KSRelief launches $262m child development program in Yemen

RIYADH: The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) will set up 116 projects totaling $262 million in education, protection and early recovery for children in war-ravaged Yemen.
To mark International Children’s Day, KSRelief reviewed its relief and humanitarian projects, worth a total of $262,474,014, for Yemeni children at its headquarters in Riyadh on Tuesday.
The UNESCO-supervised presentation was attended by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the International Medical Corps (IMC), the US Agency for International Development (USAID), the UK Department for International Development, the High Relief Committee of the Republic of Yemen and the UNICEF.
Abdullah Al-Rwailly, KSRelief director of community support, highlighted the children taken from schools in Yemen and the number of damaged schools there. He talked about KSRelief’s support of children in the region and in Yemen in particular, and discussed the center’s projects including education and night classes.
In September, KSRelief freed and rehabilitated 40 Yemeni children who had been conscripted by Houthi militias. The children were sent back to their schools and reintroduced to their peers.
Over the course of a month, the children completed psychological, educational, social and sports courses in their reintegration programs, which were supervised by qualified psychologists in accordance with international standards.
The children had been forced into the service of Houthi militias, made to take part in fighting and deployed to supply the militias with ammunition and food. According to Yemeni government estimates, more than 10,000 children have been conscripted by Houthis to fight in their ranks.