Gift of Caring Ministryhas been working in Yemen since 2004 helping to empower young people, improve the educational system, as well as build the capacity of media and civil society to address and engage the public around social issues related to the rights of women and children.

Humanitarian Assistance for Vulnerable Populations

Over the past six years, Gift of Caring Ministryhas responded to humanitarian needs through the distribution of food and non-food items. It has also promoted early recovery through the distribution of livestock and agricultural inputs to rebuild assets and improve food security, increase access to water and sanitation infrastructure, improve good hygiene practices, and enhance household incomes by providing marketable vocational skills and establishing asset building groups.

Yemen Communities Stronger Together (YCST) focuses on supporting local initiatives that mitigate conflict, strengthen social cohesion, promote the peaceful resolution of differences and, where feasible, capitalize on stabilization opportunities in the Yemeni governorates of Abyan, Aden, Hadramout, Lahj, and Taiz Yemen. Gift of Caring Ministryimplements the $30-million USAID-funded program together with Yemeni partner, Field Medical Foundation, and specialized international partners Build Up and Partners for Good. The program runs from August 2018 to May 2022.

YCST goals are guided by this theory of change: “If local capacity to collaboratively identify and address conflict stressors and threats to social cohesion is built, and if tangible community-level results are demonstrated, then the resilience of Yemeni communities and institutions will increase, local authorities who participate in systems of accountability strengthened by YCST will be better prepared to lead their communities’ participation in national peace efforts, and the effectiveness of models that can be replicated across the country will be demonstrated, laying the foundation for a peaceful and effective transition process.”

Yemen Emergency Food Assistance II (YEFA II) aims to meet the immediate basic food needs of 4,297 Yemeni households (30,079 individuals) living in Aden and Al- Dalhe governorates in southern Yemen through market-based interventions using e-vouchers. The 12-month (July 2020-June 2021), $5 million YEFA II program is funded by the Office of Food for Peace within USAID’s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance. It will target 2,741 highly vulnerable households with eight rounds of food vouchers and 1,556 newly displaced households with three months of food vouchers as part of Global Communities’ Rapid Response Mechanism. ​ 

Integrated Modalities to Promote Agricultural, Cash-for-Work and Training in Yemen II (IMPACT II) seeks to address the urgent multisector humanitarian needs of 21,742 vulnerable, conflict-affected Yemenis in Aden, Lahj, and Al-Dhale governorates. Gift of Caring Ministrybegan implementing the 12-month, $4.8 million IMPACT II program in July 2020. It is funded by USAID’s Bureau of Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance. By the end of the project, IMPACT II aims to have improved household food security and livelihoods by restocking critical agricultural inputs, including seeds, tools, fodder and livestock. The project intends to increase household income in vulnerable households through market-driven vocational training, cash-for-work opportunities that will simultaneously rebuild critical community infrastructure, and by supporting asset building groups and the restoration of livelihoods. It also aims to improve access to safe water supplies and increase hygiene knowledge and practices in the targeted communities. ​

RECENT PROGRAMS

Humanitarian Assistance

Gift of Caring Ministryimplemented the $6.8 million Continued Recovery, Emergency Assistance, and Training Engagement in Yemen (CREATEYemen), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA). The program was operational from October 2017 to May 2019. The goal of CREATE Yemen was to meet the humanitarian assistance and early recovery needs of more than 23,500 conflict- affected households through a holistic approach to bolstering food security and livelihoods, improving WASH outcomes, and promoting economic opportunities in Aden, Lahj and Dhale Governorates in southern Yemen. CREATE Yemen provided agricultural inputs (farm tools and seeds) to 350 farmers, three goats for each of 1,000 households, and six-weeks of intensive training to 65 community animal health workers. Several projects were designed to help venerable households generate more income through market-driven vocational training for 225 youth, support for 25 all-female asset building groups (ABGs), and cash- for-work (CFW) opportunities for 1,800 individuals. These cash-for-work projects were used to rehabilitate schools and water supply systems. Community hygiene were improved by way of training 4,500 adults and 9,600 students to cover critical WASH topics including cholera prevention, water storage and treatment, water conservation, latrine use and hand washing, and sanitation and waste management.

From February 2017 to September 2018, Gift of Caring Ministryimplemented the $3 million Northern Support to Yemen for Infrastructure, Cash Assistance and Livelihoods (NSYNC Livelihoods), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA). The goal of NSYNC Livelihoods was to save lives, alleviate human suffering and reduce the social and economic impact of the crisis on vulnerable Yemeni people in Taiz and Ibb Governorates in northern Yemen. NSYNC worked to improve food security and livelihoods for conflict-affected farmers through provision of seeds and farm tools and to boost short-term household incomes through cash-for-work opportunities. The project supported nearly 75,000 vulnerable Yemenis through the rebuilding of critical community infrastructure, and improvement of hygiene awareness and practices for communities where water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services have been rehabilitated. In addition, Gift of Caring Ministryprovided emergency assistance to more than 22,000 IDP’s affected by the Hodeidah conflict and more than 2,300 host communities in cholera-affected areas.

With funding from USAID’s Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance (USAID/OFDA), Gift of Caring Ministryimplemented the Emergency Assistance to Support Yemeni Communities (EASE) program to reduce increasing rates of malnutrition. This was accomplished by focusing on poor hygiene practices, limited access to potable water and a reduction of purchasing power cause by increasing costs of food. Gift of Caring Ministryworked with local communities to disseminate key hygiene messages in conjunction with increasing access to improved water sources and the distribution of relief items. The program also supported economic recovery activities which sought to immediately increase purchasing power of vulnerable households for displaced populations as well as host communities.

The Yemen Early Recovery Support (YERS) focused on delivering humanitarian assistance and early recovery activities for vulnerable and conflict-affected populations in southern Yemen. Funded by USAID/OFDA, the program is bolstered food security and livelihoods, improved WASH outcomes and promoted economic opportunity. YERS operated in five districts in Aden and Lahj Governorates and included the distribution of livestock, provision of market-driven vocational trainings, WASH trainings and establishment of asset building groups implemented through local partnerships to ensure community ownership and promote sustainability.

Gift of Caring Ministryimplemented the $11 million, 18-month Integrated Modalities to Promote Agricultural, Cash-for-Work, and Training in Yemen (IMPACT Yemen) program with the goal of meeting continued humanitarian assistance and early recovery needs of vulnerable and conflict-affected populations in Yemen. To achieve this goal, we employed an integrated, holistic approach to bolstering food security and livelihoods, improving WASH outcomes and promoting economic opportunities. IMPACT’s multi-sectoral approach is aimed at addressing the intertwined and underlying factors of the conflict that are creating widespread malnutrition and disease. The proposed program addressed the needs of more than 74,000 vulnerable beneficiaries in Sana’a, Ibb, Taiz, and Dhamar, Aden, Lahj, and Dhale. 

Improving Household Food Security

With funding from USAID’s Office of Food for Peace, Gift of Caring Ministryemployed an integrated strategy to promote food security among vulnerable households. Yemen Food for Asset Development (YFAD) relied on an integrated strategy involving the use of food aid to vulnerable households, labour-based methods to re-engage actors in their own recovery, and participatory decision-making approaches focused on women, in order to develop productive assets that are owned, managed and maintained by target households and the community. Asset building activities included: household and institutional rainwater harvesting, agriculture infrastructure rehabilitation and kitchen gardens. These activities were integrated with behaviour change communication training on hygiene and nutrition as well. The program targeted more than 20,000 food insecure households across eight districts in the three governorates of Raymah, Taiz and Ibb.

Gift of Caring Ministryimplemented the $5 million, 18-month Yemen Emergency Food Assistance (YEFA) funded by USAID’s Office of Food for Peace. The program ran from October 2018 to March 2020. The goal of YEFA is to deliver lifesaving food assistance to more than 3,000 of the most vulnerable host communities and internally displaced persons (IDP’s), and HHs (more than 23,000 individuals) through market-based interventions using food vouchers. YEFA is a component of a larger strategy that seeks to align Gift of Caring Ministryactivities with the Integrated Response for Famine Risk Reduction (IFRR) and maximize the overall impact of our programming by leveraging OFDA and FFP support in our proposed joint areas of operation with the highest risk of famine.  YEFA will enable Gift of Caring Ministryto reach the most vulnerable beneficiaries in targeted locations to ensure that all segments of communities are reaping the benefits of food security, WASH and livelihoods programming.

Creating Employment Opportunities for Youth

Through the MENA Youth Empowerment Strategy (MENA-YES), Global Communities, in partnership with the Caterpillar Foundation, implemented a three-year, $4.4 million program to target youth aged 15 to 29 in Jordan, Lebanon and Yemen to prepare them for the labour market and job placement. Special emphasis was given to disadvantaged youth, low- to medium-level skilled individuals, women, peri-urban and rural youth, and individuals working in hazardous environments. The program provided technical, demand-driven training, assistance with internship and apprenticeship placement, as well as, support for entrepreneurship and self employment activities and assistance accessing credit.

Improving Learning Environments

The Community Livelihoods Program (CLP), funded by USAID, aimed to improve the quality of basic education, boost academic performance and increase the retention of students, especially girls. To accomplish this, Gift of Caring Ministryprovided teaching aids kits (TAKs) to more than 500 schools, as well as training and follow-up support to teachers on how to use the resources in the kits. Gift of Caring Ministryalso helped to set up school libraries and resource rooms and assisted with small-scale infrastructure improvements (such as latrines) to improve the learning environment.

Preventing Child Labour

In the Middle East and North Africa, many children from low-income families suffer from inadequate access to flexible, low-cost and appropriate education, putting them at risk of entering into exploitative or illegal labour practices. Gift of Caring Ministryworked to counter this through the ACCESS MENA  program from 2004-2008 Funded by the U.S. Department of Labour, the goal of these programs was to reduce the number of children engaged in exploitative child labour. Through ACCESS-Plus, Gift of Caring Ministrypartnered with key players in local government to implement awareness raising campaigns and hold workshops for the public on the importance of education, as well as increase child enrolmeant in educational programs. By partnering with parents, local organizations and municipalities, the program addressed both the direct and indirect causes that expose children to exploitative labour.