SHAFAQNA – In March 2015 Saudi Arabia, the richest country in the Arabian Peninsula and regional superpower declared war on impoverished Yemen.
Backed by a grand regional coalition and the tacit agreement of the international community, Saudi Arabia has ravaged Yemen, raining missiles on its people.
As weeks turned into months, Yemenis found themselves caught in the eye of a furious storm, the prisoners of a war they did not seek nor did initiate.
Over 26 million people now stand in the line of fire.
The poorest nation of Arabia,over 50 percent of all Yemenis had to contend with an estimated $2 per day to survive – today over 50 percent of all Yemenis have to make due with less than a $1 per day, notwithstanding monetary devaluation.
In 2012, UNICEF reported that over a million children had been categorized as severely malnourished – today thousands have died of malnutrition, poor sanitation and a lack of medicine.
After six months of intense fighting and a de-facto blockade on commercial goods into the country, more than 21 million of Yemen’s 25 million people now require some form of aid to survive, and more than 1.5 million have fled their homes.
The humanitarian crisis in Yemen has reached “disturbing proportions,” with more than 535,000 children facing malnutrition, imminent famine and death, UNICEF senior official Afshan Khan told the media this October.
“We are facing the potential of a huge humanitarian catastrophe … The levels of malnutrition that are being reported for children are extremely critical,” said Khan, the director of the U.N. Children’s Fund’s emergency programs around the world.
The World Food Program recently sounded off alarms over the critical situation in Yemen, as 13 million people have not had access to adequate food, while 6 million more face a “particularly difficult situation.”
UNICEF said fewer than 20 percent of food centers are operating in the embattled country. The U.N. body warned the situation is likely to worsen soon.
The death toll in Yemen since the start of Saudi-led airstrikes has climbed to 5,400 people, including more than 2,400 civilians and at least 502 children, according to UNICEF.
Independent sources have warned that those statistics are more than just a little “conservative”. Sources in Yemen have put the death toll at over 15,000 people, the majority of which civilians.
Suffocated by an embargo which has defied all humanitarian laws, Yemen has been cut off from the world.
With no food, no fuel, no access to clean water, no medicine, no shelter and no means to protect themselves from the harsh climate, millions await, completely destitute.
Because humanitarian aid has so far been entrusted to Saudi Arabia, and because Saudi Arabia has systematically imposed conditions on such aids; thus violating international law, the Mona Relief Organization decided to step in this humanitarian wasteland and offer some comfort to a people otherwise forgotten.
The Mona Relief Organization relies solely on independent donations. The NGO does not represent any political party, and it does not speak for any political or religious agenda.
This local NGO aims to provide humanitarian assistance where it is needed, while offering long lasting solutions for the communities it serves.
Whenever possible the Mona Relief Organization sources products locally to boost commerce and provide local economic relief.
Because Yemen is under blockade, relying on local stocks is the only way!
While the NGO has been so far successful, winter and a recent humanitarian degradation prompted the organization to launch an urgent appeal:
War is a tragedy, let’s not make it the end of Yemen’s story.