About Us

Welcome to INTERYem

Our Story

The work of INTERYem (International Network for Training, Education and Research for Yemen) began in 2014. The founding members of the INTERYem team went to Yemen from the UK, and started the process of building partnerships with our friends. However, due to difficulties in Yemen, our work reached a hiatus.

Our ambition is to facilitate collaboration between colleagues from Yemen and the rest of the world. We hope to do this through exchanging ideas, sharing expertise, and building friendships, to improve the education and training of healthcare professionals in Yemen; ultimately to help the health of the people of Yemen.

We believe that projects that build links between colleagues in Yemen and internationally offer opportunities to make important contributions to building capacity and developing health systems.

We always endeavour to work jointly through clear discussion, establishing a strategic vision and shared responsibility, and ensure that the needs and capabilities of Yemeni and international partners are in harmony.

INTERYem fosters partnerships between health organisations from Yemen and abroad. We believe that by doing this, we have the potential to generate positive change in the long term and to facilitate improvements in healthcare in Yemen.

The underlying fabric for the success of INTERYem is the people involved in it, both in Yemen and abroad. To ensure that our work maintains its objectivity and excellence, we maintain INTERYem as a non-partisan, non-sectarian NGO focussed on developing the capacity of healthcare professionals in Yemen. We aspire to the highest professional standards. As applicants to the Charity Commission of England and Wales, we abide by the relevant legislation of the UK government as pertaining to England and Wales, as well as any other place we operate.

Our Principles

INTERYem has decided upon a set of principles that we believe will focus the development of our work and help potential partners understand how we are different to other initiatives.

The founding motivation of INTERYem is to develop staff and build capacity in Yemen’s health system. Although intermittent activities such as equipment transfer may be useful, this is not the main aim of INTERYem.
INTERYem’s ambition is to facilitate long-term, sustainable partnerships, rather than to just focus on short-term gains. As sustainability requires dedication, consistency and perseverance, it is important that INTERYem communicates effectively with all.
INTERYem wants to avoid prejudging what is in the interests of the Yemeni health system. INTERYem intends to be a demand-driven, rather than supply-led, organisation. We want to understand what Yemen’s health system needs to develop, and will engage in discussions with partners in Yemen to discover this. Once these needs have been identified, we will work with our partners on strategies to attempt to fulfil these needs; as circumstances progress, the needs will need to be reanalysed and rethought.

Although individuals are important, INTERYem hopes to be a collective effort. We hope to set up formalised arrangements between institutions that can plan for long-term goals. Through inter-professional work in a network, we hope to have sustainable links. We hope that, in time, INTERYem will become increasingly interdisciplinary as well as inter-professional.

INTERYem does not wish to work in isolation from the health context of Yemen. It is important for us to work within policy frameworks for the betterment of the system, rather than to consider setting up structures outside the system.

We believe that INTERYem is a mechanism through which healthcare will be improved; we do not consider that our initiative is an end itself.

A Few Words About Us

The mission of INTERYem is to facilitate collaboration between healthcare professionals (HCPs) from the UK and Yemen. We hope to do this through exchanging ideas, sharing expertise, and building friendships, in order to improve the education and training of healthcare professionals in Yemen, and hence ultimately to help the health of the people of Yemen. We believe that projects that build links between HCPs in Yemen and the United Kingdom offer opportunities to make important contributions to building capacity and developing health systems.

Bringing Hope to Yemen

Principles

INTERYem has decided upon a set of principles that we believe will focus the development of our work and help potential partners understand how we are different to other initiatives.

The founding motivation of INTERYem is to develop staff and build capacity in the health care system. Although intermittent activities such as equipment transfer may be agreed upon, this is not the main aim of INTERYem.

Demand Driven

INTERYem intends to be a demand-driven, rather than supply-led, organisation. We want to understand what the Yemeni health system needs to develop, and will engage in discussions with partners in Yemen to discover this. Once these needs have been identified, we will work with our partners on strategies to attempt to fulfil these needs; as circumstances progress, the needs will need to be analysed and rethought.

Collective Effort

INTERYem wants to avoid prejudging what is in the interests of the Yemeni health system and attempting to offer activities that are superfluous. Although individuals are important, especially as in the early stages, INTERYem hopes to be a collective effort. We hope to set up formalised arrangements between institutions that can plan for long-term goals. Through inter-professional work in a network, we hope to have sustainable links.

Economy

Unemployment

Yemen has an official unemployment rate of almost 40%;

Natural Resources

Oil, the main natural resource, is far less plentiful than in Yemen’s northern Gulf Cooperation Council neighbours; oil is forecast to run out in less than a decade. Although other natural resources, such as liquefied natural gas, have been identified as potentially significant sources of income, they are unlikely to replace oil in the extent of the remittances they generate.

Corruption

Yemen’s economy and society has been marred by corruption, with Yemen being listed as the 18th most corrupt country in the world.

Agriculture

Agriculture provides the mainstay for employment in Yemen, which remains a mainly agrarian society. For centuries, Yemeni farmers produced, and indeed exported, crops as diverse as coffee and mangoes. However, the increasing cultivation of qat (a mildly narcotic leaf that is chewed for its stimulating effect) has posed a variety of challenges to Yemen

01 Education

Education continues to be a factor in Yemen’s slow economic growth. However, the growth in school enrolment in primary

Education has been significant, increasing to 87% in 2004 from 73% in 1994 (from 28% to 63% for girls), which is higher other among low-income countries. Low uptake of education leads to lower levels of health awareness and perpetuates negative health outcomes.

02 Food and nutrition

Approximately 46% of children under five years remain undernourished (and about one third of the population as a whole). As a result, inadequate growth remains a huge concern: over half of children under five years of age suffer from stunting, over 15% are severely underweight and over 12% suffer from wasting; these figures are even worse for children living in rural areas. The consequent health effects of poor nutrition have life-long effects

03 Environmental health

Yemen faces on-going water scarcity; the per capita supply of water is about 2% of the world average, and even then only 43% of the population can claim access to safe drinking water. The problems of water shortage are exacerbated by the widespread cultivation of qat, which consumes huge amounts of water and diverts water usage away from households and other farming activities. Water scarcity is projected to become worse as the population grows, demand per capita grows, and effects of climate change take hold.

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