Al-Ahdal: "The cause of children of war is a just cause"

She lives up to her name, which speaks of rain and generosity… Nada Al-Ahdal, who wants to protect children from the horrors of the wars that have ravaged them without mercy or respect for their childhood, calls for peace, safety and dreams, and bravely fights corruption and injustice through her foundation, the platform from which she tends the wounds of her country's children and sends the world a message: stop persecuting childhood with your wars.

"Rouge" interviewed Nada Al-Ahdal:

Tell me about the Nada Al-Ahdal Foundation for Children's Rights.

It is an official foundation, licensed at the end of 2017 by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour on the instruction of His Excellency the Prime Minister. It works to help underage girls who have been subjected to early marriage or domestic violence, and helps raise society's awareness of the dangers of child marriage and of the domestic violence that has cost many girls their lives.

I presented the foundation's first project, (Children of War, Ambassadors of Peace), a social media programme that raises awareness of the rights of children whose rights have been taken from them by the conditions of war, such as recruitment, the collapse of education and child marriage. It won the admiration of local satellite channels and was shown at international human rights forums in Jordan, Geneva, France and the Netherlands.

After that we launched the (Safe Havens) programme, which gathers the details of girls whose rights are violated, gives them legal advice, finds them a safe refuge and provides immediate assistance.

The latest project is (Our Dreams Come True), which teaches English to girls displaced by the war, who have been left stranded and have lost their homes and families because of the war. Our plan is to reach 10,000 girls in all of Yemen's governorates. In the first three months we ran 8 classes in 6 Yemeni governorates for 500 girls, with personal funding, and we are still looking for a funding partner to carry out this project in all the governorates of the Republic. We have adopted innovative, internationally used methods of teaching English that give positive results in a very short time: 80% interactive training and practice of the language and 20% theory and grammar.

What services and solutions does the Nada Al-Ahdal Foundation offer for the issues of children of war?

The foundation is new and relies on the resources of volunteers in the field. It is built on projects that help raise awareness, on coordination with the competent bodies to provide help to the girls who turn to the foundation, on providing a lawyer or legal support, and on working to ease the girls' suffering.

Has the foundation received support from government or private bodies?

Unfortunately the foundation has not been supported by any official or private body, for several reasons: most embassies in Yemen are closed and the airports are barely working; most of the board are refugees or displaced because of the security situation; and international restrictions do not allow money to be sent to Yemen except to a very small number of bodies.

So we rely on our individual efforts and on the volunteers on the ground who share our just cause, and I spend all the money I receive from my book or from some of my media work to cover running costs.

But I hope to find funding partners for the foundation's projects, so that we can help hundreds of girls in Yemen, and the children who suffer every moment from hunger, the high cost of living and being deprived of education and of their most basic rights in life.

At the conferences you have taken part in, did you win support for the cause of children of war?

Certainly. The cause of children of war is a just cause, and at every conference or international platform my cause has met great success, drawn the spotlight and found the sympathy of public opinion, the press and writers. I felt that I would win victory for it if I were given the chance, and that I would bring about real and remarkable change in a very short time.

Has the Safe Havens project achieved what you hoped for?

Not what I hoped for, no, but it has achieved good results for the girls, for whom I feel deep pain; I feel that their lives have no support left but the Safe Havens project. I hope the foundation will receive support so that we can help tens and hundreds of girls, and have the honour of serving them, helping them and making them happy.