Hodeidah: Motorcycles a source of livelihood for the IDPs!

BY: Ala’a Al-Shalali

Motorcycles are an important means of transport for most young people who have not found suitable jobs in the Hodeidah governorate.

Residents and visitors of Hodeidah used to travel through motorcycles because of its speed, the ability to cross crowded cars on long roads, within neighborhoods and alleys, and due to the low fare.

When the war broke out in the West Coast, a number of motorcycle drivers in Hodeidah were forced to flee with their bikes to the capital Sana’a and various Yemeni areas.

As these motorcycles are an important source of livelihood for the IDPs, through which they can work anywhere, but what is happening in the capital Sana’a has changed the convictions of drivers who shocked by a different reality.

suffering

Mohammed al-Ahdal, 21, a young man who fled from the Al-Jarrahi area of Haddidah to the district of Haziz in the capital Sanaa, told “Hodeidah News” that he was wrong when he thought he would work easily and easily in the streets of Sanaa, as was usual in Hodeidah.

“The first problem I encountered in Sana’a was that I did not know the big streets. I did not know that the city of Sana’a was large and sprawling. This caused me embarrassment when many passengers asked me to move them from one area to another. I do not know where they are.
Mohammed said in his interview for “Hodeidah News”.

One of the motorcyclists said to me, “Why did you come, Hodeidians, to share our livelihood? You are taking a small fare. You have to meet the price we decide or leave”. Mohammed Said.
“These words were so harsh that I felt for the first time that I was displaced.” Added Mohammed.

Not for generality

Waleed Yahya Sabahi, 24, from al-Jah neighborhood of al-Faqih’s house in Hodeidah, said that “it is normal for motorcyclists from Hodeidah or other Yemeni areas to face difficulties in their work because they are not adapted to work in areas far away from the areas where they are used to”

Waleed, who has a large family of 15 members and works as a motorcyclist he hired two years ago from a friend when armed fighting intensified near his home, he and his family moved to Sanaa and rented a modest apartment there.

“At first, the owner of the motorcycle I rented was very reluctant to work on his bike in Sanaa but I gave him guarantees of safety and if anything, I will pay him the value of a new motorcycle, and since we entered Sanaa and I earn some money through my bike and thank God” Walid said.

“I noticed that motorcyclists who fled from Hodeidah to the capital Sana’a, like all other drivers in the vast city with rights and duties”. Walid said in his speech to “Hodeidah News”.

The joy of Walid not completed, because the owner of the motorcycle he rented from him in Hodeidah, is became displaced, and Walid has been given a month to deliver his motorbike so the owner can use it to work with, so Walid is became threatened in his daily livelihood.

The number of motorcycles in the city of Hodeidah more than 70 thousand according to the statements by the spokesman of the Department of Traffic in the governorate Mr. Abad Ali Faraj.