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Rising from the ashes: A Yemen family's new home

13 September 2021

In July 2021, the Al-Ashur family tent burned down in the Om Elhadage internally displaced persons camp in Marib, home to 150 people. The Al-Ashurs – a grandfather, two parents and 7 children – had come to the camp when fighting near their home close to the front lines intensified, forcing them to leave. The family slept in the open air until a UNFPA-led Rapid Response Mechanism (RRM) team, while distributing emergency relief, volunteered to help rebuild the family’s temporary home, completing it in 48 hours.

Above, the family patriarch and his granddaughter search for anything they can salvage among the ashes of what used to be their home. They were able to find items for cooking but not much else, losing all their clothes and bedding they had brought when they fled to the camp. © UNFPA Yemen
A RRM team began to lend a hand in rebuilding the family’s tent by erecting the bones of the home. The RRM provides assistance to the newly displaced, distributing women’s dignity kits from the UNFPA, food from the World Food Programme and family hygiene kits from UNICEF, within 72 hours from the onset of displacement. The RRM is funded by the European Union Humanitarian Aid, Central Emergency Response Fund and Yemen Humanitarian Fund. © UNFPA Yemen
After the tent took two days to complete, RRM team members brought basic necessities to the family as well as to other families in the camp. UNFPA also supports the camp with mobile outreach teams consisting of a doctor, midwife, nurse, pharmacist, medical assistant and psychologist that provide reproductive health services including antenatal and postnatal care and family planning, psychosocial counselling and other gender-based violence support services. © UNFPA Yemen
Said Al-Ashur and one of his granddaughters, Kholoud, 11, carry supplies back to their new home. Children in the camp are currently not attending school and mostly help with household chores. © UNFPA Yemen
Sisters (from left) Kholoud, 11, and Asma, 13, tend to cooking with pots provided in the RRM relief package. Girls are often responsible for fetching water and firewood for cooking fuel. © UNFPA Yemen
In Om Elhadage camp, UNFPA distributed relief boxes to the 25 families living there. Since January 2021, the RRM has provided emergency relief to nearly 30,000 people in Marib Governorate, a hotspot of intense fighting. In addition, UNFPA has reached nearly 100,000 people with reproductive health and gender-based violence services there. © UNFPA Yemen
After a long day helping rebuild her family’s tent, Faten, 10, combs her hair with items from the RRM kit. Tonight will be the first night in three weeks she once again has a home to call her own. © UNFPA Yemen
Mother, Umm Asmaa, prepares dinner for her family. An estimated 73 per cent of the more than 4 million people displaced in Yemen are women and children. © UNFPA Yemen