Yemen is a magical place. Its beauty is wrapped in the land, the diversity of culture, its heritage, and the people. But that beauty has been marred by nearly a decade of conflict; a conflict that has led to the worst humanitarian crisis in recorded history. But as Lara Kajs points out, ignoring the crisis in Yemen will be the loss of humanity, and to our own detriment.
Stories from Yemen: A Diary from the Field
is a first-person account of the humanitarian crisis in Yemen and shares the stories of nearly a hundred Yemeni men, women, and children, and how they have been impacted by the conflict - through displacement, being unhoused, food insecurity, sickness, economic collapse, and concern for the safety and wellbeing of their children, and death. All this while they are trying to avoid militia, airstrikes, bullets, landmines, and traffickers. Ms. Kajs writes from the perspective of someone who spent seventeen months in Yemen between 2018 and 2021, as a humanitarian observer and crisis investigator, during some of the heaviest fighting and airstrikes - and experienced her own close calls with the conflict. Ms. Kajs' clear and impassioned account of the Yemeni people and the plight of the embattled country of Yemen increasingly engages the reader.