Clothing donations for vulnerable women and children in troubled Yemen make it from Ross-shire via charity Habibti
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DONATIONS of clothing to women and children in a conflict-torn country have arrived safely from Ross-shire with love.
Dawn Aird of Kildary in Easter Ross was motivated to do her bit to ease suffering in Yemen and got involved in the work of Liverpool-based group, Habibti, which has been organised relief packages.
The Easter Ross donations of items such as baby clothes were transported by sea and will help Al-Sabeen Children’s Hospital, in Sana’a.
Louise O'Brien, from Habibti Liverpool, said: "We were blown away by the Highland contribution to the cargo. That happened because of your article being seen in different places online.I understand from some of the donors that they had wanted to do something to help in Yemen but couldn't find a way to do that, so they were happy when they found this way to help.
"We are always excited when cargoes reach the hospital, it takes a lot of effort and money to get the donations there. It costs about £1500 per cargo to get everything from Liverpool to the hospital. Yemen is just moving into its seventh year of war, ports are blockaded and nothing is running how it should, but the need is so great, we send stuff anyway. It takes about two months to travel to its destination."
Ms O'Brien said the donations really made a difference as the families in Yemen as, as a result of the ongoing families do not have any money for food or medicines so clothes were at the end of a long list of priorities for them.
She added: "The majority of the children at the hospital are from the very poorest families, some will have had to choose between feeding a child or finding the money to bring the child to hospital.
"Money raised by us pays for medicines, tests and investigations and also pays for the medics and nurses to come to work. They haven't received salaries for over five years. All that the hospital receives from us makes a massive impact on the children and staff at Al-Sabeen.
"We didn't choose the cause – it chose us. Some of the main paediatricians at Al-Sabeen and other hospitals in Sana'a did their post graduate training at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and that is the connection.
"Dr Najla Al-Sonboli, the lead paediatrician, became friends with our friend Professor Sally Theobald who works at LSTM and they started the Liverpool Yemen Friendship Group.
"This has expanded over five years and now includes a network of people across the UK who support the hospital."
They now send double the amount of money every month than they did 12 months ago – and they have just doubled that again to be able to pay for food packs for the families during Ramadan 2021 which starts on or around April 12.
Ms O'Brien said: "We didn't know what an impact our work would have when we first started it but we can say 100 per cent that lives are improved and saved with the money that is sent. We are in constant contact with staff and so we know what's happening and what is needed most.
"We're just a group of friends and family who decided we wanted to try to help and we've had the good fortune to receive a lot of support. We've learned so much, we've had to find a myriad of different ways of doing things, we listen to the experts on the ground and we've found that there are good people who want to help us here and in Yemen. It's a group of women and children in Liverpool and the UK assisting women and children in Yemen and we love it."
