Home health clinics step in to plug critical health gaps in conflict-ridden Yemen
Twenty-five year old Faten Dhanri returned to her village in Haydan District in northern Yemen after leaving her job as a midwife in the district capital. Six months ago, she set up a health clinic in her house, which now provides basic health services including nutrition, immunization and reproductive health services to more than 3,000 village residents.
“She was not receiving her salary anymore, so she came back home,” said her 30-year old husband Fahd Qasem. “In January, UNICEF approached us to start a home health clinic in our one-room house. UNICEF provides medical supplies and Faten is the health worker. The rest of the family helps to manage.”
Over 21 million people need humanitarian assistance in Yemen, where a brutal armed conflict has caused the already fragile health care system to all but break down in some parts of the country. Less than 30 per cent of life-saving medicines and medical supplies are entering Yemen due to restrictions and other challenges to commercial importation. According to WHO, 25 per cent of all health facilities have shut down. Many of those still functioning are operating at minimum level and are in desperate need of staff, medicines and medical supplies.
- UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs
- To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/.