Help Yemen’s starving children
UAE’s initiative is vital in making sure 250,000 children at risk get specialised care and nutrition
Next Friday, dig deep into your pockets and pitch in to help prevent the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Yemen.
A nationwide campaign to raise donations for Yemen to counter food shortages in the country is being launched by the UAE’s Red Crescent Authority in cooperation with the Khalifa Bin Zayed Humanitarian Foundation and the Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Foundation.
The campaign is in line with directives by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan and His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and orders by General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. The initiative is followed up by Shaikh Hamdan Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of the Red Crescent Authority.
The situation facing children in Yemen is startling. According to figutres provided by the UN, 250,000 children face death within months from malnutrition and lack of proper food, water and sanitation. Already, 58 per cent of children under five suffer stunted development because of malnutrition.
We are blessed in the UAE with a comfortable standard of living, where children are nurtured and nourished, where water is ample, and where health services are excellent.
But we cannot ignore the plight of Yemen’s children, where water is scarce and poor, where little bodies are weak and frail, where immune systems are compromised and open to disease and infection, and where young stomachs are empty and minds filled with dreams of what might be.
This UAE initiative is vital in making sure the 250,000 children immediately at risk are provided with the specialised care and nutrition to survive, while the country’s 13 million are given a support system to thrive.
It is our duty, not just as UAE residents or nationals, but as members of the brotherhood of man, to help other human beings — it’s being human.
