2023 HIGHLIGHTS REPORT

PROTECTING CHILDREN IN CONFLICT & CRISIS

Ukraine Country Director Sonia Khush embodies the experience, expertise and passion critical to helping children affected by conflict, crises and climate-driven disasters.

She’s been at the center of numerous major humanitarian responses during her 22-year career with Save the Children – in the Middle East from 2015 to 2022 as Syria response director, in Liberia during the 2014 Ebola outbreak and in Haiti in 2010 following a massive earthquake. 

In Ukraine, Sonia and her 400-person team work closely with the government, communities and 28 local partner organizations to deliver vital assistance to children and families. With timely support from our Children’s Emergency Fund, we were able to quickly scale up our response as the war escalated last year.

“The best part of my job is when I get to be with our teams,” she says.  

"We obviously take sides. We take the side of children – of their rights, of their need for food, education, health care and a clean environment." 

– Sonia Khush, Ukraine Country Director

Our child-friendly spaces, like this one in eastern Ukraine, provide a safe refuge for children.

BUILDING CLIMATE-RESILIENT COMMUNITIES

At first glance, 16-year-old Junior is a funny, confident teenager who loves soccer. But there’s way too much on his shoulders. 

“I usually feel sad and sometimes I feel sick because I have nothing to eat, because the rising sea level has damaged our food,” he says. 

His community in the Solomon Islands is one of the most vulnerable in the world to climate change. Rising sea levels, combined with increasingly ferocious storms, have flattened homes and killed the crops that so many families rely on. Your support is helping young people in the Solomon Islands adapt for challenging times ahead. 

Through a six-year $38.1 million climate-resilience project with the Green Climate Fund, we’re working with communities, schools and the islands’ government to lay the foundation for a locally led climate-adaptation effort. This multifaceted project will include shoring up access to education during crises. It will also help youth entrepreneurs create sustainable livelihoods and support climate-resilient farming and water conservation.

"Winds can get very violent, and the sea level rises even more."

– Junior

INVESTING IN RURAL AMERICA

Save the Children supports the know-how of community champions in rural America, where one in five children faces hunger. Rural families often lack reliable transportation to and from grocery stores and live in areas with under-resourced food banks or no such services at all. 

In response to widespread food insecurity, our Rural Child Hunger Research and Innovation Lab invests in local organizations that are leading the way in making sure children have the nourishment they need to thrive. Our goal is to develop these solutions into scalable models that can be shared and adapted across the hardest-to-reach rural communities.

Our first cohort of five grantees includes Bidii Baby Foods. This Navajo-owned agricultural cooperative in New Mexico works to increase access to traditional foods in early childhood. With this grant, Bidii Baby Foods is bringing locally grown and indigenous foods to schools and retail locations in San Juan County.

"Bidii Baby Foods is thrilled to have this opportunity with Save the Children to increase access to indigenous foods in our tribal community, in early childhood and beyond." 

– Zachariah Ben, owner, Bidii Baby Foods

Zach, who started the traditional baby food brand with his wife, Mary, holds their son, Yabi, 2, at their farm in rural northern New Mexico.

IMPROVING MATERNAL & CHILD HEALTH 

When a child is sick, getting the right diagnosis fast can mean the difference between life and death. But in too many communities, health care is hard to come by. 

Our Integrated Community Case Management initiative trains community health workers to diagnose and treat children and refer them to healthcare facilities as needed. Now, in partnership with THINKMD, which develops simple-to-use technology for humanitarian settings, we’re putting diagnostic information in workers’ hands to guide them every step of the way. 

That means common illnesses can be quickly identified and treated – such as pneumonia, which kills a staggering 700,000 children worldwide annually, more than any other infectious disease. This technology helps health workers be up to 95% as effective as a trained doctor, enabling us to reach the most remote communities — with or without internet access — to make sure no child goes without lifesaving care.  

"As a parent, you are confident seeking services from a facility that uses such applications."

– Mother of three, Kibra settlement, Kenya

Lia, 4 months, and her mom, Wendy, who benefit from our Maternal & Child Health Program in El Salvador.

INSPIRING LIFELONG LEARNERS 

When Save the Children caseworker Julius met 14-year-old Veronique, she was in a dark place. Torrential rains had swept away her home in a refugee settlement in Uganda. She lost her precious schoolbooks and report cards, along with her motivation for school. 

Julius made sure her family got the basics – plastic sheeting for shelter, mattresses and other essentials. He also knew it was vital for Veronique to restart her education, so he connected her with our Catch-up Club.  

Introduced during the pandemic to combat learning loss, Catch-up Clubs bring together approaches we know work for children experiencing school disruptions. This evidence-based model combines accelerated instruction in literacy and math with child protection and financial support.

Up to 16 million children are at risk of not returning to school, and millions more like Veronique are at significant risk of school disruptions due to extreme weather or conflict. Now, she says, “I go to school with no problem.”

"In my future I would love to be a teacher. I would get a job, have a better life and teach others."

– Veronique