• This survey is one of its kind. It is a rich source of information for humanitarian actors in Yemen to help them assess the size of damage that happened to the different sectors: health, education, shelter, water and others.
• Because of the current humanitarian crisis in Yemen, the rate of people living under poverty line reached 60%; that is 30% more than before.
• Al Kuwairi, "We hope the survey will help in making the right plans and in effectively and efficiently using resources to face this crisis."
  
   

The Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen: Challenges and Prospects of the Humanitarian Response conference was organized by QC and 13 other regional and international organizations and networks. The conference was held at Marriott Hotel in Doha. QC had conducted a survey to evaluate the damage caused by the Yemeni crisis to the different sectors and to assess the needs of the affected Yemenis. During the conference, the results of the survey were announced.

This survey is considered one of its kind. It is a rich source of information added to other useful references that would help the humanitarian actors in Yemen assess the damage that happened to its different sectors. It would also help review the needs of all sectors, identify the priorities, and reinforce the society's capability to face and recover from the crisis.   

Coordinating Efforts

Youssef bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, QC's CEO, said, "We made sure to conduct this survey because we understand the importance of identifying the amount of damage that has happened to Yemen and its infrastructure. This survey will help us prioritize our work, mobilize resources and coordinate between the humanitarian actors in Yemen. We hope it will help in making the right plans and in effectively and efficiently using resources to face this crisis." He also commended the work of other partners such as OCHA whose work is considered a main reference and humanitarian actors in Yemen, King Salman for Relief and Humanitarian Aid Center in particular.

The Greatest Crisis

The Yemeni crisis is considered one of the greatest crises around the world considering the number of people who were affected by it. 80% of around 26,000,000 Yemenis were affected. As estimated by the UN, the rate of people living under poverty line reached 60% (i.e. 35% more than how it was before the crisis).

Main Goal

The main goal of this survey is to assess the damage that the recent events caused to the following sectors: food security and food, health, water and sanitation, shelter and in-kind supplies, livelihoods and education. It was conducted to identify the needs of the affected people in some of Yemen's governorates. Other sub-goals included: evaluating and assessing the size of damage that happened to the sectors under survey, preparing a clear visualization of the urgent needs to face the bad conditions of the sectors under survey, preparing a group of programs and activities that would revive the economy and would secure livelihoods for affected communities, achieving a comprehensive work that joins between relief and development, and unifying the relief efforts of the active organizations which work in the fields of relief and development. 

Qualitative and Quantitative Parts

For its quantitative part, the survey used a questionnaire, since it is considered one of the best research tools. The researchers carried out some interviews to receive real data and made use of all the documents of previous studies conducted in the same field.

As for its quantitative part, the survey used a focus group discussion (FDG) and observation as tools for receiving data.

Team Members

A field team conducted the survey under the supervision of a technical team based in Doha. The field team comprises a main researcher, 14 supervisors, 133 researchers and 14 managers (i.e. 162 members). In addition, there are 4 members in the technical team in Doha headed by Mohammed bin Ali Al Ghamdi, Executive Director of International Development.

Results in Figures

The following is a list of the most important results of the survey:

• The total number of affected projects in the fields of water and sanitation is 735; i.e. around 17% of the total number of projects in the targeted areas.
• 656,747 families were affected because of the damage that happened to the fields of water and sanitation.
• The educational sector is affected in around 78% of the affected areas.
• 2,987 schools were included in the survey; 949 of which were affected (i.e. around 32% of the total number of schools).
• 488,638 students were deprived from continuing their education because of the damage in the educational institution.
• 227 medical and health facilities were damaged; whether destroyed or lost.
• Around two thirds of the communities under survey were confirmed to have been affected in the health sector.
•  Around 631,421 families were affected because of the damage in the health sector.
• All of Yemen was affected in the field of food because of the recent events there. Around 99% of the areas were affected.
• 861,458 families could not have sufficient food.
• 2,500,000 people became displaced (i.e. 8 times more than the number when the crisis first started).
• Taiz, Umran, Hajjah, Sana'a and Abyan are of the most affected areas in Yemen. The number of displaced people from all of these governorates reached more than 1,500,000 persons.

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• The visit aims at allowing volunteers to be involved  in humanitarian field work and allocating support for poor people around the world through social networks.
• Al Ali: We thank Qatar’s philanthropists for their donations; the aids and projects QC provider are the fruit of their donations.

A delegation from QC's Social Network went on a humanitarian mission to Bangladesh so as to identify the beneficiaries’ needs face to face and to allocate support for the projects QC implements in Bangladesh.

Delegation’s Members

QC's Social Network delegation included Ahmed Abdullah, a Journalist; Asmaa Al Hammadi,  a Journalist; Eman Al Ka’bi,  a Journalist; Mr. Abdullah Al Anzi, representing himself, Ka’bat Al Madyoum and Live Qatar. QC’s delegation included Mr. Ahmed Saleh Al Ali, QC’s Director of Information Department; Mr. Ibrahim Fityan, Director of Support and Media Coordinator; Mr. Ahmed Al Burdini, Director of Social Network at QC.

Mr. Al Ali said, “The visit lasted for four days and covered some of QC’s projects in the fields of orphans’ sponsorship, education, construction, and training. The delegation from QC and QC's Social Network felt very happy to be part of such an amazing experience.”  

The idea of the visit, as he mentioned, was to organize a visit through which the social network activists would be in the field and report their experiences to their followers. “This way the whole world will be able to see the effectiveness of projects in the lives of the needy people,” he commented.

Schools for Orphans

Al Ali also spoke about how the team from QC's Social Network was able to visit an under-construction multi-service complex in Dhaka. It consists of 4 floors; there is a mosque and a dorm for orphans where 400 orphans stay.   

The delegation paid a visit to a multi-service center for girls, which was established by the philanthropists of Qatar through QC. “The center has a dorm, a water well, a mosque, a school and a medical center,” he explained.

Mr. Al Ali concluded his speech, “We thank the philanthropists for their generous donations. The aids and projects QC provides are the fruit of their donations. We hope all the Qatari youth contribute and get involved into QC’s charity programs so as to support humanitarian work”.

An Honorary Shield for the Ambassador

The delegation paid a visit to the ambassador of Qatar in Bangladesh. Mr. Ahmed Saleh Al Ali, QC’s Director of Information Department, granted an honorary shield to the ambassador Mr. Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Dahimi and thanked him for the efforts the embassy pays to facilitate QC’s work and the delegations’ visits.

QC continues to receive support and spread the culture of charity work.  

It has recently inaugurated its own social network in cooperation and partnership with multiple groups and activists of the Qatari society. QC signed cooperation agreements with some of the activists and stars of Qatar to help serve the community through online promotion of projects and development projects. This way QC would be able to invest their abilities in serving humanitarian work through a distinguished work that serves charity.

The idea of starting QC's Social Network is to keep up with the advancements of information and technology. “QC’s interest in recent technology indicates how advanced it is. It does not adhere to conventional means of communication and media; rather, it uses modern media to promote charity work,” he added.
 

Follower on Social Medias 

QC’s followers on its social networks are increasing rapidly which reflects how interactive the Qatari society is with QC’s programs, projects, activities and campaigns inside and outside Qatar. It also proves QC’s follow up with the recent technology and media, and its investment in new groups to help serve charity work.

The number of QC’s followers on Twitter is now more than 100,000 people. QC has uploaded more than 200 videos on its channel on Youtube. The videos include reports, relief campaigns, promotions, success stories and others. The views of the channel reached more than 800,000 reviews.

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The event was held alongside a United Nations event and was attended by a number of important figures and representatives of international organizations, including the Secretary-General of the United Nations Assistant for partnerships in the Middle East and Central Asia, Rashid Khalikov, and involving the participation and support of the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, which provided all the facilities and technical and logistical support for the event.

Mr/Mohammed bin Ali Al-Ghamdi, Executive Director for International Development at QC, said that the event met with considerable praise, pointing to the importance of QC’s desire to highlight the role of education in promoting social harmony in post-conflict areas such as Somalia, Sri Lanka and Bosnia.

Rashid Khalikov congratulated QC on its efforts and thanked the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar's for its contribution.

He added “Education during emergencies is a human subject, pointing out that the provision of education decreases the risk of violence and conflict. He then highlighted that the importance of education should not stop at children and young people but it should reach parents equally for the life continuation feeling it provides.

Program of the session 

The session was initiated by Al-Ghamdi who welcomed the attendees before playing an introductory video about QC, followed by the submission of papers by experts from international organizations and institutions and academics from four universities. The first axis provided a general background on the event theme of ‘The role of education in promoting social harmony’, the second was entitled ‘what is expected from education in terms of the re-modeling of social harmony in the post-conflict areas?’, the third included case studies from Somalia, Sri Lanka and the fourth and last discussion covered education and its impact on conflicts as well as society.

The first axis

“The role of education in promoting social harmony, the main theme of this event, covers a range of issues, namely: the reality of conflicts across the world and their effects, conflict resolution and peace-sustainability efforts, conflict and issues connected to social cohesion, education and the promotion of social harmony and the challenges facing the harnessing of education in promoting social harmony,” Al Ghamdi said, concluding that the first axis posed a range of questions, answered by the following axes.

The second axis

the second axis was presented by Dr/Mohammed Sharqawi, Professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, and included a definition of social harmony in terms of academic and research based social theories. Sharqawi discussed the relationships between social harmony, identity, economic interests, marital status and belonging to a group or community.

Prof.Sharqawi spoke of a Bosnian case, providing a practical example of how to adapt the tool of education in order to achieve and promote social harmony in a country like Bosnia, which suffered from ethnic and religious conflict for over five years, leading to the murder and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and tearing apart the social fabric of the communities.

The session ended with proposals for education re-modeling before social harmony by focusing on three key factors: redesign of the curriculum and reviewing the curricula of existing decisions, by focusing on primary and secondary education as a sustainable Peace factor, and finally, promoting and spreading the culture of equal citizenship.

The third axis

As for case studies, Mr.Abdul Rahman Sharif, Head of Non-Governmental organizations in Somalia, used Somalia as a model, including background on the country and explaining that in reality the country is divided into three areas; Somaliland (independent), Portland (autonomous) and southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu.

Sharif spoke about the conflict in Somalia and the different types of conflict. His paper considered the implications of the collapse of the education system in many areas of Somalia. He went on to consider some of the initiatives in the revival of the educational process and the use of different types of education as tools to promote social harmony and a culture of peace, ending with recommendations and proposals on strengthening and unifying the educational system in order to promote a culture of peace and social harmony.

Miss/Stephanie Licht, head of evaluation and follow-up in the German agency GIZ, gave a presentation on the Sri Lankan case, covering the German experience through the program supported by the German government and which has been in place since 2005, i.e. during and after the conflict. The program achieved outstanding results in terms of social harmony through education. The Sri Lankan situation can be characterised by its similarity to the current conflicts in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Yemen in terms of ethnic, religious, sectarian and ethnic diversity, with differences in culture, religious beliefs and even language.

The program focused on secondary education, where numerous approaches and curricula were used at the beginning of the program through its application to a sample of schools reached 200 schools before ruling out a combination of these approaches that have proven to be of no importance or unfeasible in achieving social harmony, along with the adoption of approaches, which contributed to its promotion.

Among the most important program success factors were the contribution and participation of the government and its complete conviction of the program importance, the desire of local authorities for the success of the program, the contribution and participation of local communities in the program and their interaction with it, and finally the use and adoption of a multi-level approach (government, region (province), schools) during the design and application.

The program focused on three issues involving curriculum design: social and psychological care (to address the effects of violence and conflict on the target groups), education of the second nationality (Sinhala, Tamil) in secondary education, and peace and the values ​​of education. At the end of the paper Licht spoke of the positive results achieved, backing them up with numbers and statistics.

The fourth axis

Axes four and five were introduced by Dr. Alan Codman, President of the International Institute of Education in New York. Codman presented some important information about education and the conflict-affected and vulnerable, particularly students and teachers.

He spoke of the importance of involving local people in the planning of finding solutions to the problems of education in their respective countries, as well as the need to be supportive of the political administration of the educational process and to support the importance of the resumption of education in conflict zones.

Codman’s talk focused on three key issues in education in conflict zones: protecting teachers, the training and enabling of teachers in places of conflict and focusing on the dropout of students and their immediate return and reintegration into education.