Portrait highlights plight of Yemen children

An immense portrait of a child in Yorkshire England aims to highlight the plight of children in war-torn Yemen.

The project is the work of a group of artists known as ‘’Sand In Your Eye’’ in the United Kingdom.

"We watched the report and the report was telling us how children in the Yemen were really under pressure from climate change and war, but then COVID-19 and it was disrupting food supplies and medication as well. And so we looked into it a little bit further. And then UNICEF said that 6,000 children could pass away every single day because of this, these same reasons", Jamie Wardley, sand artist and founder of Sand In Your Eye said.

The portrait is made up of 6,000 real-sized figures of playing children, symbolizing the 6,000 that UNICEF warned could die each day because of Yemen’s dire situation.

"You know, you can't look at a child who is really, really poorly and not be affected by it, and then I think art also helps to visualize, make visual representations of things that are quite difficult to understand. And so behind me on my screen, I've got the images that we drew", he added.

According to a recent report by UNICEF, millions of children could be pushed to the brink of starvation as the covid-19 pandemic sweeps across the country, amid a fall in global aid.

Yemen's poor healthcare infrastructure is unprepared to battle the pandemic after five years of war between a Saudi-led military coalition and Iran-backed Houthi rebels.