Housing is one of the most common social problems experienced by areas affected by war and natural disasters in Yemen. Many families with children, single adults, adolescents and the elderly suffer lack of shelter.
Thousands of families live in damaged (threatened to fall) dwellings, nests, tents, and the main reason is lack of affordable housing. These low-income and destitute families also suffer from serious housing problems due to high housing costs.
While the problem of finding suitable shelter seems difficult for many families as many of them are subjected to forced evictions. Housing is increasingly seen as an opportunity for investment, rather than a social benefit and a basic human right.
In “Bajil, Hudaydah Governorate”, there are hundreds of families living in seriously overcrowded housing or nesting where one or more families live in one house that does not comply with the standards, which means living in a place that corresponds to the individual’s culture, and enables them to access appropriate services like schools, work opportunities and family privacy.
“A house of my own is a luxury… Where do we get it from, it’s a dream”
Hajja Fatima, 80 years old, lives with her single and married children in a nest that does not protect them from the heat of the sun or the cold of winter, a family of five children in addition to her grandchildren, living without a reliable source of income and support from organizations or good people.
Fatima adds with great sorrow, “I lived my life like this… And I’m dying without a house.”
Fatima’s life is similar to the lives of thousands of families who live below the poverty line, living in nests or small tents located near sewage streams or in the course of floods, especially in the heavy rain seasons in Hudaydah governorate – Bajil district.
“We went to the street looking for a place after floods ruined the tent.”
Fatima talked about what her family suffered as a result of floods and rain, how they slept in the open for several days, how the rain flooded her tent.
The response of the Haidara Foundation for Peace and Humanitarian Development and the United Humanitarian Foundation (UHF)
The right to proper housing means more than providing a roof under which one lives, which is the right to live a safe life in a decent shelter.
Not all people can enjoy this basic right. Millions of people still live in humble houses or random settlements.
The Haidara Foundation for Peace and Human Development supported by the UHF established 30 housing units in 2021 and 2022, which benefited 210 people in the first and second stages. Fatima was among these families who received a housing., and another housing unit for her children and grandchildren.
The joy of Fatima and her children was a great motivation to continue facing challenges to continue building new housing units for those affected by natural disasters.
At the beginning of 2023, we started implementing the third phase of the UHF housing project, which benefits groups affected by rain and floods in “Bajil of Hudaydah Governorate”. The project consists of 75 housing units to be built on an area of 8,400 meters, benefiting a total of 450 people.
https://youtube.com/watch?v=bXeyW0qhEj