Nearly 18 million Yemenis go without food some days or many days, suffering acute to life-threatening malnutrition, according to a late January report from the Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET). About 15 million of them, or 2 million households, rely on agriculture for their living, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations reports.
“Funding provided by the Zakat Foundation will procure equipment for cooking oil processors,” said Mary Strata, director of foundation partnerships for Mercy-Corps, Zakat Foundation’s partner in a food resilience project to help local Yemeni sesame producers increase yields and product sales.
What We Are Doing
Solar- and fuel-powered generators purchased with your Zakat Foundation charity can double sesame cooking oil presser production and increase incomes and food availability for people.
Cooking oil processors run 10 hours daily on average due to electricity shortages. That’s the finding of an independent study by a Yemeni expert contracted by the project, with the goal of raising domestic food production and incomes for everyone in the product chain.