As Yemeni women face extreme hardships linked to prolonged conflict, many are serving selflessly, under enormous pressures, at badly overstretched health facilities where millions of children and families depend on them for hope, healing and survival.
Dr. Baria Awadh is one of these heroic but unheralded women health workers. An obstetrician-gynecologist at the Ras Al-Ara hospital in southern Yemen, she has sacrificed her professional career advancement to continue working in a remote area of the country where women have almost no access to reproductive, antenatal, and delivery care.
“Since I was a small child, I always wanted to be a doctor,” Dr. Baria explains. “Now I am proud to be the only doctor in this area, because it means that women no longer have to deliver their babies at home, or travel to other hospitals in Aden – a 180-kilometer journey from here.”
Yemen has one of the world’s highest known rates of maternal and newborn mortality. This is especially the case in rural and most remote areas of the country where women have almost no access to reproductive, antenatal, and delivery care.
“My original goal was to train in this facility and then move to another hospital in Aden", continues Dr. Baria. "But eventually I came to realize that I should stay here, instead of going there. That's because this is not just the only hospital in this village – it is also the only hospital on this entire coastline that provides basic health services.”
“This is here where I can serve more people than at any other hospital…so I have stayed,” Dr. Bariah concludes with a smile.
Women and children at greatest risk
According to the UN’s Yemen Humanitarian Needs Overview 2023 (HNO), severe health threats and limited access to health services pose greatest risks to children and women who are highly vulnerable to malnutrition and preventable diseases.
In 2021, Yemen ranked 155th of 156 countries on the World Economic Forum’s Global Gender Gap Index. Subject to restricted movements, high exposure to gender-based violence (GBV), and other major challenges, women as well as girls with disabilities are among most-marginalized Yemenis who are also least reachable by healthcare and humanitarian workers.
As of December 2022, over two-thirds of Yemen’s population (20.3 million people) were in need of health assistance (24 percent women and 51 percent children). An estimated 3.5 million pregnant and breastfeeding women and children under five also suffered from acute malnutrition, according to the 2023 Humanitarian Needs Overview (HNO) for Yemen. According to the 2023 HNO, health risks compounded with limited access to health services will remain high, especially for women and children.
Dr. Reem Tawfiq continuously encounters many of these challenges in her work as director of the Al-Tawahi Health Center on the outskirts of Aden, in southern Yemen. During her six months as the center’s director, Dr. Reem has already faced multiple difficulties in managing the needs of both patients and staff. She readily admits that while her work can be very difficult, she remains up to all challenges.
“I am positive and hopeful overall, but feel weight on my shoulders while trying to accomplish whatever I can with the very limited resources we have here,” says Dr. Reem. “We always serve our patients with transparency. When they are unhappy, we listen to them, answer them honestly, and always do our best to deliver the services they need, at least possible cost to them.”
Making an untold difference
For the past two of her 11 years working in the health sector, Dr. Manal Mohammed has specialized in emergency prehospital care, as a paramedic responding to a wide range of often life-threatening health conditions and injuries.
“Many patients have suffered traumatic injuries resulting in severe bleeding, bone fractures, and comas. The challenges we face include street traffic, unpaved roads, and security checkpoints that require us to open the ambulance door while the patient is in critical condition before we are allowed to pass,” explains Ms. Manal.
Such daily challenges have only strengthened Ms. Manal’s determination as a “first responder” paramedic.
“I dreamed about being in the medical field since I was a child. After I completed middle school, I joined the health institute. The field I am in now provides a valuable service to people in need, so I love and enjoy my work very much,” she says.
These three women – and countless others working in Yemen’s fragile health facilities – constitute a lifeline for other women, families and communities that count on them for life-sustaining and life-saving services.
Women healthcare workers also play a central role in enabling WHO’s efforts to support hospitals and health facilities with essential medicines, supplies, equipment, training and many other interventions within WHO's integrated response to Yemen’s health crisis, together with the Ministry of Public Health and Population (MoPHP).
Going forward, Yemen’s health crisis remains urgent and severe: 20.3 million people need urgent health care – 12.9 million are in acute need. 17.3 million people suffer from acute food insecurity (AFI), 15.3 million people cannot access clean water and sanitation without assistance, and 37 percent of functioning hospitals are without specialist doctors.
Thanks in large part to women healthcare workers, just over half of all health facilities in Yemen remain open and responsive to dire and urgent public health needs across the country.
WHO thanks and honors every one of these women – not only on International Women’s Day (8 March), but each and every day.
Story: Shatha Al-Eryani & Kevin Cook, WHO-Yemen
Photos: © WHO-Yemen