Idrees is a teacher in his late forties with five sons and three daughters.
A few days after the war first broke out, he was trying to flee his home city of Taiz where the fighting was severest, but the city was surrounded by soldiers and checkpoints, and they were preventing people from leaving.
Idrees shared with the project’s independent evaluator how he had been afraid for his children’s safety inside the city and so felt he had no choice but to try to leave. At one of the checkpoints however, as the soldiers refused to let them through, his wife and children began to panic. So Idrees started shouting at the soldiers to let them out of the city.
In the quarrel that followed, Idrees was shot in the leg by one of the soldiers. No bystanders dared take him to the hospital because they were scared for their own safety. Despite this, Idrees managed to survive with bandages and escaped to Aden. The doctors in Aden said that the nerves were severely damaged and that he needed surgery, otherwise he might not be able to walk again.
In his own words, “We have run away from war to be welcomed by the silent death.” Idrees could not afford the two surgeries required – the first to remove the bullet and the second to regain the ability to walk.
He sold all he had (his wife’s jewelry) for the first operation but having no friend or family in Aden to borrow from, he could not afford the second operation. As IDPs, the family suffered greatly. They then left for Lahj to live with relatives and where Idrees began repairing shoes on the street for income.
As Idrees shared, “I started a new life with my physical disability…to be honest, I lost hope in walking again because I could not save any money to treat my leg.”
With ITDC’s food assistance, Idrees was able to save his income and afford the second surgery to walk again. “Only because of you I started to hope again. I am speechless with gratitude. May God bless you.”
