Rural Education Access Phase Two In Yemen: SDRPY And Alawn Foundation Sign Agreement

The Saudi Development and Reconstruction Program for Yemen and Alawn Foundation for Development sign an agreement for the second phase of the Rural Education Access Project, which targets six Yemeni governorates and aims to raise the total number of direct beneficiaries to 450, focusing on education continuity in remote and underserved communities.

The second phase extends support to Hadramout, Al-Mahrah, Marib, Taiz, Lahj, and Shabwah, and seeks to improve educational performance while increasing girls’ enrolment in public education, reinforcing long-term stability in rural schools across these governorates through better access, trained teachers, and structured learning opportunities.

This phase builds on the first stage of the Rural Education Access Project, which previously qualified 150 young women to work as public-school teachers after obtaining teaching diplomas from Yemen’s Ministry of Education, while also receiving essential life skills and professional capabilities designed to support classroom management and wider community engagement.

The project forms part of SDRPY’s wider portfolio that supports general and higher education, along with technical and vocational training, through building and equipping model schools, constructing colleges and institutes, and developing university infrastructure across multiple governorates, with the objective of maintaining access to learning for children and young people.

Within higher education, SDRPY projects include constructing and equipping three colleges at Taiz University in medicine, pharmacy, and nursing, and supporting Aden University through development works such as providing 28 laboratories in pharmacology, biotechnology, and chemistry, together with Yemen’s first forensic laboratory of its kind, enhancing teaching and research capacity.

The program also contributes to expanding Sheba Region University and has qualified 200 male and female teachers for internationally recognised professional teaching certifications, while recently announcing plans to establish two colleges of computer science and information technology at Hadramout University and Seiyun University, plus a College of Applied and Health Sciences in Al-Mahrah.

Further initiatives include constructing a technical institute and a College of Education in Socotra, alongside building and equipping model schools across Yemeni governorates, which supports access to education as part of broader comprehensive and sustainable development efforts, reflecting SDRPY’s ongoing role in the education sector of Yemen.

With inputs from SPA