Islamic Help has delivered emergency aid projects to more than 300,000 people in war-torn Yemen as p...

Islamic Help has delivered emergency aid projects to more than 300,000 people in war-torn Yemen as part of a £1.5 million partnership programme with the United Nations.

With the country still suffering from civil strife, IH staff have been working across the nation to carry out food distributions and WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) programmes.

The work is the result of a $1.5 million (£955,000) partnership with the UN World Food Program to distribute emergency food provisions in three of the most conflict-affected governorates - Al Jawf, Amran, and Taiz – and another agreement with UNICEF to deliver a $0.85 Million dollars (£550,000) WASH emergency response programme.

A further 38,000 vulnerable people in and around the capital Sana’a will receive food parcels, designed to last a family for a month, as part of Islamic Help’s work with the Islamic Development Bank.

The UN partnership programmes cover 18 districts in eight governates across the country. The governates are Sana’a, Amran and Al Jawf in the north; Ma’areb, Al Baidh and Taiz in central Yemen, and Shabwah and Taiz in the south.

As part of the WASH programme with Unicef, Islamic Help has delivered ceramic water filters for household water treatment plus hygiene kits with associated promotional campaigns to more than 20,000 families (approximately 140,000 individuals) in Shabwah, Al Baidh, Ma’areb, Al Jawf and Amran.

A further 12,000 families (84,000 people) in the Amran governate will benefit from a partnership with UNOCHA (the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs).

This includes the provision of fuel to local water corporations; providing public water tanks; ceramic water filters for domestic use and hygiene kits.

The food distribution for the World Food Programme will benefit more than 18,000 families (nearly 128,000 individuals) in Al Jawf, Amran, and Taiz.

According to the United Nations, more than 2,000 civilians have died in the confict which has involved Shia rebels, known as Houthis, battling against the government, and air strikes launched in March this year against the Houthis by a Saudi Arabia-led coalition. An estimated 16 million of Yemen’s 26 million population is in desperate need of emergency aid.

An Islamic Help spokesman said: “These are extremely difficult times for Yemen. It is a tribute to the dedication and commitment of the Islamic Help staff that they are carrying out these emergency programmes which are reaching large parts of Yemen’s most vulnerable communities.”