Clean Water and Proper Hygiene Protects Families from Diseases in Ma’rib

Ma’rib - It has been a month since Adbah and her family fled their home in Harib when conflict reached their home town. Since then, their lives have drastically changed.

“Constantly being on the move for weeks and sleeping out in the open has weakened our bodies and made us more susceptible to diseases,” explained Adbah, a displaced mother of six in Al Nuqa’a Site in Ma’rib.

Abdah is one of nearly one million people in Ma’rib who has been displaced by ongoing conflict in the governorate since 2015. Ma’rib’s displacement sites have been put under increasing pressure in recent months. Since September, these camps have seen a ten-fold increase in new arrivals. 

Limited accommodation has meant that dozens of people have no option but to live in a one room tent, in conditions unsuitable for a healthy life. A lack of clean water, proper sanitation and most basic hygiene materials has further exacerbated the overall health and living conditions of the families in the sites. 

“Our children are always sick. If they don’t have fever, then it is a stomach ache or diarrhea or food poisoning,” added Abdah.

To reduce water, sanitation and hygiene associated diseases among displaced communities, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) provided newly displaced families with highly needed hygiene kits.

“Displaced people escape the conflict areas searching for a safe place to shelter in. Once they find safety, they struggle to find clean water, food and medicine for their families,” said Hala Nasser, IOM's Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Assistant. 

“Maintaining personal and environmental hygiene is just as necessary as food and water to maintain good health. Proper hygiene can save their lives and protect them from deadly diseases,” she added.

“These hygiene materials are very useful to us. Without this assistance, there is no way we could afford cleaning materials on our own.”

“We do not have money to buy food to eat, let alone body soap and washing powder for our children,” explained Adhbah.

Basic hygiene kits support families to handle the poor living conditions of the sites and to enable good hygiene practices. This in return reduces cases of diarrhea, cholera and other waterborne diseases, as well as the spread of COVID-19.

Each kit contains personal hygiene materials, body bar soap and washing powder, water containers and washing basins. The kit also contains products for menstrual hygiene management.

During the distribution of the hygiene kits, IOM teams hold awareness raising sessions on proper hygiene practices among the community to encourage good hygiene behaviors and develop positive attitudes towards practices that keep them healthy and safe from diseases. 

Trained community hygiene promoters share messages and carry out hygiene promotion activities to educate displaced families on how they can adopt personal hygiene practices, such as washing their hands and keeping their shelters and tents clean. 

Adbah sent her two daughters to attend the hygiene awareness session that was held by IOM’s Community Hygiene Promoters in the displacement site they shelter in.

“Our children are the most vulnerable here. Knowledge and awareness on how they can apply simple cleanliness practices is what will protect them,” she said.

In addition to the distribution of basic hygiene items and hygiene awareness and promotion messages, IOM’s WASH emergency assistance to newly displaced people during November 2020 also included the distribution of 550 family water tanks, the provision of 4 million liters of chlorinated water to 1,900 families and the construction of 38 shared latrines for 190 recently displaced families. 

IOM’s WASH activities in Ma’rib are supported by USAID's Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) and EU Humanitarian Aid (ECHO).

This story was written by Elham Al-Oqabi and Mennatallah Homaid, IOM Yemen’s Communication Assistants