Qat is a green leafy plant containing an amphetamine-like stimulant, classified by the World Health Organization as a drug of abuse. It is chewed by the majority of Yemeni men and women for hours, almost daily. Sadly sometimes even children chew it. It is an addictive social habit and a rather expensive one considering that 45 per cent of the population live below the poverty line. As I point out in my blog: Qat has become an epidemic in every Yemeni household and has detrimental effects on Yemen's agriculture, economy, health and society. Massive time and resources are wasted to chewing this cursed plant, paralyzing Yemenis to think or work towards building Yemen. This video posted on YouTube by FeatureStoryNews1 shows the role of Qat in Yemeni lives and it's damaging impact: The revolution of change which has been raging for 11 months against the 33 year political rule of Ali Abdullah Saleh and his regime, spreading to fight corruption in the governmental and public institutions, has now also spread to society in an attempt to fight Qat. A social media campaign on Facebook and on Twitter, which was started by Hind Aleryani, a Yemeni activist who lives in Lebanon, aims to make January 12, 2012, a day without Qat in Yemen. The initiative was widely welcomed worldwide and in Yemen by many Yemenis on Twitter and Facebook, who joined and promoted the campaign, including Noble Peace Prize Laureate and Yemen's leading activist, Tawakkol Karman who used the campaign logo as her personal profile photo on Facebook and tweeted a link to her Facebook page supporting the campaign. @Dilmunite posted a well written and researched article about Qat on Bikya Misr. The campaign was immediately endorsed by Yemeni activists, bloggers, journalists, other Yemeni Facebook pages, including this Facebook page called “Yemen without Qat,” [ar] which had been set up since June calling for an end to Qat consumption. Yemeni TV news channel Suhail, online news source Almasdaronline, as well many in Yemen, including the youth in Freedom Square in Taiz and Change Square in Sanaa, also supported the campaign. Activist SadekMaktary, who is based in Taiz, and one of the campaign organizers, along with Ammar Mojalli, uploaded on his YouTube channel a video he made documenting people's testimonies in support of the campaign: This photo taken and posted on Facebook by Jalal al-Samei shows the youth in Change Square carrying posters printed and distributed by CCYRC (Coordinating Council of the Youth Revolution of Change), who also endorsed the campaign: Youth in Sanaa's change square endorse the #NoQatJan12 campaign @brrhom, who lives in Sanaa, noticed the willingness for people to change after the revolution and tweeted saying: Yemenis willingly incredibly interact with #NoQatJan12 campaign. Indeed, everything changed since the revolution started And this is a Storify collection I made of Twitter reactions to Qat and to the event.