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Rehabilitating Yemen’s Child Soldiers Takes up Four Months

Rehabilitating Yemen’s Child Soldiers Takes up Four Months

Friday, 24 November, 2017 - 12:00
At times, children get to be dispatched to the frontlines if there is a shortage of fighters [Ali Owidha/Reuters]

The King Salman Humanitarian Relief and Humanitarian Center continues to work on a rehabilitation project for child soldiers affected by the war in Yemen.


Over 2,000 people are now benefiting from this program which also helps out the parents and members of the children’s families.


The center explained that the project, which was prepared and implemented in accordance with the international standards for the rehabilitation of child recruits, will go on for four months in its first stage.


Twenty children currently receive care in Marib governorate and 20 other children in Taiz governorate.


Rehabilitation also takes into account academic studies so that child soldiers get to join in with their fellows once they complete their programs.


Specialized teachers were appointed and work in close coordination with educational offices in targeted governorates.


They teach children subjects delivered to their colleagues in public schools so that they can attend school after the course.


The project is the first of its kind to rehabilitate children who are conscripted and affected by the war in Yemen.


More so, KSRelief will conduct a realistic study that examines the reasons for child recruitment from the child’s perspective, family and society.


The second phase will target five governorates (Marib, Al-Jawf, Taiz, Sanaa and Amran) and will include the rehabilitation of girls affected by the war.


KSRelief also incorporated food aid into the initiative, in which it was realized that many families offered up their children as cannon fodder in exchange for a quick living in a dire economy.


The project serves to rehabilitate all child soldiers who are recruited and affected by the war in Yemen.


The project was implemented with funding, sponsorship and full supervision by the KSRelief, and with a local partnership with the Wethaq Foundation for Civil Orientation.


The project focuses on the rehabilitation of children who are conscripted and affected by the war in Yemen psychologically and educationally, integrating them into society and enrolling them in the schools they left during the war or displacement.


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