Children Are Always the Most Innocent Ones in Wars

Children are always the most innocent ones in wars but also are the most susceptible ones. When I was seven, I went on vacation with my family to Lebanon. In 2006, during the summer, a war took place. I didn’t really know what was going on at first, but after I started understanding why houses in the village were being damaged, what those loud noises not letting me sleep during the night were, and what made me not leave my house no matter what.

That was when I started getting concerned. It was an unforgettable experience that no one should be going through, especially kids. Kids tend to suffer most during wars since they’re susceptible to physical and mental damage. Especially in Yemen, thousands and thousands of kids are being separated from their families, left to die from malnutrition, and bombarded by explosives.

The civil war in Yemen has been ongoing for years, and from what I’ve seen not many people know about it.

The Yemen war is referred to as “the unknown war” due to the lack of public attention. I have heard about this civil war a year ago, and I find it very sad and disturbing to read about. Thousands are being killed and millions have been displaced. In Yemen, 85,000 children have died from starvation since the start of the civil war, families are being forced to choose between water and medicine. It has been an ongoing famine since 2015. For example, the population in Yemen is 27.

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4 million, and the total people who are in need are around 18.8 million, that’s approximately 69% of the population. Starvation is a huge part of this civil war. After reading the news about this war, I never really thought it could keep getting worse however I’ve seen many graphic images and videos of how kids are suffering from this war. There are clips of kids being assaulted by soldiers along with. Other photos of kids crying for food and wanting their parents, whom they can’t find, to feed them. There were kids who shed tears for food and others who wailed for medical assistance. It came to an unbelieve point where thousands and thousands are dying from hunger. I never realized if people were aware of this situation until I saw many funding pages being shared throughout social media to donate to for the kids in Yemen. 50 thousand to 500 thousand dollars are being donated which is an amazing way to help in a situation like this.

Donating to charity websites is a great way to start helping kids in need. The best action I would consider doing is donating for whoever I can. From my experiences scrolling through social media, it’s amazed me that there are many people are willing to help the kids in Yemen through funding pages and charities. People like these should be appreciated because they are working extremely hard to try and help needy people that are living a dystopian life.

I walked around the campus of Cerritos College and surveyed ten students for my English 100 class. I asked them to answer several questions I wrote concerning the war in Yemen and the starvation of the children. Children in Yemen are suffering even when they’re the most innocent. Eight questions were on the survey I provided for the students. After looking over the results that the students provided on the surveys, I ended up with a variety of answers.

One of the most important concepts of “the unknown war” is Yemen itself since it’s the place where the war is taking place. No person would bother reading about “the unknown war” if they didn’t know where Yemen was in the first place. The students were asked if they know where Yemen is located. I didn’t really expect much to know where Yemen was, but I was wrong. Sixty percent had an idea where Yemen was located; most of them knew that it was an Arab country. So, I didn’t really need to explain much of where Yemen is located. The results that the students wrote leveled up my expectations to see what they answered on the follow-up questions.

People need to have a better understanding of a problem if they are willing to provide any sort of assistance to the situation. So, the ten Cerritos College students were asked if they know about “the unknown war” or if they at least heard about it. The results written by the students were what I expected. Forty percent of the students didn’t know there was a war going on in Yemen. I wasn’t really surprised by the results due to the fact that you don’t see anything about the war in Yemen on the news and the war is happening on a whole other continent. For the ones who didn’t ever hear about the war, I gave them an explanation of what the war is like, and they understood it easily. Some of the students had experienced war, so they sort of knew how bad of a situation it is for kids to suffer. So, I didn’t really need to experience much due to their awareness of war in general.

After the Cerritos college students understood the conflict going on in Yemen, they were asked if they care about what’s going on. Not so many students heard about the war in Yemen, so I didn’t really expect much to care about it, but I was wrong. Eighty percent of the students cared about the situation and found it tragic and scary. Forty percent of that students have experienced or know someone who experienced war so they have an idea of what the children are suffering from. I was heartened by the results at the end, but don’t really blame the students who didn’t really care due to their lack of knowledge about the conflict.

Now that the students understood the conflict going on in Yemen, they were asked if they would ever help. So, the students were asked how they would consider helping the conflict going on in Yemen, most of the students said that they would donate to funding pages they see through social media. Some also stated that they think spreading the message is a good way to help in a situation like this.

The survey results at the end varied which is good since different opinions were provided. Students were surprised after I explained what is “The Unknown War” and thought that people should be more aware of what’s going on in a conflict like this. Many felt the need to donate in order to offer assistance for the kids suffering.

The Yemen war is one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world. From an outsiders view, my common knowledge to define and explain the situation in Yemen wouldn’t be considered expertise information. So I researched through outside sources to get valuable knowledge from an expert’s perspective on how they would define the Yemen civil war and explain the consequences of this humanitarian crisis.

In an interview between a reporter and Middle East expert Katherine Zimmerman, who is a research fellow at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) and the research manager for AEI’s Critical Threats Project. The expert was asked on what is the war in Yemen, she replied “We’re watching a Saudi LED Coalition composed primarily of Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates forces fighting again Al-Houthi movement”, the Middle East expert then continues to say that this conflict has been ongoing for three and a half years and that there’s really no ending in sight.

In an article published by the “ International Rescue Committee,” it stated that the war in Yemen could be the worst famine in the world in 100 years. Over 22 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, the country is on the brink of famine, and a million people have suffered from the worst cholera outbreak in modern history. Many are dying every day and In the article published by IRC, it stated that August 2018 was the deadliest month so far, with nearly 500 civilians killed in the first nine days. And that’s just a fraction of the damage that’s being done in this humanitarian crisis.

The war started in 2015, but even before that, Yemen was struggling with poverty before then. Over half of its population is under 18 years of age and now they’re stuck in the middle of a civil war. Families are getting sick and most of them can’t afford humanitarian aid. Families are getting sick mostly because they eat one meal a day instead of three and the children are starving. A lady named Maritzel, who has been living in Yemen for three years working for Unicef was in a conversation with a reporter named Amelia Moseley and was asked how difficult is it living in Yemen as a kid, Maritzel answered that it is indeed very difficult and that the kids in Yemen have been suffering for three years and 2 million of them are unable to go to school, , many are getting sick because of their health, not all are able to go to the health center, even if they are able to go to the health center, it doesn’t provide many facilities.

The Middle East expert Katherine Zimmerman mentioned in an interview she did that there is no end for the war in sight, but all parties are talking about a political resolution. She also mentioned at the end of the interview that if the civil war continues, the people in Yemen will be suffering and Yemen would be at a massive risk of famine.

This problem affects me indirectly, but I do think it would be better for people to be more aware of a situation like this since we don’t see it on the news. Cerritos college students are also affected by this indirectly, since Yemen is all the way in the western part of Asia, although it is very tragic to hear about situations like this the people are forced to go through.

The Yemen war has been ongoing since 2015, by the looks of it, it is getting much worse as time passes, kids are forced to go through situations like that and sacrifice many of their loved ones. As the Middle East expert mentioned, this could lead to a massive famine if it continues and the political parties don’t find a resolution for this humanitarian crisis.

Kids in Yemen sacrifice their loved one and have to go through tragic situations for a conflict that they have nothing to be involved with. Imagine going to school with the rest of the students just how you always do on your school bus and suddenly the bus just gets bombed. Well, sadly the children in Yemen don’t have to imagine it but instead remember it because it did actually happen to them, and that’s just one of the roots of what’s causing this famine that has been going on for three years.

In Yemen, over two hundred thousand have no access to life saving medical care. The hospitals wouldn’t be able to help the patients, they would provide some medicine to help the patients at first, but then when asked to pay for the rest, the response the nurse or doctors will receive is “we cannot”. Even the hospital itself is lacking many types of medicine, the functioning of the hospitals have gone down half. Employees have not been getting paid at all, they would be promised the next day after the other, but receive nothing at the end. They also have to pay for their food clothes and their public transportation to and from work. After not getting paid for several months, some nurses and doctors still attended work they said because it’s something they have to do as a human being to help the patients in need, but not getting paid and going to work has a significant effect on them because they cannot afford the simplest things. An organization known as Doctors without Borders is an international humanitarian medical non-governmental organization of French origin best known for its projects in conflict zones and in countries affected by endemic diseases. This organization was a big part of providing humanitarian assistance to the children in Yemen. Sadly, most of its hospitals were bombed in Yemen.

‘Millions of children don’t know when or if their next meal will come’ said Helle Thorning-Schmidt, CEO of Save the Children International. Yemen used to import ninety percent of its food and supplies, now, due to the conflict, it is very difficult for Yemen to import its food. Millions are unable to eat because The food that is available is too expensive for families to purchase, the economy is in shambles and many people have lost their sources of income. Many of the goods such as flour, canned beans, sugar and vegetable oil, are, on average, eighty percent more expensive than pre-crisis. Food prices have risen over thirty-five percent in the last year alone. According to the Famine Early Warning Systems Network, Yemen is the largest food emergency in the world. Food is so scarce that fourteen million people don’t have enough to eat, and eight million are at risk of famine, meaning they could die of starvation. And the United Nations reports child malnutrition is at an all-time high two out of every five children are reported to be acutely malnourished in 2018.

Millions of Yemeni people need our help. Today, 22.2 million people within the country are in need of humanitarian assistance, and less than eighty percent of the Humanitarian Response Plan has been funded for 2018. Yemenis must choose between using scarce funds to pay for medicine or food to feed their families, millions of kids are forced to sacrifice their loved ones, and the rest are starving themselves from this humanitarian crisis. It has been an ongoing famine for three years, and from the looks of it, it’s only getting worse.