Dear friends,
Honestly, this is as bad as it gets.
In Yemen,
every 10 minutes a child dies from malnutrition, 500,000 people have been hit by the worst cholera epidemic ever recorded -- and a savage Saudi bombing campaign is cutting off aid access.
It's an apocalyptic scenario for these innocent people -- but we can help.
Most of us have never heard of this nightmare because Saudi Arabia has blocked foreign journalists from the country. They want to keep the impact of their campaign out of the headlines -- so that our governments can keep selling them tanks, missiles, and ammunition.
And it's working -- our leaders are turning a blind eye. But
Avaaz is unique -- our money comes from ordinary citizens with no policy agenda.
We can be a lifeline for Yemen's people: - Smuggling reporters into the country to expose what's happening;
- Going after donor countries to increase humanitarian funding, now;
- Lobbying countries like Canada and the UK to stop supplying the weapons that make all this possible.
The sad truth is: if we don't do this, no one will. 20 million(!) Yemenis desperately need aid -- chip in and let's get to work:
Saudi Arabia's devastating bombing campaign in Yemen is all about a power struggle with Iran. They say they're defending the 'legitimate' government against a group of rebels. But this isn't about democracy, it's about regional influence.
Innocent Yemeni civilians are the victims, much like their brothers and sisters in Syria, but without global attention. Yemen was already the poorest country in the region and now hospitals, schools, and entire neighbourhoods have been turned to rubble.
The latest craziness is that Saudi Arabia is blocking fuel for UN planes ready to deliver humanitarian aid into the country! What might be worst is that the Saudis aren't doing this alone.
Many of our governments are making it possible by supplying weapons, military advice, and even boots on the ground. Trump just kicked off a $100 billion arms deal! For our leaders, Saudi friendship and oil seem more important than Yemeni lives.
We don't have to be part of that. If enough of us donate below, we can show the people of Yemen that we are not our governments, that we care about the desperate situation they're facing, and will fight to stop the bombing of innocent civilians. Some courageous groups are trying to make this work, but right now
no one has got it done. Let's come together urgently, before things get even worse:
We can cross our fingers that Yemen will somehow be saved. Or we can do what our community does best and rise up to speak for those who have no voice. Let's not sit in silence.
With hope,
Danny, Rewan, Alice, Allison, Wissam, Nataliya, Ricken, and the entire Avaaz team
More information:
'It's a Slow Death': The World's Worst Humanitarian Crisis (NY Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/08/23/world/middleeast/yemen-cholera-humanitarian-crisis.html?mcubz=0&_r=0 Yemen conflict: Cholera risk for more than a million children (BBC)
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-40796684 War, hunger and now cholera: Yemen's crisis worsens (Washington Post)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2017/08/26/cholera-strikes-the-middle-easts-poorest-nation/?utm_term=.c2e94d106f34 In Yemen, a child dies every ten minutes from preventable causes (UNICEF)
https://www.unicef.ie/stories/yemen-child-dies-every-ten-minutes-preventable-causes/ The Big Problem with President Trump's Record Arms Deal with Saudi Arabia (Time)
http://time.com/4787797/donald-trump-yemen-saudi-arabia-arms-deal/ Saudi Arabia's expected military assault on Yemen will almost certainly cause mass starvation (VICE)
https://news.vice.com/story/saudi-arabias-expected-military-assault-on-major-yemen-port-will-almost-certainly-cause-mass-starvation 
