Purpose of the project

Our Mission & Objectives

Our group will be made up of ten people who will travel to Yemen for four weeks. We chose the Hajjah city district in the Hajjah Governorate in northwestern Yemen, which has been suffering from extreme droughts and severe water shortages throughout the region. As a result, our task will include providing food and clean water to locals in refugee camps within the Hajjah city area. Afterward, the team will hold a get-together with the people we will be interacting with to educate them on the benefits resulting from environmental conservation which is the best solution towards curbing the impending famine and drought. Yemen is among Arab nation’s poorest country with an enormous amount of refugees of approximately 366,000 that results from the tribal clashes and the Houthi rebellion (CIA World Fact Book). It means there is inadequate food supply and the people in the Hajjah town utilize the scarce water resource for irrigation purpose and do it inefficiently. Apart from this primary goal, we will also have a secondary objective of evangelism despite the fact that Yemen is dominated by the Islamic religion with the Arabic culture. This project will help save the people’s lives and encourage them to promote sustainability.

Cultural and Social Aspects of Yemen

There is a widespread use of qat within Yemen which is a popular drug chewed by both men women, and it is a semi-narcotic plant. It is a crop that consumes a significant amount of water that is approximated to be five times than other crops. From the statistics, people use 40% of the country’s water to grow and irrigate qat that leads to a shortage of clean water. There are an increasing number of refugees that results from the growing Al-Qaida threat and other terrorist attacks accompanied with a weak government which leads to wars. The nation is still trying to unify after the bloody civil wars that result from the Hirak activists. There is a fighting between Al Qaeda, government forces, and affiliated militants. It is evident there is no political stability in Yemen which has been severely impacting its economic growth and development. Thus, many people are poor and have run to Hajjah to stay in the refugee camps where there are scarce clean water and enough supply of food. Children and women are dying in the camps and thus the need for help from the foreign aid. More than 160, 000 of the Yemenis have been displaced from their ancestral land where they could carry out agricultural and other activities that could improve their living. Yemen is said to be insecure as there more guns than people who mean that the civilians are always armed which is a threat to the national security. The total dependency ratio is 75.6, and the estimated potential support ratio was estimated to be 20.4 in 2015 (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

Furthermore, the unemployment rate is high and is 35% which is as a result of the poorly educated workforce and the flattening economy. Additionally, the rapidly growing population is not proportional to available resources in the country. It has a total population of 28,206, 066 in 2017 which is 0.37% of the world’s population with a gross domestic product per capita of $990.33 as per 2017. The population is expected to grow to over 60 million in the year 2050 while the economy will continue to deteriorate due to an impending famine, political instability, insecurity, and scarcity of water. As the religion of Yemen primarily consists of the two principal religious of the Islam that includes Sunni and Shi’a, it is crucial to promote the evangelism activities to create awareness of the gospel in the region. Approximately 95% are Muslims and there elements of discrimination of the Christians, Hindus, and Jews who are in the area (CIA World Fact Book).

Fulfillment of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic

Loving our neighbors as we love ourselves involves aspects such as sharing what we have with the poor together with the alien and taking care to ensure that we do put other people’s life at risk and helping those facing challenges to pray and seek support from Christ who is the solution to all our problems. Practicing justice to our fellow human beings is also a show of love to other people. Our mission project aims at providing food and clean water to people in Hajjah and mainly the refugees who are in need of food and drinking water. Individuals who ran away from their homes were seeking security and overcoming the dangers of drought and famine through the assistance of the government and the foreign aid.

Therefore, we will be showing our love to the people in Hajjah town by sharing what we have with them to save them from death and other severe impacts associated with water scarcity and the impending famine. Additionally, the evangelism work will help in the sharing of the word of God and convince those who are involving themselves in the terrorist attacks to avoid such evil activities. After providing for the needy in the targeted population, we will take extra steps to educate them on the significance of conserving the environment. Here, we will encourage them to reduce the culture of chewing qat and look for other alternative crops that do not consume a significant amount of water. We will have achieved the Judeo-Christian-Islamic by doing onto others what we would like them to do onto others if we could be facing the same problems and challenges. Yemen is neither fortunate nor happy due to the human suffering experienced in the country. The world needs support from each other, and the developed countries are taking various steps to make sure that they help the underdeveloped nations and areas facing terror attacks, drought, famine, and other human sufferings to come out of the situations. They achieve it through humanitarian activities such as food aid and clean water. Henceforth, there will be an improvement in the day to day lives of our fellow humans.

Information Regarding Hajjah City District

We are planning to serve the needy people in the refugee camps who are suffering from adverse impacts of the terror attacks, political instability, scarcity of water, and the expanding drought and famine. The small town has a total population of 53,887 people which represents 0.19% of all the people in Yemen and 3% of Hajjah Governorate that has a population of 1,834,000. The rate of urbanization is 4.03% at an annual rate, and it is slightly lower as compared to Yemen which is 7.01% (CIA World Fact Book). Due to the high birth rate of 29.2 births per 1000 population, the total population of Hajjah city district is expected to increase to 100,000 in the next five years.

Economic Situation in Yemen

The civil conflicts accompanied with the political turmoil resulted in Yemen’s collapse. There is an increase in the suspension of the oil and gas exports which used to contribute significantly towards the revenue of the country together with coffee and qat crop that is diminishing due to the scarcity of water. People are facing the catastrophic humanitarian situation, destruction of major infrastructure, and massive displacement that is a threat to an improvement of the living standards of people (U.S. Department of State website). The GDP per capita is $990.333, gross domestic product is $27.32 billion, and GDP growth rate is -9.8% annually and internet users of 14.9% of the total population (CIA World Fact Book). Hence, the project will help in the provision of food with clean water that can improve people’s lives and preach the gospel to the refugees who may have lost hope in life due to the problems that they are facing.

Possible Concerns

The country is prone to infectious diseases and thus a need for vaccination before we start the trip. Also, since the security in Yemen is deteriorating, it is essential to take into account the measures provided by the U.S. Department of State which recommends one to enroll in a Smart Traveler Enrollment Program (STEP). STEP helps to mitigate risks arising from terrorist attacks, political instability, and military operations. Additionally, all the team members will have to respect the social and religious traditions in Yemen to avoid possibilities of offending the local sensitivities. We will also take an insurance travel cover and registration of our details with our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Works Cited

Bureau of Labor Statistics. Consumer price data information, 2017,https://www.bls.gov/cpi/tables.htm Accessed 26 Aug. 2017

CIA World Fact Book, 2017 https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/Accessed 26 Aug. 2017

U.S. Department of State website 2017, https://travel.state.gov//content/travel/en.html Accessed26 Aug.