wfn.org | BBC Film Team Visits ADRA Projects in Yemen

[APD <APD_Info_Schweiz@compuserve.com>]

July 8, 2001
Adventist Press Service (APD)
Christian B. Schaeffler, Editor-in-chief
CH-4003 Basel, Switzerland
Fax +41-61-261 61 18
APD@stanet.ch
http://www.stanet.ch/APD

BBC Film Team Visits Adventist Aid Agency Projects in 
Yemen

London, United Kingdom. (APD)    In June the field 
office of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency 
International (ADRA) in Hais, Yemen, welcomed a video 
team from the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

The film team was keenly interested in the challenges 
facing women in the remote areas of the Tehama region 
of Yemen, especially iron deficiency which leads to 
complications such as severe bleeding, still birth, 
and maternal death.

At the Hais Health Centre, the team filmed mothers 
getting their haemoglobin checked and the interaction 
between ADRA staff and the mothers, as well as the 
midwives delivery room and the antenatal care section 
upgraded by ADRA. Then they followed a female 
community worker and a newly graduated midwife from 
ADRA Yemen's training centre as they visited the 
homes of two recent deliveries that had complications 
due to iron deficiency. Funded through Micronutrient 
Initiative of Canada, ADRA Yemen's vitamin A and iron 
programme is part of the Child Survival project 
funded by USAID. 

The film crew also interviewed children who 
participate in ADRA Yemen's school activities. ADRA 
Yemen has trained six teachers to develop school 
gardens and provided them with teaching materials. In 
addition, ADRA Yemen provides seeds and young plants 
that are rich in vitamin A and iron.  Sixty-eight 
students in six schools in the districts of Hais and 
al-Khokha participated in these activities. Some of 
the schools competed to see which school group would 
have the best garden. In a year, ADRA Yemen will 
transfer these activities to local leadership.

This visit came about as a result of ADRA's efforts 
to better co-operate with UNICEF and the Ministry of 
Health in Yemen. 

Other ADRA projects in Yemen include a prevention 
campaign to slow the spread of Rift Valley Fever, 
community-based rehabilitation projects in five 
districts for adult survivors of landmine explosions 
and other severely accident-disabled people, health 
education, primary health strategies, child survival 
projects, water wells, literacy classes for women, 
and village pharmacies.

Yemen is located on the southern edge of the Arabian 
Peninsula. In the population of nearly 17 million, 
the literacy rate for men is 64% and for women it is 
21%.

An internationally recognised non-governmental 
organization, ADRA is active in more than 120 
nations. As an independent humanitarian agency, ADRA 
provides individual and community development and 
disaster relief without regard to age, ethnicity, or 
political or religious association.