The month of Ramadan in Yemen reflects the spirit of solidarity, cooperation and community initiatives to help the poor and needy and fight hunger in light of the difficult economic conditions Yemenis are experiencing as a result of the war, which has entered its seventh year.

Charitable and charitable initiatives in the month of Ramadan from businessmen, affluent and expatriate Yemenis compete in initiatives that have a religious nature related to the payment of zakat or charity from funds embodying the teachings of the true Islamic religion.

Various Ramadan initiatives

These initiatives vary between providing food baskets that contain living requirements in the month of Ramadan, and the financial sums that help people provide for their needs, as well as providing water to residential neighborhoods that the destitute cannot buy in light of their high prices due to the high prices of oil derivatives.

A citizen takes his food basket on a motorcycle (Al-Jazeera)

These initiatives come in light of extremely difficult economic conditions, especially with the high prices of foodstuffs and oil derivatives.

It is expected that about 16 million people will suffer from hunger in 2021, and nearly 50 thousand people will starve to death in addition to 5 million others separated by one step from this situation, according to Mark Lowcock, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Relief Coordinator in Cases of Relief. Emergency, in a previous statement to Al-Jazeera Net.

Community responsibility and recommendation for funds

Saeed Al-Hajj works in one of these initiatives, which is contributed by a businessman, and provides food baskets to 500 families in the capital, Sana'a, distributed over multiple residential neighborhoods.

Saeed says that charitable work increases in this month, as it is a month of spending, recommending money, and feeling the poor and needy, and in which worship is embodied and the needy feels safe and in the spirit of the blessed month.

A picture of a food basket presented to a needy family (Al-Jazeera)

Initiatives from expatriates

Muhammad Ali - one of the expatriates outside Yemen - believes that the war has increased the area of ​​poverty in the country in the absence of the presence of service to the state and the multiplicity of authorities concerned with managing the battles, and that this made the Yemeni expatriate’s responsibility a great deal towards his country in providing aid to the needy.

Muhammad contributes sums of money to nearly 200 families in rural Yemen at the rate of $ 30 per family annually in the month of Ramadan, and he prepares it as zakat money for his investments and properties.

Muhammad says - to Al-Jazeera Net - that many Yemeni expatriates, whether in the United States or in the Gulf countries and various regions, play a major role in combating poverty during the month of Ramadan by distributing foodstuffs, or filling water tanks in areas that lack drinking water.

Hussein Majed - one of the beneficiaries of these initiatives - believes that the multiplicity of these initiatives contributes to creating stability for many families in the holy month.

Majed works in the city as a construction worker throughout the year to provide for himself and his family of 8 members, but during the month of Ramadan he returns to his village to live the atmosphere of Ramadan after these initiatives provided him with financial stability, even if only temporarily.

Like Majid, there are thousands of families to whom these initiatives provide relative stability and reduce the burden of poverty that always disrupts life.

Part of the initiatives to distribute water to neighborhoods in need (Al-Jazeera)

Free Ramadan clinics

The symbiotic work does not stop at this level. Rather, Yemen witnesses annually the launch of free Ramadan clinics in initiatives of doctors who provide their services for free, and provide free medicines in cooperation with some pharmaceutical companies.

The first of these initiatives began this year in Seiyun city in Hadramout governorate, where clinics provide free treatment services during Ramadan.

Free charitable bakeries are also active in the month of Ramadan to distribute bread to poor families and orphans, with community initiatives from the well-to-do to alleviate the suffering of people.

Exemption from rent

The images of solidarity and cooperation did not stop at this point. Rather, the exemption of some tenant homeowners from paying the rent for the month of Ramadan reached a new step that is still limited.

Ali Hassan told Al-Jazeera Net, who owns 3 buildings in Sanaa, that in appreciation of the conditions of people in light of the war, he exempted tenants from paying the rent for the month that corresponds to the month of Ramadan, calling on all homeowners to take the same decision in appreciation of the conditions of citizens.

Materials intended to prepare food baskets (Al-Jazeera)

Aseel initiative

Aseel Farea calls for the continuation of these initiatives throughout the year, as poverty and hunger are not seasonal, believing that community efforts and humanitarian initiatives can reduce the impact of famine in Yemen.

Aseel is a young Yemeni man studying political science in America, and at the age of (21), he left his country at the age of 3, but remained connected to it by following up and communicating with relatives, so he prepared videos explaining the human and living conditions in his country and familiarizing the American society with this suffering.

One of the tanks to provide free water in the slums (the island)

Aseel, a social activist and student who does not have money, offered his personal initiative to help the needy in his country, publishing videos about the humanitarian situation in Yemen through websites in America in order to collect $ 10,000 to provide food baskets for 58 Yemeni families, and to provide water tanks and fill them with water in neighborhoods in need in Sana'a .

The Aseel initiative succeeded, in which non-Yemeni and non-Muslim contributors participated in a humanitarian initiative towards a country that had been beset by war and deepened its tragedy.

All these societal initiatives contribute to alleviating the economic crisis and the level of famine, even partially and temporarily, in the hope that the war will soon end to address the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.