Yemen’s prolonged armed conflicts led to the scarcity of the country’s financial resources and the collapse of public services, including healthcare. The surviving healthcare facilities rely heavily on the support and assistance from different organizations.

Martyr Mohammed Al-Durrah Hospital is an example of hospitals with limited resources with a huge service demand. To accommodate the pressing need for an operation suite, two patient rooms were turned into an operating room. Despite their non-compliance with basic medical standards and little support, the hospital serves nearly 67,000 people.

The hospital’s improvised operating room had numerous issues that – from time to time – interrupted its operation. For example, the floor was severely cracked and required a tremendous amount of sterilization. The leaks from the drainage system upstairs would shut down the operation for days and would result in referring all surgical procedures to the capital. Many old drafty windows in the operating room let dust in, desterilizing the tools and equipment, and the wooden doors of the operating room were difficult to keep sterile.

To help ensure good healthcare service in this hospital – as well as other healthcare facilities – the Social Fund for Development (SFD) implements the European Union (EU)-funded Social Protection for Community Resilience Project (SPCRP) in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Al-Durrah hospital is now considered one of the best hospitals in the area after the renovation. The operation room was entirely renovated, furnished, and equipped with all necessary tools including a new sterilization device. The room’s old windows were removed and replaced. The floors and old wooden doors were replaced with anti-bacterial flooring tiles and aluminum doors. The hospital was provided with enough oxygen cylinders to eliminate existing shortages. Lately, the hospital received numerous cases most of which are women and children and performed over 653 surgical operations in the last quarter of 2019 alone.

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The Social Protection for Community Resilience Project (SPCRP) is funded and supported by the European Union (EU) and implemented in partnership with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and The Social Fund for Development (SFD). The USD$28 million SPCRP enhances the purchasing capacity of vulnerable communities while restoring community infrastructure and improving access to and delivery of key services through short-term employment, provision of solar energy equipment, rehabilitating healthcare facilities, and building the capacities of communities and local authorities.