Vice article: Yemen is on the brink of famine

[idnib]

"Eighty percent of Yemen is currently in need of humanitarian assistance, and 19 of the country’s 22 governorates have reached crisis levels of food insecurity, according to the Food Programme. Due to the closure of the airport in the capital city of Sanaa; Saudi-led coalition border blockades; and repeated bombings of farms, wells, and agriculture, food supplies have dwindled."

 

Article: https://news.vice.com/story/yemen-is-on-the-brink-of-famine?cl=fp

 

 

 

 

Edited November 5, 2016 by idnib

[Guest]

Praying for them :(. What a mess.

[Nan in Mass]

Ug

When will we all learn some sense?

[Amira]

You can donate to the World Food Programme to help.

 

https://give.wfp.org/?step=country&utm_source=2013-wfp-billion&utm_campaign=2013-wfp-billion&utm_medium=legacy

[Anne in CA]

I don't understand how this happens. Muslims give so much money to charity, where does it go? How does anything get this bad? I'm sick for the hurting people, but the Muslims I know are such generous charitable givers that  it is hard for me to imagine it coming to this. Am I crazy? All the Islamic people I know personally give a great deal to charity. 

[Amira]

Yes, Muslims as a group donate a lot of money to a wide variety of causes, but there are a lot of needs in the world and a lot of places for people to donate to. Yemen is a hard place to get aid to and there isn't necessarily a lot of media attention focused on it. We all can help alleviate this crisis.

[Tanaqui]

Giving to charity is one of the five pillars of Islam, isn't it? SUPER IMPORTANT TO DO.

 

But the thing is, personal charity is never going to be enough to solve the world's problems. We need a workable infrastructure. In Yemen's case, that means we need the country not to be torn apart by war.

[creekland]

War and war-like actions bring many countries down.  What is destroyed takes so long to rebuild, and of course, actual lives messed up or destroyed rarely can be put back "good as new."

 

Intelligent minds need to come up with better solutions to solving problems.

 

I wish there were ways to convince Powers that Be of this truth.

 

I wish no one had to worry about where their food was coming from or whether they would even have any.

[FaithManor]

The war torn, unstable, destroyed infrastructure is a huge issue right now in terms of food distribution. My parents' church bought an entire shipment of food which was stolen by thugs. The roads are bombed out as well. Cities look like scenes from an apocalypse movie.

 

They need military help...supplies dropped by helicopter, supported by ground troops, and air cover to make sure terrorists/warlords don't get it.

 

It is horrible. Beyond words there. We have acquaintances with Doctors Without Borders that had to leave three years ago due to major safety issues and lack of food was already a problem, now it is an exponential crisis.

[TranquilMind]

I don't understand how this happens. Muslims give so much money to charity, where does it go? How does anything get this bad? I'm sick for the hurting people, but the Muslims I know are such generous charitable givers that  it is hard for me to imagine it coming to this. Am I crazy? All the Islamic people I know personally give a great deal to charity. 

There are so many logistical problems.  People can't get to where it is delivered.  It can't get in at all due to checkpoints and bureaucracy. Fighting in some areas prevents aid from getting through.  It gets diverted and stolen.

 

http://www.irinnews.org/report/102296/fixing-yemens-aid-problem

[idnib]

As others said, there are huge problems with infrastructure and logistics, and while money helps, it takes a concerted effort, and concerted efforts are inherently political. Tell that to a hungry baby, though.

 

And corruption. Always corruption. War doesn't just happen for geopolitical reasons. Someone is always profiting from the machine.

[TravelingChris]

North Koreans have been starving for years.  I suspect people are starving in Syria too.  Wars are very tough places to deliver food and North Korea doesn't do well in providing food for itself and keeps being extremely belligerent to all other nations. Both Syria and Yemen are having very complicated civil wars where aid workers have been killed and where the few drops of food that were made seem to have gone only to the people actually fighting since they have the weapons.

 

There is much sadness in the world if one knows where to look.

[FaithManor]

And another HUGE issue is potable water. Many are going to die of dehydration, dysentery, etc. It is as big a crisis as the food. On top of which much of what can be shipped, non perishable and easily transported so ie. bags of grain, in general need to be cooked in some way. At this point, some people are using pieces of scrap metal, putting water that is disease riddled and contaminated with chemical toxins from the bombing, in these make shift "pots", and cooking in them. If they don't boil long enough, the bacteria remains, and there just isn't anything that can be done about the mind boggling awful heavy metals and incendiary chemicals in the water.

 

I am all for backing highly reputed charities, but this is just so far beyond anything that the average charity can handle that it staggers. 

[mamiof5]

So much poverty in the world!! Praying for Yemen and other countries that are in such dire conditions :(