Despite Yemen War Devastation Toll for Children, a Yemeni Man Organises First Ever TED Talk for Kids

This piece was published on Aug. 2017 on my HuffPost blog. And as I received an email today that HuffPost blogs seem to shut down soon, I am reposting the article here on my blog to archive it. 

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Ahmed Sayaghi, leader of coming TedxKids@Sanaa, “I hope we can learn from our children speakers’
stories the lust for life and resilience.”

It is not like I am ignoring the devastation of the war but it’s exactly because of the war we had to organise Yemen’s first ever TEDxKids@Sanaa conference. It’s important to amplify children’s stories and reflect on children’s innocence in the intense political polarisation in Yemen. In light of the war, I think children have a magical influence on grown-ups who are often with rigid points of views, boxing others in. These kids will voice out stronger messages for peace.

The idea came to my mind last year and I applied to get the license from TED Global and we had it. Then, I was so lucky to find a team of young men and ladies - who are as young as just newly-graduated from high school or just recently entered university - who are helping in organising the event. This team is doing marvellous work, despite all the hardships.

We are in the process of preparation and organisation. Against all the odds, we aim to officially conduct the event in the Universal Children’s Day coming November. At the beginning, it was not easy to find sponsorship. We were covering expenses from our own pockets until we eventually found sponsors who believed in our cause and were willing to support us. However, I would say that the main challenge we faced was the widening political polarisation I mentioned earlier. Given the failed state we are in, any activist is at risk in doing his/her activism. We are often harassed and interrogated: who is funding you? What is your agenda? We are told, “this is time of war and not time for you to invade our kids’ minds with western values. Kids should learn Jihad and not to speak at Ted talks.” The team has gone through lots of intimidation because we don’t have any political and influential party to rely on, as we aim to be nonpartisan. Still, we are determined to hold the event.

This is not my first participation in co-organising a Ted Talk in Yemen. I was also part of the team which organised TEDXSanaa in 2012, 2013 and 2014, as a volunteer or/and in charge of the fundraising and selection of speakers. Even though I work as a pharmacist, I’ve developed a great interest in social activism right after Yemen’s 2011 uprising. I was attracted to Ted Talks in Yemen because I wanted to establish events in Yemen with international standards.


For me, TedxKids is a continuation of the previous Ted Talks we had, but with a greater dose of resilience. The event goes with a theme and hashtag #صغار_كبار (Young but Mature) and we have three subcategories of the speakers’ presentations. A) Kids’ educational aspirations; like how they aspire to become pilots, doctors, etc. B) Kids’ untold talents; like singers, dancers, painters, etc, C) Kids’ stories of survival after being under the rubble - and this is the most heartbreaking but moving talks. The team is also keen to have inclusiveness in the type of children speakers. So; for instance, you will hear in TedxKids from kids from the internally displaced community in Yemen and from Yemen’s marginalized society (Muhamashin) too.

Until the official event happens, last month, we had our inaugural event titled, “The Ambassadors” in which we wanted the attending children to understand how they were the ambassadors of Yemen’s future. It was the phase when our team met with more than 500 applicants children and we are in the process of selecting the final list of speakers. We were fascinated to have about 1,700 audience attending that day. I’ve been pondering on, given the despair, suffering and pain we are going through in Yemen, I hope we can learn from our children speakers’ stories the lust for life and resilience.

Solidarity with Yemeni Children

Half of Yemen's population are children who are thirsty, hungry for peace, food, education, & above all for the world's solidarity. 

Photos courtesy/ Julien Harneis
 

Photos courtesy/ Julien Harneis

Photos courtesy/ Julien Harneis

Photos courtesy/ Julien Harneis

Photo courtesy/ UNOCHA

Photo courtesy/ UNOCHA

The world must save Yemen from this man-made famine

Photo courtesy/ UNICEF

“I wish there is no war in Yemen. I wish that we have electricity and water back and that we live happily. And that we eat until we are full.”

So says a 10-year old Yemeni kid, reflecting on his dreams of a return to peace in war-ravaged Yemen, a conflict that is pushing millions of people into famine, with 320,000 of children already facing severe malnutrition. Despite the lack of specific figures, reports show that a lot of children were born and died during the ongoing conflict due to the collapsing health system and severe malnutrition.

Eighteen months of war has certainly plunged the already impoverished country beyond destitution. The severe impact of the war was well-described last year by Red Cross chief, Peter Maurer, who wrote that, “Yemen after five months looks like Syria after five years.” The scale of devastation is on the rise by the day; there’s a type of death in Yemen which is unmeasurable, since if the bullets and shelling don’t kill you, the lack of food, water and medicine will. I lost count of my relatives, friends and friends’ relatives who have died in the wake of the catastrophic humanitarian situation. In light of Yemen’s failed peace talks and the early warnings of Yemen slipping into famine, Yemenis are unsurprisingly hungry both for food and peace.

Photo courtesy/ Akram Alrasny

Food as a weapon of war

Just as wars are never a coincidence, neither is hunger - it’s man-made. Hunger was already prevalent in Yemen long before war erupted in March 2015. Yemen had been in a state of chronic food insecurity for years, ranking near the bottom of the Human Development Index, while ousted President Ali Abdullah Saleh was piling up his wealth in billions.

Yemen’s 2011 uprising caused the economy to decline. Besides corruption, social inequality and unequal distribution of national wealth, progress in economic and social development over recent years has been slow, mainly as a result of the political crisis, ongoing instability and weak governance, as the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation pointed out in 2014.

Today, the situation has been tremendously exacerbated by the ongoing conflict. Among the many drivers for hunger in Yemen are fuel shortages and import restrictions which have reduced the availability of essential food commodities in the country, which overwhelmingly relies on the import of some 90 percent of its staple foods, as pointed out by World Food Programme.

The most crucial factor causing hunger in Yemen, though, is that all warring parties have used food as a weapon of war. The Saudi-led coalition has been imposing a blockade of Yemen’s main ports, jeopardising the survival of millions of Yemenis who are in urgent need of imported fuel, food, medicine and other commodities. When humanitarian aid agencies exert efforts to provide assistance, the Saudis dictates that any humanitarian operation to be conducted in Yemen must be barred from delivery to Houthi-controlled areas, according to a UN reporter.

Moreover, the coalition has bombed several bridges used to transport 90 percent of UN food supply in the country. At the same time, the Houthi-Saleh forces have also used food as a weapon in areas they are contesting, currently in Taiz and formerly in Aden, where it has been impossible for residents to have access to water, fuel, and food supplies while being besieged. Consequently, a black market emerged with skyrocketing prices for rare commodities only few can afford to purchase.

With that said, deprivation and starvation are the common norm in Yemen today. Before the war, the World Bank estimated that 50 percent of Yemen’s population were under the poverty line, while today it estimates that figure has rocketed to 80 percent of the population.

Photo courtesy/ UNICEF

Stop the famine

These shocking statistics warn that Yemenis soon will be put to death by starvation, as the war has no end in sight. As long the world remains indifferent and timely action to prevent it is not taken, all indicators show a famine is all but inevitable.

As a human rights issues blogger, nothing I have witnessed in Yemen’s human rights situation cuts me as painfully deep as witnessing my country slipping into mass hunger. I strongly believe hunger is the gravest human rights abuse in Yemen. And how shameful it is that a famine is unfolding here in a region surrounded by some of the world’s richest countries.

The expected famine must be stopped before it sweeps the country. Report after report shows people’s accounts of starvation and suffering. What is the world waiting for, I wonder: till Yemenis’ bodies pile up with nobody strong enough to dig the graves?

Famine can be mitigated if more humanitarian and diplomatic action is taken by the international community. Yemen needs the world’s solidarity to stop the looming famine that could become a cause of shame to the global humanitarian system with irreversible consequences for Yemen's 28 million population.

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*This piece was originally published in Middleeasteye.com on 31 August 2016.

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UK appears to put weapons sales above lives of Yemen's children

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