Bread is perhaps the closest thing we have to a universal food. It’s a part of every culture’s culinary tradition, a reliable staple in good times and bad. Bread can be baked anywhere, and its abundance can ease hunger everywhere.
This holiday season, when you’re sitting down with friends, family and neighbors at meal time, don’t take that loaf of bread for granted! Halfway around the world, a loaf just like yours will be providing a family in Yemen with the nutrition they need to get through their day.
To address the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Yemen, where conflict has left millions of families without their homes, incomes, and often without enough food, Embrace Relief has been supporting a daily bread distribution in the country since February 2022. This program provides free bread to 1,500 people each day, giving untold numbers of families a chance to survive, rebuild, and one day thrive again.
Akram Al-Khaishani, a humanitarian volunteer working with Embrace Relief on the ground in Yemen, sees the joy and relief that Embrace Relief and our donors provide to people on a daily basis.
“You can describe the impact on the people when you see children come to get the bread and they feel so happy,” he says. “You can describe the impact on the people when you see the widowed women and old women ask God to bless you, and to give you unlimited good, and to build a nice house for you in Paradise. You can describe the impact on people when you see orphans smile as they get their bread.”
More than half of Yemen’s population does not consume enough food on a daily basis, and just under 50 percent of children under 5 are chronically malnourished. Thanks to a severely weakened economy caused by the conflict, as well as the rising prices of food around the world, the UN World Food Programme describes the current level of hunger in Yemen as “unprecedented.”
“To compare this issue to the last 6 months, we found that the situation in Yemen is getting worse and worse every day,” Akram says. “And the number of poor families is increasing every day.”
The conflict and instability mean that the Yemeni people need support from their neighbors and friends around the world to end this hunger crisis. And just as all people around the world eat bread, we all are willing to share our food when we see people going hungry.
That’s why Embrace Relief is spotlighting our Yemen food distribution in conjunction with Giving Tuesday, the day set aside each year for people to support the causes and communities they care about. And that’s why we’re asking you to support our hunger relief efforts and help us save thousands of lives.
“I hope this program will continue for a long time,” Akram says. “[We are in need of] as much as you can support. I hope every one of us can help these poor families.”
Every dollar donated to Embrace Relief’s Yemen hunger relief supports the work of volunteers like Akram as they share bread with grateful families and alleviate some of the suffering in that part of the world. We’re all working together to save lives in Yemen, so join us and donate today
