Back to work, not school: Yemen’s crisis forces children to drop out
Struggling families in Yemen are forced to choose between education and survival amid mounting economic challenges.
Taiz, Yemen – It was around the middle of the morning, and children at a nearby school were preparing for their break. But 11-year-old Hasnaa Jaber was walking through empty farmland on the outskirts of Taiz city, collecting discarded plastic bottles.
Hasnaa lives with her impoverished family in an informal settlement for people displaced by the country’s more than decade-long war. Instead of going to school, she works alongside her family to help make ends meet.
“My dream is to become a teacher. I studied up to the third grade, but then I dropped out of school along with my two older brothers to help my father,” Hasnaa told Al Jazeera.
“We must encourage our children to study, and I do my best to keep their spirits up,” he added. “I don’t tell them they will never return to school – I tell them this is just a temporary phase, and I hope conditions will improve so they can resume their education soon.”