Yemenis find hospitality, quality medical care in Jordan

AMMAN — Although worried about the conflict in their hometowns, Yemeni patients are heartened by the hospitality of Jordan and its hospital’s quality medical care.

In interviews with The Jordan Times this week, Yemenis thanked Jordan and its people for receiving them. 

“We sensed Jordanians’ hospitality when we first arrived at the Queen Alia International Airport, with the medical teams and Civil Defence Department personnel receiving us and providing all the help they could,” said Abdul Raqib Obeid, who is currently receiving treatment at Jordan Hospital after shrapnel damaged his spinal cord, rendering him paralysed.

Obeid is among 266 Yemenis who were injured in the conflict in Yemen and arrived in Amman on Sunday to receive treatment at the Kingdom’s private hospitals. 

The Yemeni patients were transported by two planes coming from Aden, Private Hospitals Association President Fawzi Hammouri told The Jordan Times in previous remarks, adding that this is the third batch of wounded Yemenis to come to Jordan for medical attention. 

Obeid said he was injured on July 29 when a shell hit the area he was in, killing two of his friends.

He noted that the conditions are difficult in Yemen, adding that many houses were destroyed and children were killed. 

The fighting in Yemen has so far killed more than 4,500 people, many of them civilians, according to Reuters.

Obeid commended the hard work of Jordanian medical staff.

Another Yemeni patient said he sensed the difference in medical care upon arriving in Jordan.

The law instructor at Aden University said he was hospitalised for 40 days in Yemen and there was a severe lack of medical equipment.  

“In normal conditions the medical situation in Yemen cannot be compared with Jordan, imagine during these condition. Yemen needs more support especially in terms of medical assistance,” he added. 

Mohammad Abdullah Hussein, a Yemeni student who has been studying in Jordan for four years, said a group of young Yemenis who reside in the capital formed a voluntary group to help wounded Yemenis.

“In the beginning, the group consisted of eight people and later it became 15 people,” he said outside a room where a fellow Yemeni was receiving treatment.  

Hussein noted that most injured Yemenis are young people, and some of them are between the ages of 40 and 45.

He said the volunteers seek to assist Yemeni patients and convey their demands to the Yemeni embassy in Amman. 

“We want to help our wounded brothers who defended our land, our honour and our children and this is the least we can do.”