World Bank Funds Equipping 1,000 Schools in Yemen

Yemeni schoolgirls take lessons in a classroom at a public school on the outskirts of Sanaa. (EPA)
Yemeni schoolgirls take lessons in a classroom at a public school on the outskirts of Sanaa. (EPA)
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World Bank Funds Equipping 1,000 Schools in Yemen

Yemeni schoolgirls take lessons in a classroom at a public school on the outskirts of Sanaa. (EPA)
Yemeni schoolgirls take lessons in a classroom at a public school on the outskirts of Sanaa. (EPA)

The World Bank has launched a project to restore education in Yemen. It aims at facilitating the return of children to schools by providing incentives for teachers and meals for children as well as equipping and rehabilitating more than 1,000 schools across Yemen.

“More than 2.4 million school-aged Yemeni girls and boys are out of school, and about 8.5 million primary school-aged children need humanitarian assistance. About one-third of the population in Yemen needs food assistance and clothing. Food and other school-related expenses prevent many families from sending their children to school. Additionally, about a third of all education facilities have been damaged or destroyed,” the World Bank revealed in a report.

It confirmed that “Education is critical to unlock children’s potential and shape a brighter future for them and their country.”

Tania Meyer, World Bank Country Manager for Yemen, said: “It's an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and conflict. Our education project is an investment in the future of Yemen.”

The objective of the Restoring Education and Learning Project (REAL) is to improve access to education and improve conditions for learning in Yemen. The project provides a school package to over 1,100 schools across Yemen that includes four key elements that are crucial for enrollment, attendance, and learning: (i) performance-based teacher payments and teacher training; (ii) distribution of learning materials and school supplies; (iii) rehabilitation of school infrastructure, including WASH; and (iv) school feeding.

The project is jointly funded by International Development Assistance (IDA) and the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), and it is implemented in partnership with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the World Food Programme (WFP), and Save the Children, in close collaboration with Yemen’s Ministry of Education.

The REAL project reaches almost 600,000 children across seven Yemeni governorates.

It targets the most vulnerable districts, especially in areas that host many displaced people.

The school feeding program under REAL provides children with a nutritious midday school snack. The snack is enriched with micronutrients and vitamins, to address children’s needs throughout the long school day. Providing a snack in class is an incentive to get children back in the classroom.

“In Yemen, where the conflict has caused widespread disruption and devastation, too many children are left out of school and too many children leave primary school unable to read a simple text. Education is a necessity. It is the only way to empower the next generation with the skills, knowledge, and hope they need to build a better future for themselves and their community,” the report added.

“The impact of school feeding in Yemen simply can’t be understated. Millions of children here don’t have enough to eat, and hungry children struggle to learn and grow and thrive. This jeopardizes their chance at a healthy and productive life. The school feeding program is a game changer, giving children the calories and nutrients, they need to concentrate in class, to do well in school.”

“The World Bank REAL project also finances the healthy kitchen program, reaching 4000 children in poor neighborhoods in Aden with freshly prepared meals. The war has affected us all. It affected the rich, the poor, and everyone. It was difficult to send my children to school because of the cost of food, breakfast, transportation fees, and stationery,” according to Richard Ragan, the Yemen country director at World Food Programme.

Millions of people in Yemen are suffering from the compounded effects of violence, ongoing economic crisis, and critical funding shortfalls, resulting in high levels of food insecurity and lack of access to basic services, said Save the Children.

In 2022, the Humanitarian Response Plan for Yemen was only half funded, with children’s sectors among the lowest funded. Child protection received only 6.8 percent of the required funding and the education response plan only received 12.2 percent of what was requested.

"We struggle with extreme overcrowding. We have between 80 to 90 pupils per classroom.”

Save the Children’s Director of Advocacy, Campaigns, Communication, and Media Shannon Orcutt said: “The underfunding of the Humanitarian Response Plan in Yemen is nothing short of a tragedy for the children of this country. An estimated 4.5 million Yemenis have been internally displaced since the beginning of the conflict yet funding for camp coordination and management received less than 3 percent of the necessary funding. Half of the Internally Displaced Persons in Yemen are children, and this lack of funding has serious impacts.”



Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
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Hundreds of Thousands Flee as Israel Seizes Rafah in New Gaza 'Security Zone'

A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)
A youth rides a bicycle as people commute along the al-Rashid road, the only route linking the northern and southern parts of the Palestinian territory, on April 2, 2025. (Photo by Bashar TALEB / AFP)

Hundreds of thousands of fleeing Gazans sought shelter on Thursday in one of the biggest mass displacements of the war, as Israeli forces advanced into the ruins of the city of Rafah, part of a newly announced "security zone" they intend to seize.

A day after declaring their intention to capture large swathes of the crowded enclave, Israeli force pushed into the city on Gaza's southern edge which had served as a last refuge for people fleeing other areas for much of the war, reported Reuters.

Gaza's health ministry reported at least 97 people killed in Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours, including at least 20 killed in an airstrike around dawn in Shejaia suburb of Gaza City.

Rafah "is gone, it is being wiped out," a father of seven among the hundreds of thousands who had fled from Rafah to neighboring Khan Younis, told Reuters via a chat app.

"They are knocking down what is left standing of houses and property," said the man who declined to be identified for fear of repercussions.

After a strike killed several people in Khan Younis, Adel Abu Fakher was checking the damage to his tent.

"Is anything left for us? There’s nothing left for us. We’re being killed while asleep," he said.

The assault to capture Rafah is a major escalation in the war, which Israel restarted last month after effectively abandoning a ceasefire in place since January.

GAZANS FEAR PERMANENT DEPOPULATION

Israel has not spelled out its longterm aims for the security zone its troops are now seizing. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu said troops were taking an area he called the "Morag Axis", a reference to an abandoned former Israeli settlement once located between Rafah on Gaza's southern edge and the adjacent main southern city Khan Younis.

Gazans who had returned to homes in the ruins during the ceasefire have now been ordered to flee communities on the northern and southern edges of the strip.

They fear that Israel's intention is to depopulate those areas indefinitely, leaving many hundreds of thousands of people permanently homeless in one of the poorest and most crowded territories on earth. The security zone includes some of Gaza's last agricultural land and critical water infrastructure.

Since the first phase of the ceasefire expired at the start of March with no agreement to prolong it, Israel has imposed a total blockade on all goods reaching Gaza's 2.3 million residents, recreating what international organizations describe as a humanitarian catastrophe after weeks of relative calm.

Israel's stated goal since the start of the war has been the destruction of the Hamas group which ran Gaza for nearly two decades and led the attack on Israeli communities in October 2023 that precipitated the war.

But with no effort made to establish an alternative administration, Hamas-led police returned to the streets during the ceasefire. Fighters still hold 59 dead and living hostages which Israel says must be handed over to extend the truce; Hamas says it will free them only under a deal that ends the war.

Israeli leaders say they have been encouraged by signs of protest in Gaza against Hamas, with hundreds of people demonstrating in north Gaza's Beit Lahiya on Wednesday opposing the war and demanding Hamas quit power. Hamas calls the protesters collaborators and says Israel is behind them.

The war began with a Hamas attack on Israeli communities on October 7, 2023 with gunmen killing 1,200 people and taking more than 250 hostages according to Israeli tallies. Israel's campaign has so far killed more than 50,000 Palestinians, Gaza health authorities say.

Rafah residents said most of the local population had followed Israel's order to leave, as Israeli strikes toppled buildings there. But a strike on the main road between Khan Younis and Rafah stopped most movement between the two cities.

Movement of people and traffic along the western coastal road near Morag was also limited by bombardment, said residents.

"Others stayed because they don't know where to go, or got fed up of being displaced several times. We are afraid they might be killed or at best detained," said Basem, a resident of Rafah who declined to give a second name.

Markets have emptied and prices for basic necessities have soared under Israel's total blockade of food, medicine and fuel.

The Palestinian Health Ministry, which is based in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but has nominal authority over hospitals in Gaza, said Gaza's entire healthcare system was at risk of collapse.