YEMEN: Monthly Humanitarian Update Northern Governorates (Sa’ada, Amran and Al Jawf) October 2014 Humanitarian Highlights 1,000 displaced families in Al Maton, Al Khalq, Al Maslub and Al Hazm Districts (Al Jawf Governorate) received hygiene kits and water filters from Islamic Help. 3,300 vulnerable host community members will benefit from the completed Azgol water project supported by OXFAM in Sahar District, Sa’ada. UNICEF distributed 1,300 desks and chairs to 32 rehabilitated schools in Sa’ada with funding from the initiative of Global Partners for Education. UNICEF in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the National Foundation for Development and Human Rights launched the Back-to-School Campaign distributing school bags to 149,000 children in 424 schools in Amran Source: OCHA Governorate. The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations. Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) 00111 displaced families in Al Maton, Al Khalq, Al Maslub and Al Hazm Districts of Al Jawf, received hygiene kits and water filters on the 19 October from Islamic Help. These included displaced families from Majzar District in Marib Governorate. 532 volunteers conducted hygiene awareness campaigns supported by OXFAM targeting 18,000 beneficiaries in Sahar, Al Dhaher and Shada’a Districts in Sa’ada. 3,300 vulnerable host community members benefitted from Azgol water project in Sahar, which has been completed. Three other water projects in Al Dhaher, Shada’a and Bagim districts are 30-50% complete. Protection In October, UNHCR’s IDPs Community Centre in Sa’adah assisted 57 (21 males and 36 females) vulnerable community members (IDPs, returnees and host community). 36 received social counselling, 17 psychological counselling and four legal counselling. Five awareness sessions were conducted by the centre on the importance of education, personal hygiene and the centre’s services. The centre referred 28 cases to different actors in Sa’ada including 11 to UNHCR and Al Amal Society for assistance with non- food items; 12 to the Republican Hospital for Psychiatric and medical care; three to Al Salam Hospital for medical care; one survivor of landmine explosion to DRC for vulnerability support; and one to Social Welfare Fund Office for social support. The outreach workers of the IDPs Community Centre conducted a monitoring visit to Al Dhaher District where they identified landmine clearance, rehabilitation of houses and the elimination of harmful thorny figs The mission of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is to mobilize and coordinate effective and principled humanitarian action in partnership with national and international actors. Coordination Saves Lives | www.unocha.org YEMEN: Monthly Humanitarian Update for Northern Governorates | 2 as priority needs for returnees. In a durable solutions workshop on the 6 August, in Haradh, participants underscored the needs above as priority for returnees. Child Protection DRC in collaboration with UNICEF conducted a fact-finding mission to Al Boga’a in Kitaf District of Sa’ada. The mission to Al Boga’a a town at the Yemeni- Saudi border aimed to gauge the scale of child trafficking at one of the main crossing points linking Yemen with Saudi Arabia. In Amran, the Yemeni Executive Mine Action Centre (YEMAC) with support from UNICEF, implemented awareness campaigns on risks of landmines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) in six districts (Iyal Suraih, Raydah, Thula, Kharif, Jabal Iyal Yazid, and Amran town) where recent conflict took place. The campaign targeted 45,000 individuals (including schoolchildren, teachers and members of the community). In Bart Al Anan and Rujuzah Districts of Al Jawf, 5,398 children (2,215 girls, 3,183 boys) and 3,014 community members (1,291 women, 1,723 men) received awareness and key messages on a variety of child protection issues such as child marriage, trafficking and violence against children, child recruitment and child rights. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour (MoSAL) conducted the awareness sessions with support from UNICEF. In Sa’adah, 82 Mine Risk Education (MRE) volunteers (47 male, 35 Female) from 10 districts (Haydan, Saqayn, Razih, Al Dhaher, Shada’a, Al Hashwah, Kitaf, As’Safra, Sahar and Sa’adah) participated in a refresher training conducted by MoSAL and YEMAC. The volunteers will conduct MRE awareness sessions in the 10 districts of Sa’ada for three months starting from November. Camp Coordination, Camp Management/Emergency Shelter/Non-Food Items 33 internally displaced families in Al Mazraq IDP camp in Haradh (Hajjah Governorate) will benefit from a UNHCR shelter rehabilitation project in Al Dhaher District in Sa’adah Governorate. The IDPs, whose houses were damaged during the war in 2010, were selected in close coordination with Sa’ada Reconstruction Fund (SRF) and the Executive Council (EC). The rehabilitation, which will begin in November, is part of the durable solutions plan to facilitate the return and reintegration of IDPs to their villages of origin in Sa’ada. According to a survey conducted by UNHCR in April 2104, 90% of the 12,000 IDPs (approx. 2,000 HHs), residing in Al Mazraq expressed their interest to return to Sa’ada. In Al Jawf, an International organization conducted a multi-sector needs assessment from 23 September - 2 October, following recent conflict. The assessment covered protection, health, WASH, shelter, and food needs. The organization also distributed food and non-food items to 680 IDP families in Al Hazm and 818 in Al Ghayl Districts. United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Coordination Saves Lives | www.unocha.org YEMEN: Monthly Humanitarian Update for Northern Governorates | 3 Nutrition On 18 October, 20 health supervisors from Sa’ada attended 10 days- training on supportive supervision in Sana’a. As part of capacity building for governmental health partners in the governorate, the UNICEF supported programme will also train 20 additional health staff in November. Education UNICEF distributed 1,300 desks and chairs to 32 schools that were rehabilitated in Sa’adah with funding from the initiative of Global Partners for Education. These are part of 6,013 desks and chairs to be distributed to 18,000 children in As Safra, Majz, Bagim and Sahar Districts. The schools also received furniture for the teachers. UNICEF started reconstruction of Khadija School for girls in Dammaj in As Safra District, which was completely destroyed during the war in Sa’ada. The school is expected to host 240 girls. Reconstruction started in October. In collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the National Foundation for Development and Human Rights, UNICEF launched the Back-to-School Campaign in seven districts (Rayda, Iyal Surayh, Jabal Iyal Yazid, Harf Sufyan, Al Qalfla, Al Asha and Amran town) of Amran Governorate. The campaign will distribute 149,000 school bags containing notebooks, pencils, sharpeners and erasers to 424 schools (86,000 bags for boys and 63,000 for girls) to encourage children in areas of recent conflict to return to school. In Amran, the Department of Education with support from UNICEF, assessed schools damaged during the recent conflict. The assessment identified 44 schools that needed rehabilitation in Harf Sufian, Huth, Al-Ashah, Al-Qaflah, Raydah, Jabal Iyal Yazeed and Iyal Suraih Districts. Global Partners for Education will fund the rehabilitation of 21 schools, while 23 will rehabilitated with grants from Canada. Coordination: Activities, challenges and solutions Key Activities: On 21 October, the Sa’ada Durable Solution Task Force was activated and chaired by UNDP. The members discussed the voluntary return of IDPs living in Al Mazraq camp to Haydan and Al Dhaher Districts in Sa’ada, and their priority needs. The meeting emphasized the importance of information sharing among the stakeholders in order to streamline planning and response to ensure a smooth reintegration of the returnees in their villages of origin. Members also discussed the need to plan a field visit to the villages of potential return (pilot villages) to establish needs and gaps in basic services. On 23 October, the Health Cluster meeting was held. The epidemiological surveillance unit of the Department of Health in Sa’ada presented recent findings on measles cases. According to the head of the unit, 379 cases were reported during the year, of which 27 samples that were taken for further investigation were found positive. In response to the spike in measles cases, the health department in collaboration with WHO and UNICEF, are United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Coordination Saves Lives | www.unocha.org YEMEN: Monthly Humanitarian Update for Northern Governorates | 4 planning a vaccination campaign in November targeting 350,000 children between 9 months and 15 years old. The campaign is part of a nationwide effort to rid Yemen of polio and measles. UNDP held the Early Recovery Project Board meeting on October 28 to discuss achievements so far, and endorse the plan for 2014-15. Government officials, local partners, Executive Council, UN agencies and NGOs representatives attended the board meeting. The local authorities emphasized the need to transition from emergency to early recovery and development projects that are sustainable. UNDP Country Representative also met with the Deputy Governor and the head of the Executive Council in Sa’ada . On 29 October, OCHA organized a workshop in which participants from the local authorities, local NGOs, international NGOs and UN agencies reviewed the 2015 Humanitarian Needs Overview and the proposed revisions of the 2014 – 2015 Strategic Response Plan . On 30 October, the Area Humanitarian Coordination Team meeting in Sa’adah agreed on the following : Protection, Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM)/Shelter, Child protection, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) and Health clusters will nominate cluster co-facilitators. UNDP to convene a Durable Solution taskforce (DSTF) meeting to discuss and plan for the basic services needs in Haydan and Al Dhaher Districts .