Women have been hired as social workers, supervising engineers to oversee project implementation in the field, and workers with contractors - as cooks and cleaners, a unique initiative deserving high regards and appreciation for the PWP. The PWP has succeed in the alleviation of the suffering of the Yemeni people as a result of the current crises, especially women, by implementing the Yemen Emergency Crises Response Program, YECRP - funded by the World Bank and administered by the UNDP. Through the YECRP, the PWP has succeeded in improving the living conditions of many women, said Dawlah al-A’ameri, who hails from the Governorate of Taiz, whether through the subprojects implemented in the water sector, where women stand to benefit being that women have the prime responsibility of fetching water for their households.
A Significant Opportunity
Ms al-A’meri said Yemeni women are hardworking and highly independent, but the current crises has taken a toll on them - mentally, physically and economically. The crises has caused many hardships and suffering including displacement, deterioration of living conditions and created overwhelming burdens on women. She said “the PWP’s implementation of training programs targeting women are of crucial importance: They help women in joining the labor market, create work opportunities that serve as sources of income for their families, identify daily routines and needs, as well as gaining new experiences and provide opportunities for job placements in other institutions – especially important, since women are now working in various fields leading to a change in social perception and attitudes.”
Women Experience Harsh Conditions
Afrah al-Hassani, from the Governorate of Abyan, says: “The PWP has created work opportunities for women, and a chance to gain new skills and experience in the field. Women can now forge ahead to achieve their desired goals, and the PWP has helped women by giving them access to community participation, and by alleviating their suffering through the implementation of development subprojects serving their needs.” Al- Hassani adds: “Before working for the PWP under the YECRP, I used to consider myself restricted and confined, but now I have gained self-esteem, freedom of movement, integrated, and now share everyone’s concern.” Ms al-Hassani, who works as a social worker, asserts “Yemeni women are experiencing extreme hardships under the current crises … the situation has become catastrophic, and everyone is well-aware of the kind of challenges facing women in this crises.”
Experience from the Field
Zubaidah Bader al-Sofi, from the District of Belad Al-Ta’am in the Governorate of Raimah, says: “the PWP has given women an opportunity to work, gain new skills and experience in the field, and forge ahead to achieve their desired objectives. It has helped women by given them the right to participate at the community level, and the alleviation of women hardships.”
Projects to Alleviate Women Hardships
Sameerah Abdo Yousef Mohamed Al-Qia’ari, from the Governorate of Amran, opined that the PWP’s initiative to engage women, and promote participation in the community, is an excellent one that should be continued in all regions of Yemen. She went on to explains by saying: “The living conditions are very difficult because of lack of work. Donors should continue supporting the YECRP, so that we can continue the field visits to help improve the living conditions for our families.” She asserts that the subprojects implemented in the water, agriculture, and education sectors have succeeded in alleviating the hardships suffered by women in an amazing way, especially in the water sector which is vital for life.
Successful Experience
Afrah al-Bukhaiti, from the Governorate of Ibb, thinks that the training opportunity she got from the PWP was an important development and community initiative, given the difficult economic conditions that Yemeni families have to endure - whether they are IDPs or people living in host communities. She adds that the transparency of the work done by the PWP has allowed equal opportunities for both males and females and provided easy access to women. She confirms that her work as a social worker in the PWP was an important milestone in her life “that has improved my income, and, thus, improving the living conditions for my family.” According to Afrah training has immediate and strategic benefits, including information, skills, knowledge and capacity building – an investment on the future, when we can harvest the fruit and improve the living conditions for women and their families. She confirms that the current crises caused major set-backs for pro-women activities, especially those targeting displaced women in the rural areas. Afrah al-Bukhaiti is of the opinion that the PWP had laid strong foundations for building community participation for women, especially in the rural areas, where a tangible role of women seems to be totally lacking.
Economic Empowerment for Women
Sua’d Abdul-Bari, from the Governorate of Hadramawt, said the PWP has played a positive role in the employment of women during the current crises, given that it has a pretty good sense of community needs, and gave women an opportunity to work in the subprojects implemented - thereby empowering them economically.
Sua’d confirms that women were subjected to discrimination despite the fact that they have strong capacities. But now, by being given the chance to participate in the selection of subprojects, women have been vindicated and now feel that they are a significant part of society - sharing and exchanging roles with men. She added: “That subprojects implemented in the water, agriculture, and education sectors have succeeded in alleviating the hardships of Yemeni women and created many benefits – the least of which, making better use of the time wasted in fetching water or irrigation.
Acquiring New Skills
The PWP has played a major and effective role in the participation of women, by engaging women in the identification of priorities and needs in target areas, thus the incarnation of the role of women in the PWP. Sua’d adds “women are suffering and struggling under the current conditions, as their livelihoods are collapsing and have to face poverty and unemployment. Through the YECRP, the PWP has ensured women participation in the identification of priorities, creating a positive impact that has improved the living standards of Yemeni women, giving them new skills that make them employable. Through its training intervention, the PWP succeeded in qualifying many workers, especially women.
A Focus on Women
Taghreed Mohamed al-Shaheed, from the Governorate of Sana’a, asserts that the implemented subprojects have alleviated women hardships, provided better access to water by building water reservoirs, cisterns and tanks, and selected the most needy areas by conducting field studies and surveys before building such subprojects. This has resulted in the improvement of living conditions for tens of thousands of households – who are dependent on agriculture for their livelihoods.
Alleviation of Hardship
As a social worker, Aminah Mohamed al-Najdi, from the Governorate of Hodeidah, considers the YECRP as an extraordinary step towards alleviating hardship of the community in general, and women in particular. It has done this through prevention of further deterioration of much needed basic services. The YECRP has, through the PWP, focused on creating work opportunities for women, and paid attention to gender mainstreaming in the identification of needs, empowerment and the creation of work opportunities for women. Ms Al-Najdi added that the situation of social workers is similar to other Yemeni women, and due to the current situation, the living conditions of women have deteriorated to low levels: There is a lack of work, many organizations have closed, and foreign support for projects has been suspended. However, the YECRP has presented social workers with an opportunity and helped restore their living conditions to reasonable standard.
Sharing Expenses
Social worker, Aminah al-Najdi, asserts that Yemeni women currently share the responsibility of supporting their families, and for this reason, the YECRP has contributed to improving the living conditions for households in general, by creating income generation opportunities.
Major Benefit
She also added: “As far as I am concerned – as a social worker – I benefited a lot from the training courses carried out by the PWP, and from the field visits. This has given me both theoretical and practical experience. It also supported me mentally and boosted my self-esteem, broke barriers of fears and anxiety from dealing with other members of the community; and I have gained communication skills that have enabled me to communicate with the community, obtain accurate results, and gave the ability to overcome challenges. Ms al-Najdi continues by saying: “The situation of the Yemeni people in General – and women in particular – is well-known to many, especially in recent years. Hardships have increased due to the suspension of the payment of salaries - thus exacerbating the situation for women. This is on top of the destruction that have damaged the infrastructure, and the subsequent results of increasing burdens on women and the difficulties in accessing basic needs, such as: water, health, education…etc. Since women are responsible for most of the daily activities to provide for family needs, it was imperative to give women a bigger role in the identification of needs, access to services provided by the YECRP, realization of gender mainstreaming, and the development of the role of women, in general.
Success
Ms al-Najdi is of the view that implemented subprojects by the PWP have, to a large extent, succeeded in reducing the hardships of women – especially in the rural areas. It’s in the rural areas that women are responsible for fetching water from far distances and doing farm work, which leads to increased girls drop-out from schools. Thus, these subprojects have succeeded in saving time for women, enabling them to perform their daily activities at ease and in a better way. Training and qualification, especially when organized during the current crises and under such harsh living conditions, is a good opportunity for women to gain experience and helps trainees find more work. It also lends greater support to gender mainstreaming in the workplace and helps women in career development and qualify them to do community work.
Bigger Role
The social worker, Aminah al-Najdi explains that the PWP made a giant and important step in supporting and strengthening the role of women in subprojects selection, especially those needed by women. It’s also an important step in gender mainstreaming in the workplace and in the identification of subprojects. The PWP has also created work opportunities for women, even if they are temporary opportunities.”