Summer Centers:
How the Houthi Turns Children's Pens into Rifles

Introduction: When Classrooms Become Military Camps
In the depths of Yemen’s rural areas in Hajjah Governorate, where 85% of the population lives in extreme poverty, public schools transform during summer vacation into child recruitment centers disguised as educational programs. This report is based on the analysis of 120 images and 17 official reports from the Houthi-run Saba News Agency, alongside testimonies from sources close to children who survived these centers.

In one classroom at Ali bin Abi Talib School in Hajjah, a 12-year-old Ahmed dreamed of becoming a doctor. But instead of science books, he was met with a life-sized model of a missile. Instead of learning multiplication tables, he was instructed to chant war slogans: “Death to America… Death to Israel.”

This is not a scene from a dystopian film—it is a documented reality, even in reports published by the Houthi-controlled Saba Agency. The images show children in military uniforms standing before missile replicas and launch platforms, while the official text describes the activities as “educational and recreational.” A former student at a summer center in Hajjah (who requested anonymity) told one of our researchers: “They said the center would teach me the Quran and computers… but they made me wear a military uniform and chant against America.

Stark Contradictions: Innocent Words, vis-à-vis Images That Destroy Childhood 

Through analysis of 17 reports published on the Saba News Agency website between May and July 2025, Rasd Coalition identified a systematic pattern of deception:

Source Links:

• Saba News 1
• Saba News 2
• Saba News 3
  

Shocking Examples of Deception
A report published by the Houthi-run Saba Agency on May 12 covered a visit by a Houthi official to a summer center. The text spoke of “educational activities,” but the images revealed a workshop for building missile replicas. Another report dated May 17 described a scouting event titled “Knowledge and Jihad,” yet the photos showed children carrying wooden rifles and dressed in military attire.

The Houthi group encourages families to send their children to these summer centers through several tactics:

• Economic Exploitation: Offering families monthly “financial rewards” of up to 20,000 Yemeni riyals (approx. $40 USD) per child.
• Psychological Manipulation: Using coercive methods such as threatening to revoke food aid cards if children do not attend.
• Geographic Isolation: Establishing centers in remote areas makes it difficult for human rights organizations to access, monitor, or warn against them.

Content analysis of these centers reveals a three-step strategy:

1. Geographic Targeting: Hajjah is one of Yemen’s poorest governorates (poverty rate 85% per World Bank), with 72% of households relying on food aid.
2. Soft Recruitment: Children are lured with free meals and gifts, while centers are presented to parents under safe and appealing labels like “educational programs.”
3. Systematic Deception: The group uses innocent educational language (“educational,” “recreational,” “cultural”) while documenting military activities in misleading ways.

“They gave us biscuits and juice… and told us: ‘You are heroes of the resistance,’” said a former summer center student.

Why This Is a Double Violation

These practices are not merely “child recruitment”—they constitute a compounded crime:

• Physical Violation: Breaching Article 38 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which prohibits recruitment of children under 15, and violating the Optional Protocol on the involvement of children in armed conflict.
• Psychological Violation: Destroying children’s mental well-being through indoctrination, portraying violence as “heroism” and peace as “weakness.”

Disturbing statistics support this:

• According to UNICEF, 4,500 children attended these summer centers across Hajjah’s districts.
• Based on the nature of the education provided, a significant number of these children were likely recruited, or already have been.
• Other data suggests that 80% of child recruitment cases by the Houthis group occur through summer centers.

Devastating Consequences for Childhood and Society

This approach threatens to destroy an entire generation. Documented psychological and social impacts include:

• Mental Health: WHO studies show 68% of surviving children suffer from recurring nightmares, and 42% experience severe depression.
• Education: Child recruitment leads to a 35% drop in school enrollment in targeted areas, with dropout rates reaching 50% among recruited children.
• Social Breakdown: Increased violence among children and loss of trust in educational institutions.

Conclusion: An Urgent Call to Save an Entire Generation

Rasd Coalition calls on the international community to:

• Designate Houthi summer centers as “recruitment tools” under the UN’s list of grave violations against children.
• Impose sanctions on education officials in Houthi-controlled areas.

It also urges human rights organizations to:

• Document violations through independent field visits, monitors, and interviews with formerly recruited children.
• Prepare and submit urgent reports to the Human Rights Council.

Finally, Rasd calls on local and global media to:

• Expose the Houthi propaganda machine by analyzing images and reports.
• Provide a platform for survivors to speak out and raise awareness of this grave violation.

“Media deception around child recruitment is a crime no less horrific than the recruitment itself—it turns the crime into a ‘virtue,’ and the victim into a ‘false hero.’”