ABU DHABI // Families living in squalid conditions with poor sanitation will be the first to be given aid as part of the Yemen: We Care campaign.
The fund-raising drive, organised by Emirates Red Crescent, aims to provide help for 10 million people.
“This is what we have seen with our own eyes. The children living with the families are orphans or disabled, and a woman will be the one taking care of them.
“The elders and women take care of them,” said Hassan Al Jasmi, head of ERC’s office in Yemen. “The people of Aden love the people of the UAE, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf in general.”
In addition, under the directives of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of ERC, the UAE Martyrs’ Initiative has launched. The initiative, to carry out developmental projects in commemoration of the 45 servicemen who died last Friday, yesterday opened a camp for displaced Iraqis in Erbil.
The camp, which can accommodate 7,000 people in 1,000 housing units, has a clinic, two schools, an administrative centre, bakery, mosque, shops and children’s park.
Of the Yemen: We Care campaign, Mr Al Jasmi said the team was providing baskets of basic foodstuffs to Yemeni families that will last them up to a month.
“Some of them spent days without food and we hear them thank and praise us,” he said.
With the beginning of the school year next month, Mr Al Jasmi said the teams would meet pupils on the first day.
“Schools have been postponed to October, and we are working on equipping some schools and rehabilitating them.
“Other schools that are semi-prepared or were not damaged in the war, they will operate with support from the ERC, and other schools will all receive maintenance services to fix the destruction,” he said.
The ERC will be handing out schoolbags, pencils and notebooks to children in 53 schools.
“As soon as children arrive at school our teams will give them their ready filled bags,” he said.
The ERC is also working to provide water pumps and electricity in areas most affected by the war.
“We call upon people to donate so we can have the means to provide the humanitarian aid needed. They need the basics for everyday life, such as soap, and schoolbags for children.”
aalkhoori@thenational.ae