I'm going to be eating like a Yemeni for a week!

So this year due to covid the ration challenge is cancelled, but I think during a global pandemic people need help more than ever. This year international refugee week is the 15th to the 21st June, and I’m going to do the challenge again even though the official one isn’t going ahead (and even though I’m pretty certain I nearly got sacked due to my hanger last year). Due to currently having a meltdown over the following situation I’m going to be doing it early from midnight on Saturday 30th May until midnight at the end of Friday 5th June.

I’m going to eat the rations of a Yemeni which is basically NOTHING at all and I’m going to donate the money I raise to Mona Relief, a small and locally run NGO in Yemen who deliver vital food and water to starving families. I’ll be sticking to the official ration challenge food plan with rice, lentils, a little oil, some chickpeas, a little flour and water for the whole week. Due to working 7 day weeks averaging 80 hours through this pandemic I will be adding in coffee as I don’t think I could do it without, and I think my work colleagues would potentially murder me if I didn’t). I’m doing it early because right now they need it more than ever, they have covid outbreaks that aren’t even declared covid outbreaks as they have no testing: they just know they’re dying of this awful respiratory disease but it’s not confirmed. Yemen is currently the worlds largest humanitarian crisis. They’ve had years of constant bombings from Saudi Arabia, the UAE and their coalition. They have a horrendous cholera outbreak along with many other preventable diseases that we don’t have to bat an eyelid about here at home. 1/4 of districts in Yemen don’t even have one single doctor. They have hardly any healthcare, hospitals, testing, ventilators, masks and so on. They don’t even have clean water to wash their hands with or homes to shield in to protect themselves.

£5 feeds a family of 6-8 people for a week, and £12.25 feeds a whole family for 2/3 weeks! If you could donate it would mean so much to me, but if not could you please spread the word and share this for me. Anyone who knows me knows how much food is my life, and so it’s a huge struggle for me to do this. But as I said last year, I do it for one week... they do it for months, years, lifetimes.

Facts about Yemen: 

• 5 years of civil war 
• 5 years of bombing from the air by Saudi Arabia 
• 24.1 million people in need of humanitarian assistance 
• 14 million people at risk of starvation or death from cholera 
• 3.5 million forced to flee their homes 
• The worlds largest cholera epidemic 
• 2 in 3 people can’t afford food 
• 9.3 million in need of acute medical care 
• (Above facts taken from the UNHCR and HRW) 

Mona relief: 

• Yemen organisation for humanitarian relief and development 
• Non-government and non-profitable 
• Founded by a journalist and human rights activist in Sana’a, Yemen 
• The funds are used to source and buy food locally in Yemen! Not only does the money go to feeding Yemenis in desperate need of food, but the food is bought from Yemenis who grow and farm it - double the support for the Yemeni people 
• For more information about Mona relief you can check out their website here https://www.monareliefye.org