Restoring dignity and rebuilding resilience of internally displaced people

The lack of clean water and the spread of diseases are some of the hardships that displaced people – especially women and children who make up over 79 per cent of IDPs – face in the absence of sufficient water and sanitation infrastructure. The burden of collecting water often falls on women and children, who must walk long distances every day, the latter missing school as a result, and leaving them vulnerable to risky situations along the way.

With no nearby toilets, IDPs use fields, bushes, and other empty spaces to relieve themselves in the open. Children are more likely to defecate near their tents, and women have to wait until night to relieve themselves in the dark. Open defecation and uncollected waste scattered in the camp encourage vermin, flies, and mosquitoes to breed, increasing the spread of cholera, malaria, watery diarrhea, and dengue fever among camp residents.

“We have had to walk nearly two kilometers, multiple times a day, and sometimes at night, to find a safe, secluded place to relieve ourselves,” says Mabkhout. “My wife and my older daughters have had to resist their need to urine all day long to relieve themselves in the dark, which can cause infections, kidney diseases, and in some cases, a slow death. Yet, my young daughter couldn’t wait until the morning and needed to go outside the tent in the night while many poisonous insects are around.”

Years of conflict in Yemen have seriously damaged the country’s aging water and sanitation system infrastructure. Over 15.4 million Yemeni people require support to access their basic water and sanitation needs, of whom 8.7 million are in acute need. Four years ago, Yemen experienced the worst cholera outbreak in modern history. With poor water and sanitation services and inadequate living conditions, deadly diseases such as cholera, malaria, acute diarrhea, and the latest COVID-19 run rampant in IDP camps.

To improve basic living conditions and strengthen the resilience of conflict-affected communities in Yemen and families such as Mabkhout’s, CARE works to provide immediate water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) assistance for IDPs in Marib through rehabilitating water schemes, constructing latrines, and conducting hygiene promotion activities.

CARE constructed a water scheme that provides 290 displaced families with clean water. In addition to constructing family latrines with handwashing stations to preserve IDPs’ health and dignity, the project also provided families with much-needed hygiene items, including bar soaps, powder soap, sanitary napkins, and clean Jerrycans.

As proper hygiene behaviors are crucial to tackling communicable diseases among IDPs, CARE’s community health promoters (CHP) held public hygiene promotion activities to educate IDPs about best hygiene practices including safe water handling, food hygiene, proper use of latrines, regular handwashing.

“Now my little daughter can use the toilet anytime, especially at night,” says Mabkhout. “I used to bath once a week, but now I can bath whenever I want. Thanks to community health promoters, displaced families started to adopt a healthier lifestyle, keeping themselves and their water, food, and tents safe and clean.”