Speeches Shim
Abdul is a 10-year-old boy who dropped out of school in the first grade. “I had no friends,” he explains. “My schoolmates used to make fun of me, and call me bad names because of my eye.”
Yemen is facing the COVID-19 pandemic with a healthcare system that has been hollowed out by years of conflict, greatly reducing its ranks of medical practitioners. With just 10 healthcare workers per 10,000 people, Yemen is well below the international standard of 41 per 10,000. For job-seeking Yemenis, however, the unmet demand for health professionals offers a promising employment opportunity—especially for women—if they can access the training they need to succeed.
Trade is an essential lifeline in Yemen, bringing in critical supplies of food and fuel. However, existing bottlenecks impede the flow of goods into the country. To facilitate vital trade and imports into Yemen, USAID is supporting the upgrading of customs procedures in Yemen’s major Port of Aden, introducing modernization systems that are building efficiencies and saving time and costs for both traders and trading authorities.
In the small seaside village of Mayfa, in Yemen’s Hadramawt Governorate, the whir of a salt grinding machine serves as the backdrop for the regular motions of six women gathered along a simple assembly line. Sitting in pairs around three plastic tables, they fill, measure, and seal small plastic bags of refined sea salt destined to be featured in the spice aisles of the region’s grocery stores, providing livelihoods for hundreds of local families.
Fishing was once the most productive sector in Yemen’s economy, contributing 15 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). Still today, it holds the promise of being a major source of foreign exchange earnings and fiscal revenues. Moreover, for coastal Yemenis, the fisheries sector remains the main form of livelihood, and a primary source of hope for lifting people out of poverty and food insecurity. With the war, however, poor handling and preservation practices have depleted the market and nutritional value of Yemen’s fishing stocks. In response, the USAID Yemen Economic Stabilization and Success (YESS) project has delivered targeted training and technical assistance to fishermen, and all along the value chain, to revitalize the quality of fish catches and maximize returns.
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