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Abyan and Al Dale' Governorates, Yemen In Yemen, where pregnancy and childbirth can quickly become life-threatening, a woman’s survival often depends on something she never sees: whether essential medicines are available when she needs them most. Behind every emergency intervention is a supply system working quietly in the background, ensuring that life-saving reproductive health supplies reach health facilities across the country.In Abyan and Al Dale’ governorates, reproductive health warehouses play a central role in keeping this system running. In Abyan, supplies are distributed to 169 health facilities across 11 districts. In Al Dale’, medicines from the warehouse serve between 3,000 and 4,000 women every month. Yet for years, poor infrastructure threatened their ability to function. Leaking roofs, frequent power outages and extreme heat compromised storage conditions, putting temperature-sensitive medicines such as oxytocin–an essential drug used to control bleeding during and after childbirth–at risk.“Parts of the roof started falling on us while we were working,” recalls Dr. Somaya Mohammed Ahmed, a UNFPA, United Nations Population Fund, Reproductive Health Supply Officer in Abyan. Supply chains behind life-saving careTo address these challenges, UNFPA, with funding from the Kingdom of the Netherlands through the UNFPA Supplies Partnership, and in collaboration with local partner Field Medical Foundation (FMF), supported the rehabilitation of reproductive health warehouses in both governorates. The renovations tackled long-standing structural damage, improved storage conditions and introduced reliable power solutions to protect critical medicines.In Al Dale’, warehouse manager Dr. Ali Abdullah Saleh describes the transformation. “Before, there was no proper lighting or cooling, and rainwater damaged the medicines. Now the warehouse is protected, the temperature is stable and supplies can be stored safely.”  From storage to facilitiesThe impact of these improvements is felt far beyond the warehouse walls. By ensuring medicines are stored correctly and distributed on time, the strengthened supply chain supports health workers on the front lines—where shortages or delays can cost lives.At the Reproductive Health and Maternity Centre in Zinjibar District, Abyan Governorate–supported by UNFPA with local partner FMF–that reliability saved the life of Sajda Nasser, 32. Already weakened by a complicated pregnancy, Sajda began bleeding heavily while travelling back from a remote area. By the time she reached the health centre, she had lost her baby and was in shock and unconscious.“I don’t remember anything,” she says. “I only heard the doctors saying, ‘She died, she died.’” When medicines are available, women surviveSajda was given oxytocin to control the bleeding, along with intravenous fluids to stabilize her condition. The medicines were available on site and had been stored at the correct temperature, ensuring their effectiveness.“When medicines are available, we can respond quickly and save lives,” Midwife Waheba explains. “When they are not, families have to search outside the facility, and that delay can be fatal.” Most maternal deaths she witnesses at the centre, whether following childbirth or after a miscarriage, are caused by bleeding. Sajda survived. Today, she has regained her strength and plans to return to the centre for family planning services, which—like all care provided at the facility—are free of charge. “If this centre did not exist, I believe I would have died,” she says. In a country where around three women die every day from pregnancy- and childbirth-related causes, and where the majority of these deaths are preventable with timely access to quality care, investments in infrastructure are investments in women’s lives. By supporting the rehabilitation of reproductive health warehouses, funding from the Netherlands is helping to ensure that essential medicines reach health facilities safely and reliably—protecting mothers, strengthening health systems and saving lives.