Muna Luqman
Founder and Chair, Food for Humanity
Founder and Chair, Food for Humanity
“Yemeni women are doing all the work at the frontlines. They’re trying to balance building peace, silencing the guns, and creating social cohesion. Unfortunately, only the voices and the sounds of guns are heard and appreciated. They’re the ones who are always at the table.”
Muna’s life-saving work runs the gamut from building mutual aid networks and resolving conflicts between warring communities, to negotiating with armed groups over child hostages, to advocating in the international arena for peace and women’s rights in Yemen.
Muna has been delivering life-saving aid to Yemeni families, particularly woman-headed households, trapped between warring factions and unreachable by foreign aid agencies in cities like Taiz and Hodeidah. In addition to setting up aid networks within the most hard-to-reach communities, and responding to emergencies such as dengue fever outbreak, Muna attempts to challenge aid dependency in Yemen and develops projects that are community-led and sustainable, aimed at providing solutions for food insecurity and water shortages beyond international aid.
Her advocacy work has included a focus on the climate crisis and water diplomacy and security. Muna has mediated between armed tribes and established water projects that have benefited more than 120,000 families in many parts of Yemen. Some of these water projects have put girls back into school and reduced child marriage.
In addition to her work leading Food for Humanity, she is the co-founder of the Women Solidarity Network, the largest women’s network in Yemen. She is also a member of the WASL Alliance for Security Leadership, the UN Envoy’s Amman consultations, the Gulf Cooperation Council Yemeni-Yemen talks, and a frequent briefer to the United Nations Security Council, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and members of the United States Congress. She is also a nonresident research fellow at the Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at San Diego University.
“In each crisis, women peacebuilders have the experience to deal with social cohesion, racism, and hatred – and highlight and support community togetherness, which is so important for preventing violence.”
Food for Humanity is a local grassroots humanitarian organization founded by a group of women activists in response to the deterioration in living conditions from ongoing war and fosters access to basic needs for Yemeni families.
Learn more about Food for Humanity
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