children under the age of five peaceful solution to the war in Yemen years old. and making sure that the experiences of Vaccine-preventchildren are given able diseases such as the attention that “Jabra is seven years old. She is diphtheria and meathey deserve,” Dwsles have resurged learning the correct way to wash her yer said. in waves over the “While that hands. She is also learning about past five years. Due takes place, we Coronavirus. She is learning how to to the coronavirus need to be able to prevent the spread of Coronavirus, and pandemic, current what to do if someone is infected with keep providing disruptions in global [children] with it.” supply chains pose the life-saving a threat to vital vacassistance that’s cination campaigns, as much-needed vials keeping them alive. And for that, we may never reach the country. need funding.” Plagued by one the world’s worst A global pandemic amidst a civil war food crises, 2 million children under the poses an emergency on top of an already age of five are malnourished, including dire situation in Yemen, where children life-threatening severe acute malnutrition. with devastating odds to survive have Chronic malnutrition has stunted 45% gone ignored for half a decade. What’s of children under the age of five, leaving left is the perfect storm as COVID-19 them too short for their age and with threatens to wipe out a vulnerable health irreparable damage to their cognitive system in a country where clean water and soap have been scarce for years. UNICEF spokesperson Harriet Dwyer reflected on how Yemen has long been a forgotten war in the political consciousness of world leaders and the wider global populace. “People really haven’t acknowledged the gravity of the situation there for many, many years, but we all have a responsibility to,” Dwyer said. “I know everyone is facing chaos and crisis in their own countries right now, but the scale of suffering there needs the world to pay attention.”
You can still give to the Yemen Appeal: https://www.unicef.org.au/ appeals/help-children-in-yemen.
Image Credit: UNICEF in Yemen (Photo taken in Sana’a by Dhia Al-Adimi)
WFP’s Nobel Peace Prize h of battling hunger amid C
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World Vision Australia
he awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the World Food Programme (WFP) is a greatly deserved acknowledgement of the organisation’s work to combat hunger and foster peace in the world’s most vulnerable communities. The accolade also highlights the Herculean task for aid organisations currently combatting hunger and malnutrition fuelled by the COVID-19 pandemic that is ravaging livelihoods worldwide. World Vision Australia acting CEO Graham Strong said as a partner of the WFP for 30 years – and its largest implementing partner for the past 16 years – World Vision was delighted by such a highly respected recognition of the WFP’s work. “We partner with the WFP in many of the world’s toughest places, where the meal children receive through our school feeding programme is often their only source of nutrition,” Mr Strong said.
Government’s decision to deepen worsening crisis, s
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Refugee Council of Australia
coalition of refugee organisations has condemned the federal government’s decision to slash support to people seeking asylum in the 2020-21 Budget. This decision, they say, puts over 100 000 people, including around 16 000 children, at further risk of homelessness and destitution. The organisations, which represent a coalition of over 200 others, have been running the Nobody Left Behind campaign since May this year. The campaign has repeatedly called for ongoing support to be provided to 100,000 people seeking asylum who have been left without lifelines during the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent economic fallout. The Budget, however, not only failed to
