SDRPY Hands Over 150 Housing Units to Yemeni Families in Aden

Part of the ceremony of handing over the rehabilitated housing units in Aden, Yemen, on Thursday, December 1, 2022. (SDRPY)
Part of the ceremony of handing over the rehabilitated housing units in Aden, Yemen, on Thursday, December 1, 2022. (SDRPY)
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SDRPY Hands Over 150 Housing Units to Yemeni Families in Aden

Part of the ceremony of handing over the rehabilitated housing units in Aden, Yemen, on Thursday, December 1, 2022. (SDRPY)
Part of the ceremony of handing over the rehabilitated housing units in Aden, Yemen, on Thursday, December 1, 2022. (SDRPY)

The Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen (SDRPY) on Friday, delivered 150 homes in Yemen’s Aden to improve the living conditions of low-income families.

The new residences were part of the ‘Adequate Housing’ project implemented in partnership with the United Nations Human Settlements Program (UN-HABITAT) and AlWaleed Philanthropies.

Over 4,000 people are set to benefit from this project after the rehabilitation of a targeted number of 600 low-income housing units in Aden.

Eng. Ahmed Medkhali, SDRPY director in Aden, said the project was part of Saudi Arabia’s intensified effort to rehabilitate damaged homes and build safe residences that provide proper living conditions for the Yemeni people.

He affirmed that the project is carried out under the directives of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and the continuous follow-up from the project general supervisor, Ambassador Mohammed bin Saeed Al Jaber.

The project contributes to improving the living conditions of Yemeni families by ensuring that their housing is safe, secure and designed to resist hazards.

In partnership with the University of Aden, the project provided over 200 unemployed youth with vocational training opportunities, focusing on skills such as carpentry and installing and repairing electrical systems.

Yemeni construction workers were given vocational training in electricity, solar energy, photography, and painting.

It upskilled 40 engineers in advanced geographical information systems, construction project management, specialized procurement and project cost calculation, and technical and economic feasibility studies.

Engineers from the Ministry of Public Works and Roads have also been trained in project management.



UN Begins Polio Vaccination in Gaza, as Fighting Rages

 Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
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UN Begins Polio Vaccination in Gaza, as Fighting Rages

 Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)
Palestinians gather during a polio vaccination campaign, amid the Israel-Hamas conflict, in Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip, September 1, 2024. (Reuters)

The United Nations, in collaboration with Palestinian health authorities, began to vaccinate 640,000 children in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, with Israel and Hamas agreeing to brief pauses in their 11-month war to allow the campaign to go ahead.

The World Health Organization (WHO) confirmed last month that a baby was partially paralyzed by the type 2 polio virus, the first such case in the territory in 25 years.

The campaign began on Sunday in areas of central Gaza, and will move to other areas in coming days. Fighting will pause for at least eight hours on three consecutive days.

The WHO said the pauses will likely need to extend to a fourth day and the first round of vaccinations will take just under two weeks.

'Complex’ campaign

"This is the first few hours of the first phase of a massive campaign, one of the most complex in the world," said Juliette Touma, communications director of UNRWA, the UN Palestinian refugee agency.

"Today is test time for parties to the conflict to respect these area pauses to allow the UNRWA teams and other medical workers to reach children with these very precious two drops. It’s a race against time," Touma told Reuters.

Israel and Hamas, who have so far failed to conclude a deal that would end the war, said they would cooperate to allow the campaign to succeed.

WHO officials say at least 90% of the children need to be vaccinated twice with four weeks between doses for the campaign to succeed, but it faces huge challenges in Gaza, which has been largely destroyed by the war.

"Children continue to be exposed, it knows no borders, checkpoints or lines of fighting. Every child must be vaccinated in Gaza and Israel to curb the risks of this vicious disease spreading," said Touma.

Meanwhile, Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas-led fighters in several areas across the Palestinian enclave. Residents said Israeli army troops blew up several houses in Rafah, near the border with Egypt, while tanks continued to operate in the northern Gaza City suburb of Zeitoun.

On Sunday, Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in southern Gaza where they were apparently killed not long before Israeli troops reached them, the military said.

The war was triggered after Hamas fighters on Oct. 7 stormed into southern Israel killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages by Israeli tallies.

Since then, at least 40,691 Palestinians have been killed and 94,060 injured in Gaza, the enclave's health ministry says.