Faraj Al-Matari. This is a story I wanted to share with you, which I experienced during our second round of food distribution in October 2017 in one of the poorest areas western Sana’a. In this area, live the majority of displaced families, who have been forced to leave their villages and homes because of the war.
I will never forget this woman. Zahrah or Om Samy was her name and Mother of seven children. She was the strongest and most courageous woman I had ever met, and when you hear her story, you will understand why I am in so much awe of her. She told me that she had fled her village in Taiz after the death of her husband because of an air strike on a market a year ago and that she was pregnant in the ninth month while fleeing from her village and got her seventh child Sami in a military car, which transported them from the city Taiz to Sana’a. She said, her son Sami was born under bombardment and exchange of fire. She lives now with her sister and her seven children, in a small room, no bigger than a closet. They had nothing, no furniture, no kitchen, just a room and a small bathroom.
In this area we found that there were many poor families and their food came mostly from what others had donated to them. And because we did not have much food to offer them, my friend Ammar a member of our team just registered the names of the families and we told them that our YF Team will be working hard and doing its best in order to provide more food supplies over the next weeks.
The war in Yemen has destroyed life for hundreds of people like Zahrah in Yemen. Prices for everything have skyrocketed and living there has become unaffordable for even the rich, let alone the poor and things are just getting worse. I know there is nothing we could do to stop the war, but there is something we all could do to help these families.