Having lost their homes and jobs to the conflict, nearly 6,000 people face life dependent on aid. Caroline Berger relays a blog from one of Oxfam’s field staff in Yemen.

It’s my third week as an Oxfam engineer inside this makeshift city set deep in the mountains of Northern Yemen. This is the Al Mazarakh camp in Haradh – home to 950 families, or nearly 6,000 people, displaced by the ongoing fighting between Al Huthi rebels and government forces in the region. I have come to this place to provide urgently needed assistance for people who have been displaced by the conflict.

More displaced people are arriving everyday, barefoot and bewildered.

The scorching temperatures have ceased but the scars of this war continue to burn. Desperation and sorrow are etched into the faces of the hundreds of families that reside in the Al Mazarakh refugee camp. Yesterday, one man with five family members asked me: ”What am I supposed to do? I have no job and no income. I’ve lost everything.” It’s a familiar story for the hundreds of refugees, now internally displaced and living in limbo.  

There is a sense of profound loss amongst these people, dependent on humanitarian aid from organisations like Oxfam. Today I spoke with a 45-year-old woman who was forced to flee her village after fighting broke out. For four days and three nights, she had no choice but to sleep on the side of the road with her eight children and walk barefoot along the beaten tracks to safety. She explained: “I lost everything; my home, my belongings. Now I have nothing.” She told me that her husband lost his livelihood due to the conflict and had no choice but to leave for Saudi Arabia in search of an income. The conflict has disrupted her family, and her sister is looking after her children far away from the camp. I felt helpless as the tears began to fall from her eyes, “I can’t afford to pay for the transportation to visit my children. I’ve no idea when I’ll see my family again.” 

Oxfam has been providing her with basic household items, a hygiene kit and has built a basic latrine. She hopes one day to return home.

Amid the sadness, I feel a sense of hope that our emergency relief work – improving health and sanitation – is making a difference. I remember my first days inside the camp and the choking smell that hung in the air from the lack of sanitation. Now the hygiene situation has improved and we’ve just finished the construction of 250 latrines inside the camp. The day we built our first latrine, one man told me “I’m so happy to have this. For almost a month and a half, my nine family members had no latrine and no privacy.”

As darkness falls, I feel relieved that we are making positive progress in addressing health risks in Al Mazarakh camp, and that our assistance is valued by both men and women inside the camp. Tomorrow I will begin my usual 14-hour shift and continue to help people cope with their loss – the first step on this difficult journey.

Find out more: Conflict in Yemen

Tags: yemen

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 4th, 2009 at 4:15 pm and is filed under General, Humanitarian, News Blog, You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.