A Yemeni has reportedly raised money in cryptocurrency donations to purchase food and other supplies for impoverished citizens amid an ongoing civil war. The Yemeni, a Redditor who goes by Yemenvoice, has raised approximately $12,000 in various cryptocurrencies towards fighting famine that has affected over 16 million people, including 400,000 children. The report was disclosed on a popular forum, Reddit.
The Middle Eastern Nation’s civil war started in 2014, but it escalated in 2015 after ousted President Abd-Rabbuh Mansur Hadi sought the help of a Saudi Arabian-led coalition of forces. The country has been blockaded, resulting in the starvation of millions of Yemenis. The Reddit user has provided several families with flour, rice, oil, and beans and hopes to reach out to more families.
Yemenvoice Tried to Set up Online Donation Campaigns
According to the Redditor, she tried as hard as she could to find help for her fellow Yemenia by setting up online donation campaigns, but no online platform was willing to support the country. The best available solution was to use crypto, as it was much easier and effective.
Yemenis lack necessities due to the blockade, with food supplies at critical levels. Yemenvoice asserts that she has broken the barrier through the cryptocurrency donation program, and could get funds into the country to buy food and other supplies. The funds raised came majorly in BTC, DOGE, ETH, BCH, and NANO.
Yemenvoice disclosed that she transferred the received cryptos from her wallet to various merchants’ wallets or exchange companies. Then she bought the food packages and distributed them to families and those in need. Blockchain revealed that she received about $600 BTC, $1 BCH, and $64 in NANO. However, the Redditor stated they have received about $12k in crypto, of which $3k has already been used for medical bills, goods, and rents.
Interestingly, Yemenvoice admitted to using the balance to trade on Binance but lost almost all the funds. However, she considers paying back the amount lost, which she termed as ‘debt.’
Although no one can verify how the funds are truly utilized, Yemenvoice claimed she chose the people in need and paid them wherever she found them. Fellow Reddit users appraised the project but were doubtful about how crypto could be utilized effectively in a war-torn country like Yemen. Yemenvoice responded by telling the doubtful users that she exchanges her bitcoin for the dollar before converting it to the local currency, and uses it to purchase and distribute food items. She added that soon, the country would start accepting bitcoin as a medium of exchange.
It isn’t the first time that cryptos are used as a force of change. In early September, El Salvador adopted BTC as legal tender to bypass sanctions from the U.S. Panama is planning to follow in the footsteps of El Salvador.