I used to go to school on foot,but now I can’t even hold a pen: a Yemeni girl

YemenExtra

SH.A.

Today marks 1,000 days since the international escalation of the coalition against Yemen, which has already led to the deaths of thousands of children from violence, hunger or preventable diseases like cholera.

Since March 26, 2015, the situation in Yemen, already the poorest country in the Middle East, has deteriorated into a living nightmare where children starve to death daily and are shelled and bombed in their homes and schools.

Thousands have been left with life-changing injuries, like 13-year-old Noran* who is wheelchair-bound after the blast wave from an airstrike knocked her down and seriously damaged her spine. Her father is the sole provider for her and her seven sisters but he hasn’t been paid his public-sector salary for nearly a year and a half. Life is now a daily struggle.

13-year-old Noran says:

“I used to go to school on foot, my life was beautiful because I could walk and write. Now, I can’t walk to school. I can only go with the wheelchair. I used to be able to sit in a chair at my desk and write but now when I try to write, my hand hurts because of the injury in my back. I used to love writing, but now I can’t even hold a pen.”

Noran continues:

“I call on all the free people around the world to stop the war in Yemen for me and for all the other children in Yemen. It’s our right to learn, it’s our right to build a bright future. I don’t want more children to be injured like me, it is not fair! I don’t want them to be like me.”