“HEAR OUR VOICES, WE’RE SICK OF WAR” Yemeni children call out for peace

Peace Resolution from the Children of Yemen to the World

• For the first time in Yemen’s four-year-long war children speak out in Peace Resolution.
• The Resolution is a strong & heartfelt call to world leaders to support the children of Yemen.
• Tamer Kirolos: “Children feel the despair around them, they see what is needed on the ground – safety, food, medicines. And now they’re asking for it.”
• Video b-roll and stills, including transcripts are available here.

SANAA, Yemen – For the first time in Yemen’s four-year-long war, a group of teenagers has written their own calls for peace, saying adults have failed to protect them. “Hear our voices. We are children just like any other children, just like your children. We don’t want to live in a warzone anymore, we are sick of it.”

Next week will mark four years since the escalation of the conflict in Yemen – having lived through violence, hunger and restrictions, in their Peace Resolution, Yemeni children demand an end to the war, the right to education, free movement and freedom from fear.

Yemen is the largest humanitarian crisis on earth, where 24 million people – 80% of the population – need humanitarian assistance and protection, and almost 10 million people are one step away from starvation. Around 10 million children don’t have access to adequate healthcare, one in three girls and one in four boys don’t go to school, 1.5 million children fled their homes to escape hunger and violence.

With support from trained child protection officers, the children were asked to write how they feel about the conflict in Yemen. Their honest responses give a unique insight into a child’s experience of war.

Children’s Peace Resolution excerpts (full version attached):
“When we walk, we are scared, when we sleep, we are scared. When we play, we are scared. We don’t want to live in a warzone anymore, we are sick of it…We are innocent. We are children just like any other children, just like your children.

“We want to be cared for like any other child. We want an education. We want the chance to go to school. We want to draw, eat, laugh and play. We have the right to learn and be looked after, to grow up and pursue our dreams.”

Amani* is 13 years old:
“My father’s salary hasn’t been paid for four years…Before, my father used to bring us fruits and desserts when he came home, now he comes back home empty–handed. He is not able to afford them anymore…We have been deprived of many things because of this war…The war has worn us down, bombing and destruction have worn us down.”

Maha* is 13 years old. She describes the moment her father was injured:
“Where my dad worked was hit by three of four rockets and he was injured, deep gashes were opened in his cheek and from his forehead to his eye by thick glass shards…When the rockets hit, he was thrown with the broken glass and his office was turned upside down by the force of the explosion…I was deeply affected by my father’s injury and (his) wounds. When we went to the hospital, I used to see wounded people, like a guy with a gash in his abdomen and his guts spilling out.”

Sukaina Sharafuddin, aid worker for Save the Children, said:
“Children in Yemen don’t often get the opportunity to speak about their feelings – they’re too busy just trying to survive. These children have grown up very quickly from seeing so much suffering all around them. Nearly all the children expressed their disappointment at being forgotten by the world. They couldn’t understand why children elsewhere get to be properly fed and clothed and sleep safely at night. I’m a parent and this is not the life I would wish on my child and I think parents everywhere would agree.”

Tamer Kirolos, Save the Children’s country director in Yemen:
“We believe only words, not weapons, can bring peace to Yemen’s children. And the children have told us very clearly that they expect better from the international community, by whom they feel abandoned and neglected. Children are dying every day because of the lack, or denial, of food, a lack of medicines, and because of violence. Around 240,000 people are living through catastrophic levels of hunger and are barely surviving – half of them children, hovering on the brink of starvation.

“Children feel the destruction around them and they see what is needed on the ground. Peace, food, education.

“And now they’re asking for it. We are publishing this Peace Resolution today because children’s voices are rarely considered. The authors of this resolution want the world to know how they feel, to understand their dire circumstances but also to remind everyone of a simple fact: children are children everywhere and deserve the best possible chance in life.” 

As 80 per cent of the Yemeni population requires some sort of humanitarian assistance, with millions of children on the brink of starvation, it’s more urgent than ever for Canada and other world leaders to protect children in Yemen through their foreign, defence and aid policies. For Canada, this means an unwavering push for accountability when warring parties violate international law (including attacks on children), suspending arms sales to these parties, and implementing a clear strategy to protect children and their families caught up in the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.

–ENDS-

NOTES TO EDITORS:

• The children aged 13-18 gathered in Sanaa in December 2018 in one of Save the Children’s Child-Friendly Spaces (CFS). CFS’s are protected areas set up by Save the Children staff, together with members of the local community. They provide children with a safe space where they can play, learn, express themselves and socialise. These spaces are especially designed to meet the unique needs of children in conflict, many of whom have faced distressing experiences. Children are also offered important psychosocial support to help them overcome distressing or traumatic experiences.
• Save the Children estimates some 85,000 children under five in Yemen may have died from extreme hunger since the escalation of the conflict in April 2015. Others died while fleeing the violence in Hodeidah or other hotbed-areas.
• Currently, one in ten children has been forced to flee their homes and some 2-million children are out of school.
• Some 1780 schools were either destroyed or damaged, and 23 schools are being used by armed groups. Another 167 schools are used as shelters for families who had to flee their homes.