Reuniting Yemeni family and meeting only grandchildren

I am posting this on behalf of my friend Muhammad Abdullah. We know each other from when we both lived in Sana’a, Yemen. Due to his location and the circumstances he describes below, he is not able to post this here directly, so he has reached out and asked for me to facilitate this.

Muhammad’s story and request:

I am Muhammad Abdullah from Yemen but I now live in Türkiye (Turkey). I grew up and went to school in a city called Taiz in the southwest of Yemen. For university, I moved to Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, and then stayed there for work, eventually, in early 2013, finding employment with the United Nations.

The current conflict in Yemen started in September 2014 and further escalated in late March 2015. Yemen’s economy had not been great for many years and now most of the few international employers, along with embassies and international organizations were leaving the country. I had recently married, my wife was still completing her studies abroad (in Türkiye) and I was hoping that the conflict would somehow be resolved and our little family could build a life together. On April 20, 2015, just after I had left the office and drove home, the coalition forces bombed Mount Faj Attan. Our office, located nearby, was damaged and a number of the building’s guards were killed. This particular close-call and the experience of the aftermath deeply shook me and I decided to leave Sana’a and to join my wife in Türkiye.

I managed to travel to Istanbul. As the war in Yemen extended, so did my stay in Türkiye. As I had left behind my work in Sana’a, I became jobless and it took a full year before I found new employment. Over these years since, I have always worked full-time (e.g. as translator for the International Organization for Migration and for some TV channels).

I had last visited my parents in December 2014. At the time, I did not know that it would be my last visit to my hometown. Since then and until today (about 9 years), I have not been able to travel to Yemen again. Initially, this was because of the siege and the closure of all airports. Later, when the airport in Aden (in the south of Yemen) was re-opened, tickets were very expensive and not affordable to me. In addition, domestic travel from Aden to Taiz or Sana’a was not only expensive but also very dangerous due to the conflict and with main roads through the high mountains closed. Of course, none of this was helped when the world entered into the Covid-19 pandemic. While every economy on the planet was impacted and prices increased globally, daily life for us in Türkiye became even more difficult. Very high inflation (e.g. between 50 and 72 percent per year since 2022 ) and stagnant (low) salaries meant that rent, basic services and food prices left no room for any plans to save money for travel. As a father of two young children, I struggle to provide daily necessities.

My father is now 86 years old, and my mother is 78 years old. We call them and send photos but I have not met them in almost 10 years. They have never met their only grandchildren, who are now 7 and 2½ years old. When my parents and my two siblings were able to relocate from Yemen to Egypt last year, they were hoping that this would make it easier and cheaper for us to visit them. But tickets are $1,900 (round-trip) for the four of us + visa fees (‘security approval’ for Yemenis wishing to visit Egypt) will add another $600. My monthly salary is only a fraction of this amount.

All I hope is that I will see my family again, even for a short time, and that my father and mother will get to meet and hold their only grandchildren. My parents are old and I am afraid time is running out – life goes by and no one can predict the future. I don’t think that my financial situation will improve in the near future and pretty much everyone among my relatives and close friends, now scattered across many places, is in a similar situation. As I do not have Turkish citizenship, I am also ineligible to apply for a loan from a Turkish bank.

This is why I have turned to this page and seek to raise $2,500 to pay for tickets and visa for my family of four to visit my parents in Egypt. This seems the only way and my only hope to reunite the family again, and I do not want to live the rest of my life regretting circumstances in which I had no hand. This family visit and the meeting of the grandchildren with their families whom they have not seen will make everyone happy before it is too late.

No contribution is too small. I thank you for your help and I hope that God will keep you away from such circumstances.