IOM Yemen: A Return to Dignity: Restoring Health and Water Against Cholera

By:

• Abeer Alhasani | Communication and Translation Assistant
• Ayoub Al-Ahmadi | Senior Translation Assistant

West Coast, Yemen 

Naima felt as though death had stepped into her home, watching helplessly as her five children grew weaker by the hour, their tiny bodies trembling under the grip of illness. For a few nights, she lay sleepless, her heart clenched by the fearful thought of losing all her children at once.  

When cholera first swept through the displacement camp where she lived last year, the outbreak struck with brutal force. All five of Naima’s children were affected, leaving her terrified and overwhelmed. The fear and despair that consumed her were unbearable, and she recalls those days as the darkest of her life.  

Like many other displaced families in Hays, Naima lives in a fragile shelter made of palm branches and plastic sheets on Yemen’s west coast. Life there is a daily struggle — clean water and safe sanitation are scarce, and each day begins with worries about securing the basics to survive and ends in uncertainty.  

Yemen has faced waves of cholera since the beginning of the conflict, but the resurgence in 2024 hit displaced communities the hardest. The disease spread rapidly through overcrowded shelters lacking safe water and hygiene facilities. Within weeks, hundreds of suspected cases were reported, mostly among children, women, and the elderly. For Naima, the deadly outbreak felt inescapable. With no latrine in her tiny shelter and with a shallow, contaminated well nearby as the only water source, avoiding the epidemic seemed impossible.  

“All the families in this sector depend on this well,” Naima recounts. “Once we saw a snake in the well, and we had to wait for a couple of days before drinking from it again.”  

When Naima’s children fell ill, she had nowhere to turn for help. Local health facilities were either nonfunctional or too far to reach on foot, and she simply couldn’t afford the cost of transport.  

Then, a glimmer of hope appeared when neighbors advised her to visit the Diarrhea Treatment Centre (DTC) supported by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Established in Hays in 2024, the DTC has become a critical lifeline for thousands of displaced people and host community members, providing free treatment — primarily rehydration and urgent care.  

Naima still remembers carrying her youngest child, a six-month-old baby, to the DTC. The baby’s body was frail, her eyes hollow.  

“I thought my daughter wouldn’t survive the night,” Naima recalls softly. “But the doctors rushed to give her the care she needed. Slowly, she opened her eyes again. That was the moment hope returned and fear finally faded.”  

At the DTC, IOM’s medical teams admitted all of Naima’s children, ensuring each received fluids, antibiotics when necessary, and round-the-clock monitoring. Within a couple of days, their conditions began to improve.  

“I will never forget the kindness of the nurses,” Naima says. “They treated my children like their own when I broke down.”  

To prevent further spread of the disease, the DTC also conducts awareness-raising sessions among affected communities and distributes hygiene kits and water purification tablets.  

In addition to treatment and awareness efforts, IOM supported a cholera vaccination campaign in Hays to enforce the protection of displaced families alongside host communities. Mobile Health teams moved through camps and villages, ensuring that people received oral cholera vaccine. For many, they felt a sense of protection against the disease and the ability to stay safe.IOM’s health and hygiene teams work tirelessly to sensitize families about simple, life-saving hygiene practices and demonstrate how to prepare oral rehydration solution at home. Beyond cholera, a larger crisis still loomed — the persistent shortage of safe water. For years, families in Hays barely survived, with no steady income to buy clean water. Their only option was to rely on shallow, unprotected wells.  

The water often turned salty and unsafe, fueling new outbreaks instead of sustaining life.  

“We used water directly from the well. I didn’t know it was risky for my children,” Naima admits. “The awareness sessions helped me teach other women in the village about hygiene and prevention.”  

Women and children often walked kilometers under the scorching sun and through unsafe areas just to fetch water. Exhaustion, insecurity, and fear accompanied every step. Children suffered constant diarrhea, families grew weaker, and the demand for healthcare increased.  

To address this need, IOM’s Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) team conducted studies to find solutions to the area’s rough and saline water conditions.  

The team eventually drilled new boreholes, laid transmission lines, and installed pump and solar systems in Hays connected to safe water sources. For the first time in over 15 years of conflict, families could access reliable, clean water near their homes. It became more than just a tank — it was a symbol of restored safety and dignity.  

For families like Naima’s, the tower changed everything. She no longer has to choose between unsafe water and risky journeys.  

Dr. Aws, a health worker at IOM’s DTC in Hays, explained that access to safe water is just as important as medicine in protecting families. “Clean water and treatment save lives, but prevention helps stop the disease from spreading in the first place,” he said.  

Despite the decline in cholera cases following improved access to safe water, challenges remain immense. The DTC in Hays is overwhelmed, treating hundreds of patients each month — mostly children. Supplies often run low during epidemic waves, and health workers endure long hours under difficult conditions.  

“The need is far greater than the resources we have. We sometimes receive the same patient more than once and still struggle to meet the growing demand,” Dr. Aws said.  

Yemen’s health system, already fragile for years, continues to struggle. Many health facilities in Al Hodeidah governorate are closed or barely functional, leaving displaced families with few options, making the DTC the only available lifeline for many.  

For Naima, the experience shook her life but also strengthened her determination. “Now I know how to protect my children,” she says. “I also tell others in the camp how to prevent the spread of disease because I don’t want anyone to go through what I did.”  

IOM’s broader cholera response extends to multiple governorates through the support to health facilities, ORPs, and mobile medical teams providing care in hard-to-reach and rural areas.  

The cholera outbreak in Yemen remains far from over. More families like Naima’s are still at risk and urgently need support in water, sanitation, and healthcare to stay protected.  

“I am just one of many,” Naima concludes. “If my children survived, I believe others can too — as long as the support continues.”  

As Yemen continues to grapple with one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises, the cholera and WASH responses highlight the urgent need for sustained support.  

IOM’s cholera response in Yemen, including the Diarrhea Treatment Centre (DTC), is supported by the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF), and the water tower along with the system expansion in Hays was made possible through the generous support of the German Government through KfW Development Bank and EU Humanitarian Aid (ECHO).