In its official press release the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it "plans to use US$9.1 million from a new UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) grant to provide urgent health assistance to 630,000 vulnerable people in districts around Sana'a and al-Hudayda, including 189,000 internally displaced persons and 441,000 people from host communities." "WHO is working with partners to fill critical gaps in the provision of basic healthcare, to respond to disease outbreaks, to strengthen disease surveillance, to distribute medical supplies and to deliver life-saving services to mothers and their children. "CERF funding will provide urgent health assistance to chronically ill people, pregnant and lactating mothers, severely malnourished children, injured people and the internally displaced. "The grant will allow WHO to provide vulnerable people with access to essential health services close to where they live including for general services and trauma; child and nutrition care; reproductive, maternal and new-born care; mental health; communicable diseases; and life threatening Non-Communicable diseases. "CERF funding will provide additional resources help make our work possible at a time of great need for the people of Yemen,” said WHO Yemen Representative Nevio Zagaria. “With only 50 per cent of health facilities fully functional, 16.4 million people in Yemen require assistance to ensure adequate access to healthcare – 9.3 million of whom are in acute need. Ongoing outbreaks of cholera and diphtheria have underscored the impacts of a failing health system.” As lead of the Health Cluster, WHO is working with 49 partners in Yemen to deliver health services to 12.3 million people in need.
