Hacking Hunger – Episode 30: A Nation on the Brink of Famine
Years of conflict have pushed Yemen to the edge of famine. There are 8 million people in the country suffering from severe hunger, and intensifying violence could bring this number to 12 million.
In one desperate corner of northern Yemen, families are surviving on leaves. They boil them down, and mash them into a paste. “It’s the main meal of my children, especially for their lunch, even though it causes them itching and drowsiness,” said one Yemeni father. “But what can we do now? We live in agony. It’s unlike anything we’ve seen before.”
We spoke to United Nations World Food Programme’s (WFP) Yemen Country Director, Stephen Anderson, who talked about his experience on the ground in Yemen. “We’re overwhelmed, and one problem seems to swallow up another one every day,” he said. Stephen shares the stories of Yemenis struggling to feed their families, and how the U.N. World Food Programme is doing whatever it takes to deliver food and nutrition to the people who need it the most. Listen above.
Guest Bio: Stephen Anderson
Stephen Anderson, the World Food Programme (WFP) Country Director for Yemen, works in a country facing one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises with more than 17 million people that are food insecure. Anderson, who was born in Nairobi, spent part of his early childhood in Beaver, Pennsylvania.
