THE YEMEN LISTENING PROJECT

Where Yemenis talk, and the world listens

The people planning and funding wars, devising aid plans, and trying to negotiate peace all too often fail to talk to the people living at the centre of it all.

Long before Gaza hit the headlines, the term “world’s worst humanitarian crisis” often referred to Yemen. Its devastating war and economic collapse, which began nine years ago, has left hundreds of thousands of people dead from violence, disease, starvation, and a lack of healthcare. Tens of millions more have been caught up in Yemen’s conflict, but its story has mostly been told by journalists, aid groups, and politicians. Until now.

What has it really been like to live through all this? To find out, The Yemen Listening Project asked Yemenis one question: “How has the war impacted your life?”

More than 100 Yemenis ​​– from inside the country and across the world – answered. They sent emails and WhatsApp messages, voice notes, videos, poems, and pictures.

They include testimonies of loss, life in exile, and what it is like to live through bombing and ground battles. But there are also tales of love, family connection, and personal and professional persistence in the face of impossible-seeming obstacles.

When Yemen does make the news, it's too often reduced to faceless narratives. Close this window for a look into the lives behind the headlines, and to listen to Yemenis as they tell their stories, in their own words, in Arabic and English.

*The New Humanitarian cannot independently verify the details of each individual story. They have been edited for style, length, and clarity.