Happy moments and a sense of safety in the emergency shelter provided by Tamdeen Youth Foundation (TYF) and with the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for 18 families whose lives were threatened with death from rock collapses from the mountain that began to fall over their homes in Al Ahwad village, Al Saddah district, Ibb governorate – Central Yemen, due to the heavy rains in the region over the past weeks.

Now we’re safe,

The smile has returned to 50-year-old Mohammed Ali Muhsin Doghaish to embrace his grandchildren, and he says, “We are safe now, I am not too worried about the rain anymore.”

These families have had difficult days and nights as the rains continue to be brought about by climate changes that people have never experienced before and who depend on seasonal rains for their agriculture.

We were waiting for death,

Dughaish envokes his fear and dismay in the rainy nights and torrential flow: “Rocks fell from the mountain and hit the corner of my house, so we felt as if an earthquake hit the area, to spread the screams and howling and then I embraced a number of my grandchildren and we ran into the open … I waiting to death at any moment, me and my family of 9. The rocks will destroy our house and end our lives among the rubble… We were covered by Allah’s care, but we would not go home.

The mountain was like a guard for the village, whose houses were on its middle, but the falling rocks from the top forced people to call for help.

UNHCR and Tamdeen Youth Foundation have responded to the distress call, and teams have begun the survey and evaluation process and have identified safe places for the installation of emergency tents. With the participation of families forced out of their homes, tents were installed and equipped with a wind-resistant and bad weather geometric pattern.

For a safe return,

The emergency response saved the lives of these families, who are waiting for a permanent solution that would enable them to return homes, which will be achieved by the local authority, which will provide equipment to remove the falling rocks over the village’s homes so that the return becomes safe for these families.

The emergency response implemented by Tamdeen Youth Foundation in partnership with UNHCR is not only to help displaced people in Ibb governorate, but also to host communities of thousands of families forced by war and conflict in neighbouring governorates to seek relative safety in this strained governorate, where the wave of displacement has continued since the beginning of the war in Yemen in mid-2015, which has left the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.