Informing humanitarians worldwide 24/7 — a service provided by UN OCHA

Yemen

When a Despair Changed into HOPE (From A Worker on Motorcycle into a Skilled Construction Worker)

Attachments

When a Despair Changed into HOPE

Abdul Latif Madhuni, 38 years old lives in Al-Jufainah camp. He is a father of 5 children. Like millions of Yemeni people who has been affected by the conflict that has taken an economic toll on the country. Moreover, the majority of Yemeni people have received little or no salary in the past year as well while the price of basic commodities has is increasing.

Before the project, Abdul Latif was working on his rented dilapidated motorcycle to be able to provide the basic living needs of his family. He faced many difficulties in this work which made his life full of suffer. ’’I faced many problems, such as frequent breakdowns, lack of oil in the official price, and having to buy from the black market, which usually costs a lot". according to Abdul Latif.

"Working on a worn motorcycle which needs a permanent repair that consumes most of the income earned which already does not cover all the daily needs. As the motorcycle has a lot of malfunctions, some days I use all what I earn in repairing the bike and we remain the whole day without any expenses. In such cases, we used to borrow to cover the expenses of the house and then pay the accumulated debts.”, Abdul Latif said.

In addition, there was lack of work opportunities to get income for my family living. I searched a lot, but all my tries and efforts went in vain. Therefore, I decided to work any work to feed my family, so I thought about renting a motorcycle to support my family and lift it out from poverty. However, this was not the brilliant solution to my problem.

” By the beginning of the project, I was thinking of returning the motorcycle to its owner as it was like a burden instead of being an income source" Abdul Latif added.

Once I started working with the project in the activity of quarrying and building pallets, I re-gained my self-confidence.

I usually trust myself after I worked in this activity and benefited from it in two ways. “ The first: I was able to provide a stable source of income for my family in order to provide the basic needs of life, oil, sugar, and gas. The second: Re-confidence in myself to practice my previous profession in construction, as it is a good source of income and does not constitute any danger’’. Abdul Latif admitted.

At the beginning of the project, Abdul Latif started as an unskilled assistant for skilled workers because the engineers did not know that he had worked in construction work before. Also, he needed some capacity building and training after the disastrous life conditions that he passed through and affected him badly.

Abdul Latif added, “I really thank BFD for giving me the opportunity to work in construction, re-training me to secure a decent livelihood for me and my family.”

When the cash for work activity completed and as he restored his self-confidence, Abdullatif started searching for construction work opportunities.