Plano, TX (August 14, 2019) – Pure Hands has teamed up with MedGlobal, United Mission for Relief and Project HOPE to establish a Humanitarian Alliance for Yemen aimed at designing and implementing humanitarian interventions which are well coordinated both in terms of geographic coverage and populations targeted. The four organizations, out of a strong desire to achieve greater impact on the ground, have decided to collaborate and utilize each organization’s strength in reaching more people, offering more services and providing a model for other humanitarian organizations to pursue.

Yemen’s protracted conflict, reaching its sixth year now, has resulted in fading global press coverage, donor fatigue and an increasing number of victims, including deaths of thousands of women and children. Nearly 80 percent of Yemen’s population do not know where their next meal will come from.

“Malnutrition, lack of schooling, famine, and a devastating proxy war, have all left Yemen’s children and youth, particularly young men, vulnerable to recruitment by extremist groups, posing regional and international security risks. Families are being forced by various militia groups to give up their children as child soldiers in order to ‘qualify’ for humanitarian relief to sustain themselves. The international community has a morale and humanitarian responsibility to respond to this crisis and help save and restore lives in Yemen”, says Mohamed Alhajaji, CEO of Pure Hands.

“What is happening in Yemen looks like “famine” as it is commonly understood– children, for instance, are dying of starvation. Yet the difficulty of collecting data means that an official famine, which has a technical definition and a high threshold, may still not be declared” (The New Humanitarian)[1]. The starving children and women in Yemen simply cannot wait for an official declaration of famine, which may only come after most of these victims have died.

Pure Hands’ emergency and ongoing food relief, in-kind health donations, child-care programs, seasonal projects and future medical missions to Yemen will be further strengthened through the newly created alliance where consortium members will provide value-added synergy and achieve better impact.

About the Alliance Members

Pure Hands focuses on alleviating poverty, providing economic opportunity, and delivering emergency relief. We work together to serve the larger community and to support the poor and most vulnerable groups, reducing their suffering through well-planned and comprehensive programs in health, food security, WASH, capacity building, livelihoods, and disaster preparedness and response.

MedGlobal provides sustainable health care services to the refugees, the displaced and the most vulnerable in crisis areas and low resources countries worldwide by deploying diverse short-term volunteer medical missions and partnering with local organizations.

Project HOPE operates around the world wherever the need is greatest, working side-by-side with health care workers and their communities, addressing the greatest public health challenges to enable people to live their best lives. We respond to disasters and health crises and stay on in communities long after disaster strikes to help find solutions to epidemics and any other neglected health needs.

UMR‘s health, education and food security programs aim to reduce the suffering of the most marginalized and vulnerable groups through immediate relief and development projects that provide tools and resources needed to increase their resilience and self-reliance.

Contact:

Hashem Awnallah

Sr. Strategic Adviser

hawnallah@purehands.org

+1 510-424-9856

[1] https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/analysis/2018/11/12/Yemen-war-conflict-deaths-data-famine