Independence for Ilham

Ilham Ayedah Mohamed Ayed is seven years old and lives with her maternal grandparents in Sa’ada City, Yemen. Ilham’s father died a few years ago and her mother has since remarried and moved to another village. She does not visit Ilham and does not contribute towards her upkeep.

The family lives in the two-room servant’s quarters of their landlord’s house, who lets them stay there for free. There is no running water and electricity is borrowed from a neighbour. They cook on a wood fire; collecting wood themselves as gas has become too expensive. There is little furniture in the house; just one mattress and two blankets. Clothes are kept on the floor as there are no wardrobes or cupboards.

Ilham wakes early everyday in order to help her grandmother. Ilham helps her tidy the house, get water from the well and food for their animals.

The pair eat a breakfast of biscuits or bread and coffee in their small yard each morning and then Ilham goes to school. Prior to sponsorship Ilham was not attending school, but this is one of the conditions of the scheme.

“Before the start of the sponsorship we always had to borrow money and food from others and depend on their charity as my husband cannot work. He sometimes travels to the village to bring money from his relatives. Now I don’t have to depend on others to buy food for Ilham. I can buy the wheat and make bread for us to eat. I can also pay the daily expenses. Since Ilham has been getting the money I have been able to cook meat twice a week and also buy fresh fruit and vegetables,” says Ilham’s grandmother.