Empowering adolescents for the future
Untapping the potential of young people in Yemen
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- العربية
Sana’a March 2020: There are 6.3 million adolescents (aged 10-19 years) in Yemen. As the population continues to grow over the next 30 years, it is estimated that that number will double.
“I learned how to make my own way, we benefited the self-esteem and sharing with my friends and I hope to become an inventor in the future”
Adolescents require vastly different support than young children, it is a defining time in their development. In Yemen, the experience of adolescents and young people are further complicated by the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Understanding these challenges, UNICEF has embarked on a programme that aims to help adolescents, who have so much to offer Yemeni society, and provide them with opportunities to feel included and to form positive social relationships. Schools are selected for the programmes based on drop out rates.
In March 2020 a ceremony was held for graduates from the life skills programme at a boy’s school in Sana’a, Yemen. They drove the agenda for the event having become ‘agents for change.’ The activities they selected included first aid lessons, negotiation demonstrations and an innovation and invention exhibition.
“Before (the programme) there was only one bathroom working, and it was crowded where some students go behind the school and now after repairing the bathrooms, the situation is better.”
“To give adolescents every opportunity, every skill they need to understand the workforce, we need to go beyond formal education. This type of programme is essential,” says Mokhtar Ali Hussein, a Child Protection Officer with UNICEF Yemen, Sana’a Field Office.
“We see children transforming into empowered participants looking to a future. This is really encouraging in a country that is dealing with the world’s worst humanitarian crisis.”
UNICEF are grateful to our partners like like USAID, the Government of Korea and the Government of Japan who provide vital support to essential programmes just like this across Yemen. Life skills programming is essential to provide the next generation with hope in the midst of crisis.
