Our partners working on broadcasts to Yemen are welcoming the news that peace talks will go ahead in Kuwait next week. Although some violence has continued following the 10 April ceasefire, our hopes and prayers are that the talks will broker a peaceful resolution to the conflict between the Saudi-led coalition and the Houthi rebels.  The worsening humanitarian crisis in Yemen is in need of a successful outcome to the peace talks.  

Join us in prayer that the talks will bring a permanent ceasefire and a solid peace agreement.  

Yemen - "an unspeakable tragedy"

Following a trip to the capital Sana'a earlier this year, UN special envoy for Yemen, Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed told journalists about the humanitarian crisis in the country: "Yemen has suffered greatly, and its people have withstood an unspeakable tragedy".  

With the escalation in violence over the last year, the loss of life and destruction of infrastructure has caused untold amounts of pain for the population.  The rise in inflation has caused jobs and livelihoods to be lost and has resulted in a shrinking economy.  The shortages of food, fuel and medical supplies have put millions of Yemeni's in need of humanitarian relief. 

Over 21 million people - including 10 million children - are in need of some kind of humanitarian assistance...[the world needs to] start noticing & start talking about Yemen

Grant Pritchard, Director of Advocacy, Save the Children speaking to Vatican Radio in 2015

Radio messages for spiritual and social transformation

Our partners broadcast audio content designed not only to support marginalised Christians within Yemen, but also offer programmes that deliver holistic information beneficial to the health and wellbeing of all listeners regardless of faith.  

Feba financially assists these transmissions, ranging from dramas addressing public health, education and community issues to the "Reality Church" features which provide a model of worship through broadcasting a series of house church group recordings.

In the midst of the crisis, the believers responsible for much of the programming in the Yemen project are pulling out all the stops, working with humanitarian partners to bring much needed food, fuel and medical supplies into hard hit areas. Alongside this they are continuing to find creative ways to produce audio material for the radio programmes, even without access to the sort of production facilities our partners in safer contexts enjoy.

Listener feedback is encouraging the production team 

Working on programmes for people whose lives have been so significantly affected by conflict can be a challenge; initially live phone-in slots on programmes received abusive messages.  However, the programmes have grown to be popular with listeners in-country, have expanded to three live shows per week and are now receiving encouraging feedback. 

I send this letter on behalf of me and a group of my friends. We benefit a lot from your programs and thank you for caring for us enough to produce programs in our own language.

Yemeni listener writing to the Yemen project team

Giving people the opportunity to air their views and share their faith is a core part of the teams' follow-up efforts.    

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Please pray....

For the people of Yemen, the continuation of the ceasefire, the success of the peace talks and an end to the hostilities.   

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For more information about our project providing radio for transformation in Yemen, read more in our Yemen project case study as part of our focus area on the Persecuted Church.

Published: 15th April 2016