One Shop, Two New Beginnings: How EU-Funded Cash Assistance Helped Two Displaced Women Rebuild in Lahj

Dhekra's and Eman's story

One side belongs to Dhekra, 50, a widow who fled Taiz. The other belongs to Eman, 21, who fled Al Hudaydah with her mother and five siblings. Neither woman wanted to be photographed; both preferred their shops to tell their stories.

Before conflict uprooted her family, Dhekra lived in Taiz with her son and three daughters. Widowed years earlier, she had always carried the responsibility of providing for her children alone, working long days cleaning other people's homes to keep food on the table and her children in school. Life was never easy, but it was manageable – until fighting reached their neighbourhood. As the frontlines advanced through the outskirts of Taiz, remaining at home became impossible, and Dhekra gathered her children and fled to Lahj governorate, eventually settling in a displacement camp managed by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).

Unable to find regular work and with no savings to rely on, Dhekra began selling the family's few remaining belongings to buy food. When those were gone, meals became smaller and less frequent; some days the family survived on only one meal. To bridge the gap, she borrowed money from neighbours and local shopkeepers, watching the debt grow while her options grew smaller.

During household vulnerability assessments, the Cash Consortium of Yemen (CCY) identified both Dhekra's and Eman's households as being among those most in need of support, and enrolled each in the European Union-funded Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA) programme.

For Dhekra, the assistance immediately eased the family's most urgent pressures. She used the cash to buy food, gradually repay the debts that had accumulated during displacement, and replace essential household items she had been forced to sell. For the first time in years, she no longer had to wonder where the next meal would come from.

“Everything we went through taught me how important it is to manage our finances and prioritise what matters most,” Dhekra says. “I wanted a stable source of income so my family would no longer depend on assistance.”

Recognising her progress and entrepreneurial potential, CCY referred Dhekra to the European Union-funded AMAL livelihoods programme. Through it, she completed business management training and received a conditional business grant to establish her stationery shop, investing in a digital photocopy machine to serve students, families and the wider community.

Today, her side of the shop has become more than a source of income – it is where children buy the supplies they need for school and neighbours gather to print documents, while Dhekra earns a reliable living that lets her support her family with dignity. “When organisations like CCY find you after everything you have been through and help you become stable again, you realise there is still hope,” she says.

A few steps away, on the other side of the same shop, Eman restocks her shelves each morning – soap, shampoo, toothpaste, school supplies – a routine that reminds her just how much her family's life has changed.

Before conflict reached Al Hudaydah, life had already tested Eman. Following the death of her father, she watched her mother shoulder the responsibility of raising six children alone; money was always scarce, but they managed, and Eman did whatever work she could to help. Then the conflict reached their neighbourhood. As fighting intensified and Al Hudaydah became one of Yemen's most dangerous frontlines, the family fled with little more than the clothes they were wearing, eventually finding safety in the same displacement camp in Lahj governorate.

Safety, however, did not mean security. With no stable income, Eman's brothers collected scrap metal whenever they could find it, while Eman searched for any opportunity to earn a few Yemeni rials. Even working together, it wasn't enough. The meals became smaller, then less frequent; eventually, some days passed with no food at all.

“No one should go through what we went through,” Eman recalls. “Food is the most basic need for survival. There were months when we survived on just one meal a day. Watching my younger siblings go to bed hungry was the hardest part.”

Like Dhekra, Eman's household was enrolled in MPCA after a CCY vulnerability assessment identified the family – headed by a widowed mother – as facing severe economic hardship. For the first time in months, they could buy enough food without wondering how they would pay for it.

As the pressure of daily survival eased, Eman found herself thinking beyond tomorrow – she didn't want her family to depend on assistance forever. Recognising her determination, CCY referred her to the European Union-funded AMAL livelihoods programme as well. She completed the same business management training as Dhekra and received a conditional grant to open her side of the shop, carefully selecting the personal care products her neighbours needed most.

Two women, two businesses, one shop. Between Dhekra's stationery shelves and Eman's rows of soap and shampoo, the same EU-funded pathway – from emergency cash assistance to a livelihoods grant – turned two displaced families' hardest years into something steadier. Dhekra hopes the business will let her children finish their education and build futures of their own; Eman hopes her brothers and sisters never again know the hunger that shaped her early adulthood. Both describe the same thing: a new beginning, built one customer at a time.