The on-going conflict in Yemen, now running into its fifth year, caused 30-year-old Asma’a Al-Ghashm to lose her business and her sense of security, resulting in a nervous breakdown.

Before the war, Asma'a worked as a private school teacher and had launched a small business on the side.

An entrepreneur at heart, Asma’a started a dressmaking company nine years ago from her home. The income from her tailoring business ensured that she could rent a building and hire seamstresses and tailors. But because of the war, her business was forced to shut down. 

Things turned around for Asma’a when she received a financial grant from the World Bank and UNDP-supported Yemen Emergency Crisis Response Project (YECRP). Through YECRP, the Social Fund for Development (SFD) has provided assistance to the National Microfinance Foundation (NMF) and the Yemen Microfinance Network (YMN) microfinance institutions based in Yemen’s capital, Sana’a to help people like Asma'a.

Thanks to the grant, Asma'a was able to rent a large workspace, purchase more sewing machines, increase her production line, and hire 17 seamstresses and tailors. Asma'a extended the generosity she received to one of her workers who had found herself displaced due to the conflict. Not only did Asma’a offer her work, she arranged for accommodations inside the sewing factory for the woman and her daughter. 

Happy with the success of her business and keen to take on other projects, Asma’a is now exporting traditional clothing and is planning to increase her production plan to meet the needs of the local market in ready-made clothes. In this way, the community can stop relying on costly imports that come at irregular intervals.

Despite the logistical challenges of a fluctuating currency, increased fuel prices, and the sometimes staggering prices of raw materials that directly impact dressmaking, Asma’a has been able to weather the storm and is now a wholesale trader. Next, she aims to set up an integrated factory. She attributes this ambition to the grants and loans she received from NMF

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Funded and supported by the World Bank, the Yemen Emergency Crisis Response Project (YECRP) is implemented by the Social Fund for Development (SFD) and the Public Works Project (PWP) in partnership with UNDP. The USD $400 million project provides economic stimuli in the form of large cash-for-work projects, support to small businesses, and labor-intensive repairs of socio-economic assets, benefiting vulnerable local households and communities across Yemen.