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URGENT SOLIDARITY FUNDRAISING TO SUPPORT YEMENI HEALTHWORKERS TO PROVIDE VITAL LIFE SAVING SERVICES FOR VULNERABLE BABIES & CHILDREN

#Yemen can’t wait

Health workers at Al-Sabeen Children’s Hospital in Sana’a Yemen are treating children affected by war, severe and acute malnutrition, cholera, diptheria, malaria, dengue and COVID-19. As hunger intensifies the need is greater than ever. This solidarity fundraising supports health workers to do their work, purchase vital lifesaving medicines, basic medical equipment and investigations.

Yemen has endured over five and a half years of war. Yemen is the world’s largest humanitarian crisis. We are fundraising in solidarity with health workers at Al-Sabeen hospital in Sana’a, Yemen who are working tirelessly (and often risking their own lives) to provide essential medical care and save lives. As global funding crises hits, existing funds shrink yet the need on the ground intensifies. An article in the Guardian in October 2020 states how the United Nation has warned that Yemen is on the brink of losing an entire generation of children to hunger, and that acute malnutrition in under 5s is at the highest level since the war began.

Al-Sabeen Hospital is the only centre in Yemen with a functioning Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and children can still access adequate medical care. Al-Sabeen services are provided for free, which is unusual in Yemen, and staff volunteers are well motivated but have not received salaries during the war and face severe shortages of supplies. Al-Sabeen paediatric unit is led by alumni who completed their post-graduate studies at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool. They are senior Yemeni paediatricians and have shown incredible resilience in the face of war and multiple hardships and have been recognised internationally for their brilliance and commitment (see links below). They are organising staff with minimal resources and medical professionals are working without payment. They were recently visited by peace ambassador and scouser Adam Kelwick and you can see the videos he made of the hospital, the dire need on the ground and the impact of this solidarity fundraising.

Through this site and solidarity fundraising in Liverpool (habibti, staff at LSTM, Liverpool Yemeni’s community and many more) we have been sending £2,000 a month direct to senior paediatricians at Al-Sabeen to support staff to carry out their work and buy necessary equipment and resources. To date money raised (over 50K so far) has supported nurses and doctors (even things like making sure they are able to get to work), extended the Paediatric Intensive Care Unit and Emergency Services for children and been used to purchase equipment (feeding tubes, pulse oximetry, thermometers, resuscitation sets) and lifesaving drugs. We aim to provide as much support as possible and to fundraise for the continuation of services. This is a life and death scenario on the ground every day.

If you feel inspired by their work – as we do -please urgently donate in solidarity with our brave, inspiring and committed Yemeni health workers colleagues.

Our monthly habibti_liverpool fundraising stall at Granby Street Market in Liverpool, is on hold due to COVID-19, but you can still purchase our stock online – please check out habibti_liverpool on instagram or Habibti Liverpool on facebook to learn more; and buy habibti tote bags and trolley tokens, also sheablissliverpool for hand-made shea butter bath melts where a proportion of the proceeds go to Al-Sabeen Hospital. If you have other solidarity fundraising ideas please do get in touch.

Earlier reports:

Adam Kelwick visits Al-Sabeen hospital, October, 2020 - https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHLHkLgnXI3/?igshid=k8mq7ee36fls

Najla Al-Sonboli awarded an honorary degree at the 2019 Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine graduation where she was recognised as an inspirational leader, who has motivated her team to continue to work for the benefit of their young patients, providing voluntary services with minimal resources. - https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/news-events/news/lstm-graduation-2019

Professor Najla Al-Sonboli was recognised as a Heroine for Health in 2018 at the World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva, for her tireless work in her home country of Yemen. - https://www.lstmed.ac.uk/news-events/news/lstm-alumna-and-research-partner-recognised-as-a-heroine-for-health-at-who

In October 2018 Orla Guerin met Najla Al-Sonboli and the families of desperately sick children, who are unable to leave Yemen to seek the medical care they require: The Sick Children Trapped by Yemen’s War BBC World 26 October 2018

In March 2018 Najla Al-Sonboli contributed to a BBC World Service podcast, The Real Story: “What is fuelling war in Yemen:”

The desperate situation at the hospital was highlighted in October 2018 in reports for the BBC by Orla Guerin and in dialogue with Najla Al-Sonboli.