Back to basics: Hadrami Charity Supports Health and Education [Archives:2001/07/Culture]

The saying: ‘The people who get on are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want and if they do not find them, make them,’ seems to have been written for the Mukalla-based National Society for Supporting Health and Educational Institutions in Hadramaut. 
The British-educated Omar Mohammad, who spent most of his working life in Saudi Arabia, decided something had to be done in Hadramaut to improve the services provided by the government hospitals and schools which serve 90% of the population. 
‘Children were sitting on the floor, there was no furniture in schools, some schools did not even have electricity and 50 to 60 children were crowded into one classroom because there was no money to build or expand the schools. Fathers’ councils carried out a lot of the routine maintenance and renovations’, Mohammed recalls. 
He discussed the problems with his colleagues in the medical and health sector and it was decided to form a society with a closed membership of doctors and educationalists who would offer their services and experience to assist the public health and education sectors. 
The president of the society, Dr Mohammed Abdullah bin Tha’alab, emphasized that providing essential equipment is the top priority. The list of requirements is long: tables and chairs, audio-visual equipment and additional buildings for schools, linoleum floors for hospitals and essential equipment such as blood pressure monitors. 
With the assistance of the Social Development Fund set up by the World Bank in conjunction with the Yemeni government, the society managed to commission three carpenters to make 2000 new blackboards for schools throughout Hadramaut, Yemen’s largest and poorest governorate. Six classrooms have been added to the school in Adhud, a Bedouin village in Mukalla district. The Dutch Embassy has made it possible for solar energy panels to be installed for electricity generation in two schools for Bedouin children near Doan, on Hadramaut’s southern plateau. The German Embassy has donated 8000 riyals for medical equipment including blood pressure monitors and stethoscopes. 
The society’s honorary president based in Riyadh, Saleh bin Yumain, contacted Yemeni expats who financed X-ray machines in Qatn hospital, fully equipped a delivery room and paid the salaries of specialist Russian doctors and midwives. 
According to Dr bin Tha’alab, Dean of the Girls College in Hadramaut University and lecturer in Geography who specializes in migration and development, the schools are in greater need of assistance than hospitals. 
‘The health service has solved many of its problems because people have to pay for their health care. But, apart from 150 riyals per year for primary education and 200 riyals a year for secondary education, no one pays for schooling. 
Dr Tha’alab has submitted detailed proposals for the funding of education to the governor of Mukalla emphasizing that expatriates should assist in supporting welfare services in Yemen. 
‘Some laws are needed in the educational sector or no one will pay for education. The people are poor and they feel the government should provide everything. They will pay for health but they are not ready to pay for education’. 
While Dr Tha’alab admits that the poor can make a limited financial contribution, he believes that legislation should be introduced to make sure the rich pay their fair share. 
‘These proposals are being discussed with the governor of Mukalla and we are hoping to come up with ideas which will benefit the whole country’, he said optimistically. 
Mukalla has also benefitted from the assistance of Arab governments: the Kuwaiti government built the Ibn Sina Hospital and the Libyan government built an education college. 
But the south of Yemen faces its own problems. During the days of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen, PDYR schools were set up in nationalized houses. Many of these houses are now being returned to their previous owners and the schools have to find alternative premises. 
The country’s population is growing at the rate of 3.7% and greater pressures will be placed on health and educational resources in the years to come. 
The World Bank estimates that adult literacy in Yemen is just 38%, the lowest for any country in the Middle East region. The statistics are even starker when broken down by sex: only 8% of women are thought to be literate. 
This situation is unlikely to change much over the next generation as school enrollment shows a strong bias towards boys. 
World Bank figures for 1996 indicated that the enrollment rates for girls were 25% compared with 55% for boys. Even in comparison with other developing countries, Yemen’s record on female education is abysmal. The bank estimates that the average enrollment rate for girls in primary school in Yemen is half the average for developing countries. 
In part the low overall literacy rate is a result of Yemen’s relatively late embrace of modern education. This was virtually non-existent in the northern Yemen Republic until 1970 when the government brought in teachers from Egypt and the Sudan in large numbers. The shortage of qualified Yemeni teaching staff in the north continues today, particularly at higher levels where the proportion of foreign staff is greater. 
From early in the twentieth century chiefs and urban business elites in the south sent their sons to the UK to receive modern education through to university level. After independence scholarships throughout the Soviet bloc made tertiary education available. 
In Yemen, the shortage of essential hospital services is clearly illustrated by the lack of ambulances, blood banks or burns units. 
Infant mortality in the country is almost double the average for low income countries. Foreigners and wealthy Yemenis and senior politicians leave the country for medical care. 
The National Society for Supporting Health and Educational Institutions in Hadramaut is building bridges of cooperation between government agencies, NGOs, foreign embassies and Yemenis abroad to help the people help themselves. The local community is expected to cover five to ten percent of the cost of projects. Through their small grants schemes the World Bank and the British Council have also indicated funds which may be forthcoming this year. 
Ahmed Saeed, the secretary of the society, emphasized that at present providing essential equipment for schools and hospitals is a top priority. But he looks forward to a time when hospitals in Hadramaut can exchange expertise and researchers with institutions in the West. 
The society’s aims are ambitious, but it is also aware of its limitations and is eager to ensure that its ‘back to basics’ approach will lay a firm foundation for the development of health and educational services in Hadramaut.

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