The war in Yemen has taken an extreme toll on the civilians caught in the middle of it. Many of them have lost their homes, their possessions, and even their loved ones to this violent conflict, with no end in sight. However, some things can never be taken away from them, and one such thing is their passion for art.

Take Maghrebi as an example; he was forced to flee his home when it was destroyed by shelling, and ended up inside a displacement camp in Aden city along with hundreds of other civilians who are also suffering from the consequences of this interminable war.

Maghrebi fled Hudaydah four years ago when his friend was killed and he was almost forced to join the fighting. He learned how to paint by watching his father, an artist, and draw. He hopes one day to make a living from art.

YPN team had a visit to Ammar Bin Yasi Camp for internal displaced people during an official coverage for OCHA. The camp is a small school where the classes became everything for those people. They eat, sleep and cook inside these classes. As a consequences, children who used to go to school had to find another alternatives and many of them had to accept the difficult option which is walking for hours to reach the nearest school.

We met Maghrebi who had many stories and one of them was his rejection to join the fight in the frontline and displaced with his family to Aden city leaving all of his memories including his paintings behind him.

Maghrebi loves drawing and he is very good at it. A talented young person who found himself in the middle of displacements and hard live conditions. He never thought that one day he will seek to make living from his talent. He is being forced to do this because it is the only option remains.
We need to support Maghrebi at this. He refused begging and want to live a normal life with dignity.

Maghrebi is just an example about how the war in Yemen transformed people’s lives and forced them to accept the consequences.

The world has recently been paying attention to Yemen’s humanitarian crisis, and the role of Yemeni media has been critical in informing the world about what’s happening in the country. This means that there’s no better time than now to spotlight some of the ways that Yemeni media has been helping the United Nations in Yemen, particularly in areas where the UN doesn’t have enough resources or infrastructure to do everything on its own.

As one of the most volatile countries in the world, it’s no surprise that UN organizations operating in Yemen rely on YPN to cover visits from high-profile officials. After all, who better to trust than a team with first-hand experience dealing with the complex situation on the ground?

Organizations operating in war-torn Yemen often need to take extra security precautions, which can make it difficult to cover events involving high-profile visitors. That’s where YPN comes in. Our team has the experience and connections to get the job done quickly and efficiently, so that our clients can focus on their work. Plus, we’re one of the only media outlets with a presence in all of Yemen’s major cities, so we can provide comprehensive coverage no matter where an event is taking place.

Organizations like the United Nations rely on local Yemeni media outlets for many things, including VIP visits. Recently, UN organizations have been relying on YPN to cover these visits. Here’s how we did it:

1. We got in touch with the right people.
2. We put together a strong team of experienced professionals.
3. We planned and prepared thoroughly for each visit.
4. We made sure to get all the necessary permissions and credentials in order.
5. We kept our cool under pressure and dealt with any challenges that arose swiftly and efficiently.
6. Most importantly, we delivered high-quality coverage that met and exceeded our clients’ expectations.

When it comes to covering VIP visits from UN organizations, YPN media is the go-to source in Yemen. That’s because our team is experienced and trustworthy, and we always put the needs of our clients first. Plus, we have a proven track record of success when it comes to this type of coverage. Our clients know that they can count on us to get the job done right, and that’s why they keep coming back to us time and again.

Why would a media company based in Yemen want to shoot at Alia International Airport in Jordan?

Dealing with the worst living conditions, volatile, and unsafe circumstance. Reaching the most dangerous places without knowing if there is a chance for going back and seeing your believed ones again. When you overcome the most difficult situations to deliver a loyal message, then the answer to this question becomes spontaneous and convincing to make things done.

Yes, crises may be a strong reason for persuasion and approval. Indeed, we had more than just an answer. The definition of a decent life may differ from one person to another, but we can all agree that a decent life is the most basic right. However, in Yemen, it may differ somehow. Every Yemeni, from North to South, has one definition of a decent life, which is life without war.

The Yemeni citizen is suffering from the deprivation of the most basic rights, which is traveling from Yemen to another country. In fact, the Yemeni citizen does not want to travel for pleasure, but for other reasons. Either to look for better life, or to get a chance for survival; and herein lies the importance of the second.

Many people in Yemen need a bridge for connecting to the world before it is too late. The Mercy Bridge was the beginning of hope for all Yemenis to get the simplest right. In coordination with the World Health Organization [WHO] in Yemen, we had to begin documenting one of the most important moments that every Yemeni was waiting for, which was traveling through Sanaa airport to Jordan for obtaining emergency medical care. After years of conflict and the enclosure of Sanaa airport, every Yemeni regains hope because of this flight.

All that listed was sufficient reasons beside many other procedures to allow us to film the arrival of this flight through Alia International Airport in Jordan. Documenting this event needs a new strategy to consider as we had to film and photograph these joyful moments in both Sana’a and Jordan at the same time. We got the approval and started acting immediately. in fact, The World Health Organization could have commissioned another company in Jordan to document these moments, but their complete confidence that we would be able to complete the task successfully from Yemen was completely another reason motivating us to do everything we got to make it happen as expected. Yes, we have already successfully passed the challenge.

We had to pick up our best teams to deal with these scenes that may not happen again. Our team in Jordan was waiting for the arrivals and the other one in Sana’a was documenting the moments of departure, smiles and happiness. An event like this requires dealing quickly and sharing the moments with the world on the same day. Large team of YPN was coordinating with the WHO communication officers and with the authorities in Yemen and Jordan. Another team of filming, editing and supervising was managing everything behind the scenes. Everything we have documented has been published around the world. Whether through, news agencies, NGOs, or TV channels.

The challenge was difficult, but the suffer of the people in Yemen was the biggest and strongest motive for us to conquer the difficulties. The Mercy Bridge was the beginning of hope and as long as there is hope, there will be peace one day. This is not the only experience for us outside Yemen, but it is definitely the unique one because it was full of love and mercy

YPN is proud of such achievement

They say, the experience that a person acquires is actually the mistakes that have accumulated over the years, from which we derive our correct decisions. Indeed, this is what has been applied in this mission, which was considered one of the largest missions carried out by the World Food Organization in Yemen. This time, we must think carefully before taking any step, and this thinking must be on three dimensions, which are the air, sea, and land dimensions. All of them must be taken into account at the same time.

What I mean here is carrying out the biggest challenge we have ever done at YPN until this moment. WFP seeks to deliver food to more than 12 million people, and this is something that the world must know about, and our role lies in documenting these efforts from the beginning to the end through sea, air and land.

Our teams were located in the North and the South of Yemen, and these teams are a group of professional film makers and photographers who were oriented in details and fully prepared to carry out this task. Usually, the first challenge lies in obtaining the necessary permits to do the filming and obtaining them before starting the task, but the matter is different here. Ships arrive by sea, offload their contents, and transport them via trucks to huge warehouses and then transporting everything to various distribution points. Different events with different timelines from the North to the South which requires dealing with different authorities. Yemen is a conflict zone and explaining what happens requires really long blog which is something that I can’t write because I’m still trying to understand the events till this moment. 

Coming back to our topic. You may have a ready-made plan, but the implementation of it in Yemen is full of surprises; and going things very smoothly without any obstacles is considered a miracle. One of the challenges that we were facing was following the trucks which were fully loaded with support, traveling long distances from one governorate to another, passing through the checkpoints that were doing their job but at the same time they were delaying us  chasing the trucks. Fortunately, the trucks were traveling at a moderate speed the whole time to ensure safety and were always in the lens of our cameras.

Patience and anticipation of surprises were our weapon. This journey was full of tough roads and filming using drones was a lifesaving option most the time. Yes, we had to sleep in remote areas and stay there for days in order to document the moments when the beneficiaries and their families arrives at the distribution points.

What has been mentioned become something that happened in the past and we soon forget the pain and the difficult moments when we see the joy of families receiving support. Yes, it is a joy we wish for each person, but what we really want is a lasting joy that will only be achieved through peace. WFP and many other humanitarian agencies in Yemen are doing really great efforts but peace only will preserve the dignity of every human being and enable us to be stable to build what has been destroyed and gaining what has been lost…

Read more about WFP food journey in Yemen  : LINK

We were not expecting the huge impact of this mission which its outcome was on the front page of the largest humanitarian event that had raised 1.67 billion dollars to support Yemen last year. This time, we had to be with a tough, creative and special type of people who is too curious to explore this damaged tank at the road. This view might was just another reason to motivate him to continue with all his energy reflecting to the world how difficult the humanitarian situation in Yemen was. Indeed, it was done successfully. 19 days of non-stop filming and photography. Challenging terrain and traveling to different provinces. All of these factors make any professional photographer lose focus and strength, especially in a war zone and unstable conditions in all aspects like Yemen .

That was not the case with Giles Clarke. The winner of numerous awards including the War Photography Award. Clarke, who has traveled between more than 40 countries around the world, gained experience, skills and dealt with the most difficult and harsh conditions. The extraordinary circumstances in Yemen need extraordinary people, and Yemen had a chance in Clarke’s visit. We had a request by OCHA to accompany Clarke and at that moment, I knew that we would have to deal with special situations that would not accept complaints.

The world and the international community must know about Yemen and here was OCHA  and its experienced communication team coordinating this matter with Clarke and YPN to work on producing media content for the awareness campaigns about the seriousness of the humanitarian situation in Yemen. Different kind of support from us was taken into consideration this time. Clarke came with the journalist Nicholas and we had to move immediately to accompany them and do everything possible to facilitate their tasks for the sake of the people of Yemen and everyone who had to live with suffer because of the conflict. Displacement camps, COVID centers, hospitals, and everything that could reflect the seriousness of the humanitarian situation in Yemen was just the beginning of long and tough days.

We knew very well that the outcome of this mission would have a global impact. We did not do what we had to do only; we used all of our energy to support this team. Highlighting the humanitarian situation means passing through camps of displaced people no matter they were located inside or outside the main cities. Majority of the camps are located in very remote areas and hard to reach. Normally, displaced people suffer from hard life conditions which was something that we had to film.

Not only that, we had to focus on hospitals and health facilities in different provinces. What are being done by NGOs was certainly not enough, and this what Clarke’s photos and YPN videos at the donors’ conference proved. On the other side, we had to do very intensive filming documenting everything in details. This was going to support Clark photos during the awareness campaign about Yemen. We provided the creative aerial support to show how big the displacement camps which was adding another value to the work.

We in YPN used to deal with difficult situations and conditions throughout the years of conflict in Yemen and having a tough person such Clarke allowed us to achieve required goals. During the first days of the mission, I was inspired with the creative side of him but the other side of him was just another thing. It was about morality and his kindness with the displaced people. The language barrier did not cause him any problems, although I was with him translating, but he moved from one place to another and merged with the displaced as if he was a friend of them.

As for Nicholas, he was very meticulous in knowing the details and listening to the elderly and the children. He had no problem spending hours listening to them and writing down his notes all the time and causing our instant translator Heba tough moments.

What has been published on the websites was a strong reason and motivation for many donors to support Yemen. I strongly believe that what has been done by Clarke and Nicholas could also be done by someone else, but the difference here lies in how much this team loves their work and not only that; their humanity and transparency through merging and interacting with people and focusing on the events. This is what made them different from others. Indeed, the world needs such heroes everywhere. Every one in YPN who involved in this mission either by facilitating, filming, translating, and producing was fully proud of the achievements of this mission for the sake of Yemen.  OCHA and its communication staff who caused us many sleepless nights made it happen in a very perfect manner. This worth mentioning. Right now, we need tough moments again but to film the rebuild of Yemen, the smiles and happiness. We are really tired of this war. It is the time to focus on rebuilding Yemen again and peace is the only solution for everything.

Read more about:

• The announcement results of the Virtual High-Level Pledging Event for the Humanitarian Situation in Yemen at 
• Faces of war and peace in Yemen
• Inside Yemen Report 

We have a Nansen Refugee Award winner this year and we will have a serious responsibility that must be accomplished completely without any single mistake. A direct message from the UNHCR communication staff to us indicating about different type of missions that we would be facing. The first question that came into our minds was how would we deliver the message of Amin, the president and founder of the Jeel Albina Association and the award winner of Nansen via live broadcasts using the slowest internet in the world?!. It was a challenge that could not be escaped. Amin will talk to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Filippo Grandi, through our studio and live in a long meeting using the latest cameras and equipment that will transmit the event to the world.

Frankly, Amin’s winning of the award, made us work day and night with all our energy to accomplish this task, which we have already completed without errors. Our joy at Amin’s accomplishments, which resonated with the world, was indescribable. The IT team suggested combining all internet lines into one link. This suggestion was taken into consideration and implemented. It worked like a charm and this suggestion was a key for the success of the live broadcast without any interruption. The moment Filippo Grandi spoke with Amin via YPN studios was a great achievement for us because we played a significant role in conveying Amin’s message to the world. “It’s the first time I’m standing in front of the camera and speaking live on the air،” Amin told me in our first conversation at YPN Studio. I knew that there would be another challenge, which is to conduct several rehearsals with Amin through the camera in order to make sure that everything is OK. Amin did it and broke the barriers of fear from the very first attempts.

Amin, who had to move his office several times to different locations after the volatile battlefronts, and explosions that reached his organization. He could overcome all of these events and definitely, he would overcome such little fear of live event. The efforts made by UNHCR and local partners in Yemen are not counted, and our role in YPN is to convey this to the world. The war in Yemen will definitely has an end, and we will certainly remember all the efforts and people who faced danger for the sake of humanity.

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