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We Try to Help as Many as We Can’: Hunger Relief in Yemen

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

30 million people live with food insecurity in Yemen. As 2022 winds down, you may be looking to make one last charitable donation that will support a worthy cause. Here at Embrace Relief, we’re spotlighting our Breaking Bread With Yemen program, which has provided bread to more than 350,000 people in conflict-stricken Yemen over the past nine months. Donating to this program is an amazing way to save lives and create hope during this giving season. Read on to hear about life on the ground in Yemen from one of our partners, and how great the need truly is:

Cold weather is coming to Sana’a, the mountainous capital city of Yemen. Nestled in the Yemeni highlands, Sana’a gets much chillier during the winter months than the more temperate coastal areas in the south and west, or the hot desert in the east.

Many people in the capital are out of work as a result of the economic collapse caused by Yemen’s ongoing civil conflict. Many others are among the four million Yemenis – one-seventh of the population – who have been displaced from their homes during the crisis. Winter will be an especially challenging time for those who don’t have the money to afford homes and other basic necessities of life.

“I have met a lot of poor Yemeni people,” says Akram Al-Khaishani, an Embrace Relief partner living and working in Sana’a. “Many are displaced because of the war, they move from one governorate to another. Others have lost their job, their income, they’re living in shelters or tents. And they are waiting, asking for help, for clothes and medical help. But for most of the Yemeni people, they’re asking for bread. Something to protect themselves from hunger.”

Nearly two-thirds of Yemen’s population of 30 million is food insecure, and with the government unable to provide assistance, outside organizations like Embrace Relief are stepping in to help out and save lives.

Embrace Relief’s Breaking Bread With Yemen food distribution began in February 2022, and has now been operating for more than nine months. At the time of writing, Embrace Relief and our partner organizations have provided bread to more than 350,000 Yemenis through this program.

That number includes tens of thousands of mothers and fathers who have one less worry when it comes to providing for their families. It also includes tens of thousands more children who can attend school and live their lives on a full stomach. But more than anything else, that number represents 350,000 lives saved in a time of deep crisis. And it’s all thanks to the generosity of our donors.

“We try to help as many people as we can,” Akram says. “You cannot describe it, when you see a little girl and boy in the morning coming to the bakery, and they are so happy. So many children go to school without breakfast. They get their bread, most children go to school without breakfast. But now they can get their bread in the morning and focus on their studies.”

Help the people of Yemen with an End-of-Year Gift!

As long as the need exists in Yemen, Embrace Relief will be there. And that’s why we’ve made food distribution in Yemen our End-of-Year 2022 highlighted giving program!

This is the time of year when we all look to help those who are struggling. In Yemen, home to the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, the need has never been greater. With millions displaced from their homes, out of work, and lacking income, the support of outside organizations like Embrace Relief is vital to help the people of Yemen survive and rebuild.

“Please, look to the Yemeni people as if they’re your brothers and sisters,” says Akram. “Everything is closed in front of them. But when I meet people [at our bread distribution], they always wish paradise for those who are giving their support to them. They are happy because you are beside us in this difficult situation.”

Donating to our Breaking Bread With Yemen program, at any amount, can be a life-changing act for so many in Yemen:

  • $25 will feed an entire family for two weeks
  • $50 will feed an entire family for one month
  • $600 will feed an entire family for one year

Every one-time donation is greatly appreciated, but we also offer the opportunity to show your support in an even greater way through recurring monthly donations. Either way, you can be assured that your gift will directly put food in the hands of people in the greatest need.

So donate today and make the people of Yemen the recipients of your 2022 year-end gift! Every contribution you make will give hope to people who are living through the toughest times imaginable.

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Embrace Relief Awarded 4-star Rating from Charity Navigator

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

The Embrace Relief Foundation is pleased to announce that it has been rated as a four-star charity and awarded a 100 percent score from Charity Navigator, the leading independent assessor of 501(c)(3) nonprofit charity organizations in the United States.

This rating and score places Embrace Relief among the top 1 percent of the nearly 200,000 charities rated by Charity Navigator, indicating high levels of effectiveness and trustworthiness. It is a positive reflection of the organization’s outstanding financial accountability and transparency, leadership, and the strength of its global humanitarian mission, according to Embrace Relief CEO Osman Dulgeroglu.

“We are proud to earn the highest possible rating from Charity Navigator,” Dulgeroglu added. “It tells us that we are on the right track, and demonstrates that Embrace Relief is an organization that is worthy of our donors’ and partners’ trust.”

According to Charity Navigator, non-profit charitable organizations who receive a four-star rating “exceed or meet best practices and industry standards across almost all areas.”

Embrace Relief earned perfect scores in each of the categories Charity Navigator uses to judge a non-profit organization: Accountability & Finance, Culture & Community, and Leadership & Adaptability. These evaluations help charitable people and businesses make intelligent decisions with their giving, boosting charities like Embrace Relief who execute their missions in a fiscally sound manner.

In addition to this rating, Embrace Relief has also earned accreditations from several other independent charity-assessing organizations in 2022:

  • Embrace Relief is an “Accredited Charity” according to the Better Business Bureau, reflecting high marks in Governance, Effectiveness, Finances and Fundraising. 
  • Embrace Relief earned the “Platinum Transparency” accreditation from Candid (formerly known as GuideStar), one of the most comprehensive sources of information on more than 2.5 million non-profits. 
  • For the sixth consecutive year, Embrace Relief was awarded a perfect five-star rating from GreatNonprofits, which rates nonprofits based on community feedback.

About Embrace Relief

Based in Fairfield, New Jersey, the Embrace Relief Foundation has provided humanitarian aid to millions of people in more than 50 countries since our founding in 2008.

Embrace Relief’s eight core programs – disaster relief, hunger relief, clean water, health, refugee relief, women’s empowerment, education, and children – are designed to deliver research-based, sustainable solutions to achieve immediate and lasting improvements in the quality of life of individuals and communities enduring chronic hardships.

For more information on these programs and how to support them, visit our website at www.embracerelief.org.

Giving Tuesday 2022: Double Your impact and Support Hunger Relief in Yemen

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

Facebook is matching donations to charitable causes once again in 2022, giving you the opportunity to support Embrace Relief and make a recurring monthly donation go even farther! 

With the 2022 holiday season nearly upon us, and especially with Giving Tuesday coming up on November 29, there is no shortage of good causes and good ways to help people in need.

At Embrace Relief, we’re putting a spotlight on one of our most important causes this holiday season: our Breaking Bread With Yemen hunger relief efforts. Since February, Embrace Relief has been providing a free daily bread distribution for 1,500 people in conflict-stricken Yemen. Thanks to the support of donors like you, we’ve saved thousands of lives and given people hope in a difficult situation.

So this holiday season, we hope you’ll consider lending a hand to our friends in Yemen. A single donation of just $50 will provide enough bread to feed an entire family for a month. But a recurring monthly donation is an even better way to show your support, allowing us to continue distributing food for months to come. And now, thanks to Meta’s Giving Season 2022 initiative, a recurring monthly donation could even go twice as far during this holiday season! 

That’s because Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has pledged to match $7 million in recurring donations to participating nonprofits (like Embrace Relief) for a limited time beginning Nov. 15.

And it’s a simple process. Here’s how to do it:

  • Between Nov. 15 and Dec. 31, visit Embrace Relief’s Facebook page and click “Donate.”
  • Then, click “Donate Monthly.”
  • Finally, type in the amount of your recurring donation and your payment info, and then click “Donate” again.

And that’s it! Your recurring monthly donation will support our Yemen hunger relief program, and will be eligible for a matching contribution (up to $100 per month) from Meta*. That means twice as many Yemeni families going to bed without worrying about where their next meal will come from.

*Important note: your recurring donation will not be eligible for a match until the second month’s donation is processed.

This holiday season, give the gift of bread to thousands of people in need in Yemen. But make your gift go twice as far by donating to Embrace Relief on Facebook.

Journey to Greece: Refugees open their homes, hearts to Embrace Relief

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

Living in an unfamiliar country, torn away from the bonds of family and friends, can be a lonely, quiet, even painful existence. But through all their hardships, the refugee women and children living in Greece with the support of Embrace Relief remain hopeful.

“At the end of the day, these women are grateful for what they have, and they believe that God will be with them and look out for them,” says Dana Coppola, Project Coordinator with Embrace Relief. “Even though these terrible things are happening. It’ll be OK.”

Coppola is nearly halfway through her 10-day journey to Greece, where she – alongside her sister Sam – are visiting, speaking with, and documenting the lives of refugees on behalf of Embrace Relief. Their stories, she says, are moving and vulnerable, but also a reminder of the power of humanity to thrive in difficult situations.

“They’re opening their homes and hearts to us, which is a beautiful thing,” Dana says. “It’s an intimate, vulnerable setting. Everyone’s hearts are on their sleeves.”

According to the UN, more than 170,000 people living in Greece are classified as refugees and asylum-seekers, meaning people who have fled their homelands due to conflict or persecution. For those who have fled to Greece, Embrace Relief’s refugee relief program provides support for basic necessities, like housing, food and education, through the generous support of our donors. Because of the sensitive nature of refugee status, Embrace Relief does not disclose the names, locations or other identifying details of the people we support.

The stories these women and children told Coppola were often heartwrenching. Some described being isolated and disowned by their families for their political beliefs or affiliations. Others told of how, before they fled, they could not leave their homes to see friends, eat, shop, or even seek medical treatment – “the simple things that make life full,” one interviewee said. 

Many of the refugees are separated from their husbands, wives, mothers or fathers. One of the interviewees, a 13-year-old girl, told Coppola that she can’t sleep at night “because I didn’t know if I would see my mom or dad ever again.” They wait in a hopeful kind of limbo to be reunited one day.

Through it all, they survive and thrive by hanging on to those closest to them: their children or parents, fellow refugees, and the people that one interviewee called “angel hearts” – those who work at or donate to organizations like Embrace Relief who look out for their welfare.

“As long as we have breath in our lungs, we’ll fight for freedom,” said one interviewee. “No matter how much they try to push us down, we always rise.”

Coppola’s journey is meant to shine a necessary light on the plight of these refugee women and children. They experience the same universal joys and challenges as all people do – Coppola noted how grateful some of the children were to receive chocolates and a winter coat during her visit. But they do so while living in a precarious, unstable situation, in need of advocates and friends. 

This is why, Coppola explains, it’s necessary and urgent to hear their stories. 

“We’re trying to be their voice, because they have no voice,” she says.Embrace Relief has been sharing, and will continue to share, these stories on our website, Instagram and Facebook pages in the coming weeks. If you can, we urge you to donate to Embrace Relief’s refugee program, which will provide life-changing assistance to this vulnerable group of people.

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Embrace Relief, Youth Island team up for weekly food drive in Manhattan

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

During the weekend of Oct. 22-23, the Embrace Relief Foundation and Youth Island NY teamed up to distribute food, clothing and toiletries to more than 200 people near Herald Square in Midtown Manhattan.

This event is the first of a planned series of regular distribution events that will be held by the two organizations Sunday nights at 7 p.m. near the intersection of West 35th Street and Broadway in New York, which will serve all kinds of people in need, including unhoused people.

“We’ve found, through our work, that there are many organizations distributing food during weekdays in the area, but none on Sundays. And of course people who can’t afford food still need food on Sunday,” said Osman Dulgeroglu, Embrace Relief’s CEO. “This is why it’s very important for Embrace Relief to partner with Youth Island to distribute hot meals. We are planning to be able to do this every Sunday in the near future. Together, we will be able to fill an important role.”

And last weekend’s event, like all future distributions will be, was truly a team effort. Embrace Relief collected many boxes’ worth of donations of clothes and toiletries, and also provided its mobile market food distribution truck. Around 20 Youth Island volunteers gathered together on each of the two nights in the heart of bustling New York City to distribute the items and keep the event running smoothly and ensure that the 200-plus attendees received their items and food in an organized fashion.

Founded in 2017, Youth Island NY is a nonprofit organization aiming to provide spiritual, social and academic support and mentorship for middle- and high-school students. Last weekend’s event allowed its group of student volunteers to make an impact in other people’s lives and reflect on their own, says Sevket Arar, Youth Island’s Director of Education.

“It’s important to organize events like this,” he said. “Not only can we help others in need, but our volunteers become more empathetic and understand how blessed they are.”

“Life can be very difficult for people who are homeless,” Dulgeroglu says. “Some are unable to break the cycle of poverty, others have been unfortunate in different ways. We must all work to ensure that everyone has their basic needs met, no matter their situation.”

The planned weekly Sunday night distribution in Manhattan will mark the continuation of a successful partnership between Embrace Relief and Youth Island, which now dates back more than five years. In past years, with Embrace Relief’s support, Youth Island students have been able to travel to Uganda and Haiti to distribute food, conduct health screenings, and teach local students.

The best way for you to support future food distribution events is by donating either money or clothing. Donating to Embrace Relief’s Hunger Relief program will keep our mobile market food truck running, while Youth Island requests that interested donors contact them via their website, www.youthisland.org.

Embrace Relief is a registered 501(c)(3) humanitarian nonprofit organization based in Fairfield, NJ, and dedicated to providing aid to people and communities in need in the United States and around the world. The Foundation operates programs in eight different humanitarian areas: disaster relief, hunger relief, clean water, health, education, children, refugee relief, and women’s empowerment. For more information on Embrace Relief’s programs, visit www.embracerelief.org.

Water wells in Chad: ‘With this, our life will be easier’

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

For many years, the people of Chedide 2 village, located in the central African nation of Chad, have spent up to eight hours each day fetching water. The small rural village of approximately 80 families simply has no other option. Safe, clean water is one of life’s most basic necessities – without it, humans can’t grow their own food, can’t live in a hygienic environment, and can’t survive.

“Water is life,” says Gambo Idriss, the village chief in Chedide 2. “It is our breath.”

But life in this part of the world is very different from America, where clean water is continuously piped into every home. In Chad, every day is organized around basic questions that we may never need to consider: Where can we find water? And how much of my day will it take to bring home?

If water is life, then the scarcity that requires a daily, hours-long walk to the nearest water source is a threat to the survival of the people of Chedide 2, as well as those in the many thousands of villages in sub-Saharan Africa who live in similar conditions. There is plenty of clean water in this part of the world. But most of it is located underground – and without the money and machinery to build a well, the villagers can’t access it. So they have to make do with water wherever they can find it, however long it takes.

“We are walking every day for four hours [one way] next to Lake Chad for agriculture,” Gambo Idriss says. “But the lake is getting smaller, and we need to travel a longer distance every year to reach water for planting.”

This process, repeated daily in thousands of villages across sub-Saharan Africa, is often undertaken by young girls and women, and altogether wastes millions of hours each year that could be instead spent taking care of families, receiving an education, or starting a business.

For their drinking water, the villagers of Chedide 2 fetch water from an open well during Chad’s dry season, about nine months in a year. During the rainy season, they collect rainwater directly from the puddles that fill holes in the ground. In both cases, the unprotected water they drink is susceptible to contamination by bacteria and parasites, which cause the waterborne diseases – like cholera or typhoid – that kill millions of people each year.

It’s an untenable situation for the villagers’ long-term health, happiness, and productivity. It’s also the exact problem that Embrace Relief’s Fountains of Hope project aims to solve.

Through coordination with our partners, Embrace Relief identified an abandoned water well located much closer to Chedide 2. If it could be reconstructed to meet our strict design standards, this well would dramatically reduce the amount of time villagers needed to fetch water, while also ensuring that it would be free from contamination. And so, with the help of our donors, Embrace Relief did just that.

“The broken well you just reconstructed has been there for eight years,” Gambo Idriss said. “With this well our life will be easier, Our children have time for education, even cooking becomes easy.”Embrace Relief has built more than 500 new wells in sub-Saharan Africa, and the well near Chedide 2 is one of more than 100 existing wells that we’ve rebuilt under the Fountains of Hope initiative. Reconstructing a well saves precious time, money and resources, and can be done for a third of the cost and time needed to build a new one.

But more importantly, the construction of a new well, or the reconstruction of an abandoned well, will give the villagers hope for a better future. Because of donors like you, they’ll be healthier, more educated, more agriculturally productive, wealthier. We can unlock a sustainable and successful future for the people of Chedide 2, and for the many millions of people in villages like it. And by doing so, we can make the world a healthier, happier place.

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Mali Medical Clinic: Doctors dedicated to others

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

Read on to hear from Dr. Adama Fomba, a pediatrician working at the Humanitarian Medical Clinic in Bamako, Mali, who has dedicated his life to providing medical care to children who can’t afford it. Dr. Fomba and his colleagues rely on Embrace Relief and our donors to continue providing this life-saving service for thousands of people each year. You can support them by donating to Embrace Relief’s Mali Medical Center today!

What inspires people to spend their lives in service of others? For Dr. Adama Fomba, a pediatrician working in the West African country of Mali, it’s the memory of where he came from.

“There are so many things that motivated me to study in the health sector,” Dr. Fomba says. “I am from a village where children suffer a lot, and they don’t have access to health treatment. I saw this firsthand, and it really impacted me. I wanted to help them.”

After earning his medical degree, Dr. Fomba searched for a place to work as a pediatrician, helping children in the greatest need of medicine and care. When he heard about the Clinic Gaoussou Fofana in Mali’s capital city, Bamako – one of three clinics supported by Embrace Relief – it was his clear choice.

“I was informed that Clinic Gaoussou Fofana is working as a humanitarian clinic which motivated me to come here,” Dr. Fomba says. “In many areas around Bamako, people do not have access to [healthcare]. This can be due to financial and distance problems. But I want to work as a humanitarian.”

More than 40 percent of Mali’s population lives below the poverty line, and the country faces a critical shortage of hospitals, doctors, and other medical personnel, with just 1 doctor for every 10,000 people. (The global average is 18 per 10,000; in the United States, there are 26 doctors per 10,000). As a result, less than 10 percent of Mali’s 21 million people are able to access basic healthcare services. The country thus faces severe challenges to the wellbeing and happiness of its people: Mali ranks 186th out of 191 countries in the UN Human Development Index, and its average life expectancy is just 60 years, the 11th-lowest of any country on the planet.

Embrace Relief has identified Mali as a place where investment in healthcare can make a real difference. That’s why we support three clinics in Bamako, staffed by a rotating group of volunteer doctors from around the world. The clinics are equipped to provide a full suite of care, including ophthalmology, dentistry, gynecology, ear/nose/throat services, pediatrics, urology and general internal medicine.

These clinics – as well as a mobile health unit van and a mobile clinic truck funded by Embrace Relief, which bring care directly to people outside the capital city – have provided more than 500,000 preventative health screenings since 2013, and have conducted more than 36,000 cataract surgeries, addressing the country’s high rate of people living with vision loss.

Cataracts, a clouding of the eye lens, are the world’s leading cause of blindness, typically developing in older people. But cataracts, like many other health conditions, can also occur in the eyes of younger people and children because of malnutrition. Mali’s population is at particular risk to health conditions exacerbated by a lack of food: two-thirds of the population is food insecure and one in four children under the age of 5 are chronically undernourished.

“Nutritional problems are the base of child sickness,” Dr. Fomba says. “We should put pressure on this problem. If they have healthy food, they will be safe. The other sicknesses can develop if there continue to be nutrition problems. Kids are very vulnerable so you have to take care of them because their parents’ bodies can defend themselves from sickness, but children cannot.”

And so while the world focuses on the long-term structural issues facing Mali, the doctors at the Humanitarian Medical Clinic (formerly known as Gaoussou Fofana) continue their work, easing the suffering of thousands of individuals each year, enabling people of all ages, who otherwise might not be able to afford healthcare, to live a longer and more dignified life free of chronic ailments.

Donating to Embrace Relief’s Mali Medical Center will give Dr. Fomba and his colleagues the support they need to continue saving lives and improving quality of life for the people of Mali. Every dollar you donate goes directly towards keeping these clinics functioning and providing the high quality of care that all people deserve.

“I thank and congratulate our partners and invite them to do more health projects to help the people in developing countries,” Dr. Fomba says. “Because we are in need. Thank you, all of you.”

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Changing lives for years to come: Embrace Relief’s water wells in Chad

Posted on | by Leo Wilson

The water beneath the ground in the African country of Chad is like buried treasure. If you know where to look and how deep to dig, you can find something immeasurably valuable.

But for civil engineer Omer Karaca, drilling into the ground and digging a well that will allow entire villages in this developing country to access water – for sanitation, agriculture, cooking, cleaning and more – is just part of the task. He and his fellow engineers also have to ensure that their wells are built to last.

“If you follow all processes of constructing correctly, [a well] will provide clean water for at least 30 years minimum,” Karaca says. “Because Chad has one of the largest underground water reservoirs in the world. It is an infinite water source.” 

Earlier this year, Karaca was one of the engineers working to build water wells in Chad as part of Embrace Relief’s Clean Water Initiative. To date, Embrace Relief has built or reconstructed 610 wells, providing life-giving clean water to more than 610,000 people in Chad and neighboring Cameroon.

Hundreds of millions of people worldwide lack access to a basic, improved source of clean water. In parts of the world like Chad, many people – especially women and children – must walk for miles each day to fetch water, often from a lake, pond or hole in the ground whose unprotected water could be breeding grounds for deadly bacteria and viruses.

“The villagers around this area need clean water,” Karaca says, as he overlooks the future site of a well in a village two hours north of Chad’s capital city, N’djamena. It’s a dry, hot day in February, and the dirt beneath Omer’s feet is a beige and dusty, the landscape broken up by green shrubs here and there.

“The only water source here is rainwater lakes. Villagers drink this contaminated water, but they need clean drinking water.”

‘Long life:’ How Embrace Relief builds its wells to last

A water well is a life-changing addition to any village. When communities have a reliable and accessible supply of water, Karaca explains:

  • They’re healthier, being less susceptible to the waterborne illnesses that kill millions worldwide each year. 
  • They’re more productive and wealthier, thanks to their new ability to grow (and sell) greater quantities and varieties of crops.
  • And they’re more educated, as the time children spend on fetching water can instead be spent in the classroom.

Because a well is so important to a community, the design and construction are crucial for ensuring that this water supply is sustainable over the long term. An poorly-conceived well could become obsolete and useless – or worse, contaminated – in as little as six months, Karaca says. This is why every Embrace Relief well is built to a high standard, following design practices researched with our partners on the ground in Africa. 

Boreholes are dug 45 meters (about 147 feet) into the ground, below the natural water level but deep enough to naturally filter any surface contaminants. This clean water then enters our sturdy PVC pipe, with sandblasted filter pipes removing any sediments. The villagers can then access this water at any time through the use of a hand-operated pump. Simple, effective, and sustainable.

“If you would like to have clean drinkable water, you should dig deep enough and install the sandblasting correctly,” Karaca says. “It also gives long life to your water well.”

And Embrace Relief’s commitment to the communities we serve goes beyond just the construction of the well. We pledge to never abandon a water well, and our donors’ support guarantees a minimum five-year guaranteed warranty that includes regular maintenance, annual checkups, and replacement of all operational parts of the well, which will ensure another five years of nonstop water flow capacity.

Water wells have the power to change the world and make life safer and better for millions of people in developing countries. And when we lift up our friends around the world, our world is stronger for it. Donating to Embrace Relief’s Clean Water Initiative is a relatively small investment that will improve thousands of people’s lives.

“Water is life. When a village has clean drinkable water life is completely changing,” Karaca says. “I found it very important to visit this area and open a water well for these people.  I am strongly advising you to come and visit Chad and understand their plight. Thank you.”