12-year-old *Khaled was on his way to a picnic when a deadly airstrike hit his school bus, killing 40 children in northern Saada province, Yemen, on August 9. Not only was he badly injured in the attack, putting him in a wheelchair since, the horrifying experience has also left him feeling anguished and numb.
Khaled told Save the Children: “We were happy, we were going to [play]. When we reached the market there were people there, and everything [was as usual]. Then there was firing. I couldn’t find my friends. I feel my friend’s pain and my pain. I don’t feel anything else.”
Following the airstrike, Khaled told Save the Children staff that he has trouble sleeping at night and becomes scared when he hears the sound of airplanes soaring overhead.
Khaled: “I wish that the war stops so I can continue to learn and build my life and achieve my dreams. I want the war to stop so they stop killing children, women, and men. What is their sin?”
Khaled’s mother told Save the Children: “Suddenly I saw people hurry to the bus. What is wrong? What happened? They said the bus was hit, that no kids survived. Everyone was looking for their kids… Then they admitted [my son] to the intensive care unit… We spent 22 days [in hospital]. There was pus coming out of his eyes, his ears bleeding, his nose was stitched, they have operated everywhere on him, behind his ears, fragments in his head. They said his leg is damaged; they [took] 16 x-rays [of him].”
Yemen is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a child today. A child in Yemen has already lived through more than 18,000 airstrikes in his or her lifetime. The ongoing brutality means children are being consistently exposed to extreme violence, further heightening the risk of psychological damage.
The children of Yemen have watched their friends and family members die before their eyes or be buried under the rubble of their collapsing homes. They have watched their schools and hospitals be targeted and destroyed, been denied access to life-saving food and medicine, and have been torn apart from the life they once knew. The prolonged exposure to war, stress, and uncertainty can be extremely upsetting for children and create issues and challenges that last a lifetime.
Yet Yemen has barely any mental health services or sufficient support for children suffering from distress. More than half of all health facilities have closed or are only partially functioning. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), in 2017 only 40 psychiatrists were working in the country–that’s about one psychiatrist for approximately every 700,920 people. To make matters worse, the problems for children suffering mental health issues and the support they need are not well recognized or understood in Yemeni society.
Save the Children is warning that there could be long-term psychological damage to a generation of children as a result of this conflict unless more mental health and psychosocial support is provided. With the right help, many of the harms can be mitigated and healed.
A survey published in 2018 that spoke to nearly 1,000 children in Sana’a, found that 79 percent showed signs of serious psychological consequences as a result of the conflict. The study reveals that in the first year of the conflict family members began noticing children bedwetting, refusing to be alone or not wanting to leave the house.
Research in other parts of the Middle East by Save the Children last year found exposure to prolonged conflicts has a devastating effect on children’s mental health and wellbeing. We found evidence of what experts call ‘toxic stress’–the most dangerous form of stress a child can experience, which is caused by strong, frequent or prolonged adversity without adequate caregiver support. If left untreated, ‘toxic stress’ can have a lifelong impact on children’s mental and physical health.
