The Cardiff Yemeni Community Association (CYCA) is a community based organisation that seeks to represent and support the long-existing Yemeni community in Cardiff. It strives to serve both the Yemeni population in Cardiff and also contribute and assist in the wider communities surrounding it. Many Yemeni associations in the UK are dedicated to the perseverance of their ancestral traditions and cultural identity, the survival of the Arabic language and community and education of future generations about Yemen and what they can do now that a major conflict has broken out. This is fundamental to the work the Cardiff Yemeni Community Association do.
Our aim is to provide educational, health, social, recreational and sporting services for the community members of all age groups. To provide youth care and protection from involvement in violence and crime. To help the elderly and people with special needs. To Deepen bonds between the Yemeni community and other communities. To encourage volunteering.
Our vision is to create an all-encompassing and developed Yemeni community in Cardiff whereby members feel enabled and supported through various social and educational community based initiatives to preserve the community and contribute to the wider society and which have a sustainable and meaningful impact.
Our mission is to develop members of the Yemeni Community in Cardiff and the wider community, enabling them to connect better with the traditions and culture of Yemen and continue to effectively contribute to the current society they live in through community based initiatives that have sustainable value and impact. We aim to establish effective relationships with members of the wider community and other relevant organisations through the optimal use of our individual expertise, experience and other resources.
Coal was transported from the Welsh mines to the ports of Cardiff, Barry and Swansea. It is then exported to the port of Aden, where it is stored in coal bunkers, to supply British ships during its cruises between Britain and India. Due to the high temperature and the British intolerance to this, Britain brought workers from and around Aden, from what was called the British protectorates and northern Yemen. In 1959/1960, it was said that 12,000 Yemenis were in the UK, 2,000 from Aden and the protectorates and 10,000 from North Yemen.
The Yemeni migration to Western Europe in general and to the United Kingdom in particular is one of the oldest Arab and Islamic migrations, where the sources indicate that the first migration was in the year 1862 AD to Cardiff city, where this city was the first city to receive the Yemenis who came on board ships as sailors working on steamships and in coal mines in Wales, and from Cardiff they set out to the rest of the cities. Yemeni were the first to spend more time at sea than on land. It is recognised that the first migration was through Aden. Those tracing the Yemeni immigration to Britain will find that their immigration to seek a living, and despite its length, their families only started to join them during the end of the seventies and their numbers were very little. Families started to join them during the end of the eighties and nineties, and the Yemeni community in Cardiff is considered one of the oldest communities at the level of British cities, the present generation is the fifth generation.
Sheikh Abdullah Al-Hakimi is considered one of the pillars and notables of the Yemeni community in the UK and in Cardiff, followed by Sheikh Hassan Ismail, Sheikh Saeed's father, who lived in the forties of the last century.
Sheikh Abdullah Al-Hakimi established the first official mosque for the Yemenis in Europe, "Al-Noor Mosque", the land was donated by King George VI, as a gift from him to the Yemeni community for its positions and support for the alliance in World War II. This is followed in the eighties by the Islamic Centre, which began as a small Zawyia and it was built in its current form through donations from Arab countries, it was Sheikh Saeed Hassan.
