Stories from residents at the camp for the displaced in Ahad Al-Masareha in Jizan have brought to light a range of woes experienced by villagers from the remote Jizan regions, not all connected to the security situation sparked by infiltrators from northern Yemen. One such case is that of septuagenarian Ahmad Al-Salami, who is the head of a three-tent family of 25 consisting of his wife, seven daughters, five sons and 12 grandchildren. Al-Salami has assumed responsibility for the number – enough for two football teams plus referee and linesmen – principally due to three of his daughters' failed marriages – one is a widow, another a divorcee, and another whose husband cannot support his wife and children due to disability. The eldest daughter – Umm Hashim – married 18 years ago. “She was blessed with three children and the family was happy, but then her husband was killed in a car accident,” Al-Salami said. Left to provide for her three children, Al-Salami got married to her deceased husband's brother in the hope that he would provide for and protect them. According to Umm Hashim, things went fine for the first few years, and the family was added to, making her now a mother of six, the eldest being her 14-year-old son. “But then things changed,” said Umm Hashim. “Their father stopped providing for us and refused to take care of us. He also refused to put the children's names on his official documents, leaving them without any civil status.” Umm Hashim eventually found herself obliged to return with her children to the fold of her father. Al-Salami's second daughter, Umm Bayan, didn't have things much easier. Her husband suffered from schizophrenia and was rendered incapable of providing for her and her children. To survive they depended on charity. A third daughter, Umm Jana, was married to a soldier in the army. “He died in a car crash three years ago,” she said. “We have a small daughter and she still misses him terribly. I haven't been able to collect my husband's pension money either, because my in-laws haven't gone to the authorities to claim it.” As a result, Umm Jana said, she is now faced with mounting debts. Zamzam, another of Al-Salami's daughters, is managing to earn something of a living and contribute to the family income by going round the evacuee camp selling food. Her husband is disabled. Ahmad Al-Salami has been provided with three tents at the camp but there's no guarantee that life for him and his family is to get any easier. Ahmad himself suffers from a disability he did not care to disclose, and can do no more than sit and watch as his family of three generations struggles to survive in ever more trying conditions.
