Yemen

Boys in the town of Jebin in the Raymah region of Yemen.

Progressio has been working in Yemen since 1974, making us one of the longest established international agencies in the country.

During the current period of unrest in Yemen, Progressio's development work in Yemen is continuing through the work of our national staff and partner organisations.

Our achievements

Our early work in Yemen focused on the lack of access to quality health services in the country. We placed experienced development workers to work alongside traditional birth attendants, midwives, nurses and doctors as well as in district health offices, health clinics and hospitals, building their knowledge and skills.

In the mid-1990s Progressio began to work on issues around HIV in Yemen. Since then we have been one of the lead agencies working alongside UNAIDS and the Yemen National AIDS Programme to raise awareness, and help break the silence, on HIV and AIDS. We have also played a key role in developing Voluntary Counselling and Testing centres.

In 2003 we began to focus on building the capacity of local non-government organisations (NGOs)s, assigning development workers to work with local partner organisations representing a wide range of interests including women’s and children’s rights, disabled people, youth, refugees, as well as organisations working through livelihood projects, community health work, education and democratisation activities.

Challenges remain:

• Many local NGOs remain very much nascent organisations with staff lacking skills, knowledge and experience. This means that they are less successful at implementing projects to help local communities and in raising funds for long-term sustainability. Progressio will continue to place experienced development workers to build the skills, knowledge and capacity of a range of local NGOs.
• Rates of HIV infection are increasing in certain areas and amongst certain groups, while the level of stigma and discrimination towards people living with HIV is very high. Progressio development workers will continue to develop the skills of those working directly with people affected by HIV and take a leading role in efforts to break the culture of ignorance, silence and fear around HIV and AIDS in Yemen.
• We are developing new partnerships in Yemen around the theme of sustainable environment, in particular to help address the problems raised by increasing demands on a scarce and precious resource - water.