UNICEF’s Support: A lifeline to Yemen’s Hospitals

More than five years of conflict in Yemen have led to the deterioration of the health system across the country. As a result, around 10.2 million children have been cut off from regular access to healthcare and require basic health care assistance.

Throughout this critical situation, UNICEF and its partners have been working to reach children and women in Yemen with critical health and nutrition services to save lives as the conflict continues. By supporting health facilities, UNICEF ensures the delivery of quality healthcare services to the people, especially the most vulnerable groups like children and women.

In Lahj governorate, with The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) generous contribution, UNICEF is working to support various health services, including reproductive health and childcare, as well as emergency services in Ibn Khaldoon hospital.

“Health care has improved significantly in the hospital,” says Bayan Yahia while lying on a hospital bed next to her newborn baby.

The mother of three recently had a caesarean delivery at the UNICEF-supported hospital in the governorate of Lahj. Bayan is one of hundreds of women who access Ibn Khaldoon hospital seeking health care.

Like many other healthcare facilities, the hospital was suffering from severe shortages in health workers and supplies. This drove UNICEF to step in and assist in rehabilitating the hospital and provide it with medical supplies and financial support to ensure continued delivery of health services to the most vulnerable children and their mothers.

“We were offering free services, but that was not enough,” she says. “Now, with UNICEF’s support, we provide a lot, particularly in the area of antenatal care and at the obstetrics and gynecology department.”

“This time, I experienced the change”, said Yahai Ahmed, a Yemeni mother who visited the hospital three years ago to deliver her first child. She was admitted at the hospital, and on the second day, she had her caesarean delivery.

“The quality of health care has improved a lot, the doctors and nurses are more caring about our health condition”, she says, adding that many women are now more confident to access Ibn Khaldoon hospital as they are certain that they will receive quality healthcare services there.

Over the second quarter of 2020, more than 800 women gave birth at the hospital, including 222 by caesarean. UNICEF’s support helped to elevate the hospital’s overall capabilities. The hospital no longer has difficulties paying its health workers dues, which has reduced the risk of absence of health workers inside the hospital.

The hospital can now provide health care to the residents of many districts in Lahj governorate as well as to a large number of displaced people who face difficult health and living conditions.

The health crisis in Yemen is complex and multifaceted. Only 51 per cent of the country’s more than 5,000 pre-war health facilities are currently functional, with an extreme shortage in medicine, equipment, and staff.

UNICEF’s support to health facilities in Yemen serves as a lifeline, allowing these vital facilities to function and avoiding any further deterioration in the healthcare system.

With support from The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief), UNICEF is able to help Yemen’s health system provide better healthcare for every child and continue to support the scale-up of essential healthcare services for children and women.