"Every war is a war against children," said Eglantyne Jebb, who founded the charity Save the Children. Jebb got her start handing out flyers about children who were starving during World War I, rallying people to take action.
Now it's your turn to help Yemen's children and end a brutal civil war. You can write to your elected officials, urging them to encourage a peace treaty between Yemen's combatants. In Yemen, children have died from bombs and also starvation because of the seven-year conflict with the Saudi-led coalition fighting the Houthi rebels.
The one current ray of hope in Yemen is a truce that continues to hold, vastly reducing the violence. "The truce has now been holding in Yemen for two-and-a-half months, something unprecedented during this war, and something that seemed unimaginable at the beginning of this year," said Hans Grundberg, U.N. special envoy for Yemen.
Save the Children recently spoke with Yemeni children who want the fragile truce agreement to lead to lasting peace. The kids shared their ideas.
Ten-year-old Maya, who has shrapnel in her left arm, back and stomach from the fighting, pleaded, "It's essential the truce continues because we wish to live in safety. We don't want bombardment and fear. We want to live a safe and happy life, but if we slip into war again, we will be living in fear, just like the past [seven] years."
Ammar, 11, who was also injured by the fighting, said, "I wish the warring sides renew the truce and stop fighting, no bombing or anything. I would like to tell people in power, please, let there be peace."
Save the Children interviewed 20 Yemeni kids, including Ammar and Maya, who came up with their principles of peace for Yemen. They want the truce to continue and be the first step toward a lasting peace treaty. They want road blockages to end and people allowed to move freely about the country. The children want mines and other bombs removed from Yemen and want to be part of all future peace talks.
The Saudi coalition and the Houthis should listen to the children demanding peace. The international community needs to encourage peace in Yemen to safeguard the lives of millions at risk.
It's also urgent that we help feed Yemenis. There are 17.4 million people in Yemen suffering from severe hunger according to the U.N. World Food Program (WFP). That number is expected to increase to 19 million in the second half of the year.
With funding so low, WFP is being forced to scale back relief efforts. This is starting to impact life-saving child nutrition programs. A recent WFP report said it's "facing disruptions to the supply of specialized nutritious food, which combined with funding shortages, is expected to significantly impact nutrition interventions in Yemen over the coming months."
A further warning from WFP in the same report stated, "Additional assistance cuts will be unavoidable over the coming months unless additional funds are urgently mobilized." Both infant nutrition and school feeding programs in Yemen are in danger of being cut because of the lack of funds. We can help WFP, Save the Children and other charities by donating food to ensure no more Yemeni children starve to death.
Let's do everything we can to see they get this precious gift.
William Lambers is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program (WFP) on the book Ending World Hunger. His writings have been published by The Washington Post, History News Network, Cleveland's The Plain Dealer and many other news outlets. Lambers recently volunteered to write the Hunger Heroes section of WFP's online learning game Freerice.
The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.
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