Despite a serious increase in violence over the past three months, NRC is able to continue working in Yemen.
"We're here as a humanitarian actor, and we're not opposed to any side, we're only here to provide relief for the people," says Amr, one of our staff members based in Sana'a.
Through our operations, we assist conflict-affected populations with clean water and sanitation, shelter, education, food security, livelihood opportunities and legal assistance.
Security and need for funding
We are currently working in several locations in Yemen, including Sana'a, Taiz, Aden, Hodeida, Ammran, Al-Dhala'a and Lahj, which are some of the main areas affected by the war.
"We are always looking to expanding our operations to cover more need," Amr explains.
The security situation has evolved a lot in recent months, and we are learning how to work in this changing context, how to interact with the factors that are altering the security situation.
"Whenever we go into a new area, the security assessment comes first and to be able to deploy people and start working in new areas, the funding needs to be covered."
Our work in Yemen:
Water, sanitation and hygiene promotion (WASH)
In some areas, the water systems have been affected. There is not enough fuel and the electric water system is not working. We provide solar powered water pumping systems to enable the population in the area access to clean water. We also participate in water trucking and hygiene promotion.
We assisted about 326,000 people with access to clean water and sanitation facilities in 2017.
Shelter and settlements
We provide shelter for internally displaced people who have been forced to leave their homes because of fighting in their area. We give them access to cash and through dialogue with landlords, arrange for people the ability to rent a place to stay. We also build latrines and construct small huts for others to stay with their families.
We assisted about 51,000 people with shelter in 2017.
Education
We're providing informal education and education in emergencies. We provide catch up classes for children who've been out of school because of the conflict. We rehabilitate schools hit by airstrikes, and in schools that are still open, we provide furniture, school material and the rehabilitation classrooms and restrooms.
We assisted about 8,000 people with education in 2017.
Information, counselling and legal assistance (ICLA)
We provide information and legal counselling to people who have fled their homes and have lost access to important identity documents. People who flee often do so with very few possessions, and later need to recover documents that show who they are for access health and education services, or to apply for work. We help facilitate this process and advocate for systems that protect the rights of people affected by displacement.
Livelihoods and food security
We provide people with food baskets and cash vouchers they can use to purchase food. Before handing out cash to people, we always do a market assessment to make sure that there are available vendors in the area, and that the population will be able to purchase what they need.
We assisted about 377,000 people with access to food in 2017.
