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<\/p>\nHUDAYDAH, Yemen \u2013 \u201cI didn\u2019t actually believe that she was still alive until I saw her for myself,\u201d Mareiah, 15, says of her sister Doa.<\/p>\n
One-year-old Doa\u2019a was experiencing complications from severe acute malnutrition, including pneumonia, but the nearest health centre was about an hour away by car. Her father, Hussein, wasn\u2019t sure his daughter could even survive the journey to the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pretty sure she wouldn\u2019t make it,\u201d Hussein recalls. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t give up,\u201d he says, adding that he needed to borrow money just to get his daughter to the centre for treatment.<\/p>\n
Doa\u2019a was one of the hundreds of thousands of children in Yemen suffering the most extreme and visible form of undernutrition as four years of conflict continue to take a devastating toll on families. Almost 10 million people in Yemen are suffering from extreme hunger, while around 360,000 children under five are suffering from severe acute malnutrition.<\/p>\n
The suffering is particularly acute for residents in the port city of Hudaydah, where ongoing clashes, soaring prices and a lack of basic services have made life almost unbearable for residents, who are struggling to access affordable food.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen Doa\u2019a arrived at the centre, we provided medical treatment and gave her formula until her condition improved,\u201d says Dhia Al-Haq Al-Omari, a doctor at the centre. He notes that the centre doesn\u2019t just provide children with much-needed nutrition, but also has a health educator on hand to provide helpful information for mothers such as how to prepare the most nutritious meals possible.![\"\"](\"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/UN0276396-27-1024x683.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\nThe UNICEF-funded facility, operated by the Taibah Foundation, also covers the cost of patients\u2019 transportation home. This is tremendously important because even the cost of a shared car or taxi can be prohibitive for many families, further endangering babies and children who might not be able to reach treatment facilities at all. But Al-Omari warns that despite the treatment, children and their families still face an uphill struggle because of the deteriorating situation in the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can provide treatment for those that come here, but that\u2019s not going to be enough,\u201d Al-Omari says, adding that the tough economic circumstances confronting Doa\u2019a\u2019s family could well take a toll on her health in the future.<\/p>\n
\nHussein says that even before the conflict, when prices for basic goods were more reasonable, he struggled to make ends meet for his family. Now, four years later, the money he earns from making the rope beds popular with locals doesn\u2019t even cover the cost of feeding his family.<\/p>\n
Hussein lives with his mother, wife and children in a tiny oshah, a small house made of mud and sticks, in Hudaydah. The family have decorated the walls of the oshah with some drawings \u2013 despite the fact that their home could collapse at any time when it rains.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy son works hard trying to support us,\u201d Hussein\u2019s mother says. He has little choice. \u201cWe have nothing, and nobody to help us,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n
Doa\u2019a\u2019s mother, Zahra, is also suffering from health problems. She was forced to sell her jewelry to pay for treatment. She says she is happy, though, that Doa\u2019a appears to be healthy since she returned home thanks to the treatment she received.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t think Doa\u2019a would come home,\u201d she says. \u201cBut the health workers at the treatment centre gave her the medicine and baby formula she needed, so she\u2019s doing OK now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hussein adds: \u201cIt\u2019s enough for me that my daughter returned to the house alive and that she is smiling and laughing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Source: UNICEF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
HUDAYDAH, Yemen \u2013 \u201cI didn\u2019t actually believe that she was still alive until I saw her for myself,\u201d Mareiah, 15, says of her sister Doa. One-year-old Doa\u2019a was experiencing complications<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":11093,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11098"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11098\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11099,"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11098\/revisions\/11099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11093"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mindsforcommunity.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}