‘I Pledged My ID Card to Give Birth’: Displacement Stories in Taiz

“I pledged my identity card so I could give birth.” The account, highlighted in stories of displacement in Yemen’s Taiz, points to the desperate choices facing people uprooted from their homes.

The brief testimony describes a mother’s need to hand over a crucial personal document as security to make childbirth possible. No further details were provided about her circumstances or the terms under which she pledged the card.

The story comes against a backdrop of widespread difficulty securing food. The World Food Programme says 73 percent of households in the areas it monitors in Yemen cannot meet their basic food needs.

That figure applies to the areas monitored by the programme, rather than necessarily to every household across the country. It nevertheless underscores the severity of hardship in the communities surveyed.

Together, the testimony from Taiz and the food programme’s assessment highlight the pressure on families struggling to meet essential needs, from obtaining food to making childbirth possible.