Children with disabilities is one of the most vulnerable and socially excluded groups in Yemen. Both mainstream and special needs education and therapy services for children with disabilities were scarcely available even before the civil war, but now they are almost non-existent. Barriers include destroyed service facilities, the absence of suitable services, remoteness, stigma, discrimination and many other obstacles.

To address this issue and improve the disabled children situation in Sanaa, Y30 decided to provide operational support to a local centre. Since January 2022, Y30 has been providing support to the centre for disabled children “Vision for a Better Future“ helping them to cover the rent costs of its premises. The centre has provided special needs education and therapy services to numerous children in Sanaa under the supervision of trained specialists, however it is still not financially supported by the local government. The continuation of its services is therefore largely dependent on donations collected by our organization.

The qualified staff in the centre is able to assist up to 30 children on a regular basis. However, the number of children with disabilities that require the centre’s support has more than doubled. Y30 thus is planning to expand support for the centre. Once funding is secured, we will aim to improve centre’s accessibility and availabilty of the services through provision of adequate compensation to its employees, a special transportation service for the children, and expansion of the facilities.