What You're Doing (My Story)

As a New York native, I spent most of time in Yemen during my summer and winter breaks. More recently, I witnessed the war in Yemen unfold for five months before evacuating to New York, USA. I have seen first hand families struggling economically in different provinces of Yemen, including Aden, Sana'a and Hodeidah. After witnessing the ongoing war in the country, I flew back to New York with a goal to help the people of Yemen in any way possible -- a way that can somehow flip their frowns upside down. Here, I present to you a project that can just do that! 

Why it Matters (The Impact)

For the last year, the people of Yemen have been dealing with a war that has crippled their daily lives. The western coastal province of Hodeidah has been without electricity for a year now and many people have been laid off their jobs due to the crumbling economy as the result of war. As the islamic festivities near, most families in the province are poor and have no income to bring joy to their kids for Eid Al-Fitr. The impact of this project will be the result of a child's smile and a feeling of happiness during a dark and hopeless situation for the country. 

The Project

This project will help financially support The Hemmati Association for Social Development Eid Al-Fitr project in Hodeidah, Yemen. The project will consist of distributing Eid outfits for children and young adults (until the age of 17) to the less fortunate during the islamic holidays. Each outfit will be bought from local suppliers so that the money may stay within the Yemeni economy, as opposed to buying the outfits outside of Yemen. The Hemmati Association of Social Development (Facebook page here in Arabic) is a registered association under the law of the Yemeni government and is run by educated youth, men and women alike. 

The have successfully done projects under the educational, humanitarian and hygiene fields in the province. For the last three years, the Hemmati Association has fed over 1150 families for Ramadan with food baskets and over 2260 Eid outfits distributed to kids! They have also distributed Eid toys to kids who are in hospitals who are suffering from cancer and kidney failure. 

Since I have met the founders of the association in 2013, I have been inspired by their work as was astonished that all their efforts are done by these young men and women with barely any financial help. In fact, they relied mostly on their own pockets and the help of donors and businessmen. The funds for this project will be collected by me and deposited into the associations'  bank account. The director of this project will be Mohammed Barakat, a member of the association in Hodeidah. The distribution of the Eid outfits will be done 3 nights before Ramadan to the poorer communities. ALL proceeds will be for the project. The association does NOT take any % from the money collected and donated towards the association and its members. The goal ($2,500) will supply 125 children Eid outfits for this Eid, aside of the donations the association receives for the project by other donors.

Currently, I am a board member of the Yemeni American Association of New York and a member of the Yemeni American Coalition based in New York.I have also worked with various projects in the United States for Yemen as well and researched Yemeni refugees during internal crisis. In 2013, I was awarded "Peace Envoy" award by a Turkish organization in Istanbul.  

How You Can Help (The Ask/Rewards)

The first way you can help with this project is to share this project on all your different social network accounts! Second way to help is to directly ask someone to donate. Lastly, the rewards for doing both will result in more children smiling on Eid Al-Fitr after a month of fasting!