Changing the World with Your Mission Support
2023
THE POWER OF YOUR PARTNERSHIP
It has been a dangerous and frightening year for children. They are deeply affected by the worsening situation in Gaza and Israel, devastating earthquakes in Türkiye, Syria and Afghanistan, and record-breaking temperatures, including the hottest summer ever recorded in the northern hemisphere.
We’re witnessing in real time how climate change magnifies the enduring impact of conflict, poverty, hunger and the COVID pandemic for children across the globe. One billion children live in countries at extreme risk from climate-driven disasters such as severe floods, droughts, crop failures and wildfires.
Your support provides the flexible funding that keeps us ready to respond wherever the needs are greatest – every day, in times of crisis and in pursuit of a sustainable future. As the first and leading independent children’s organization, Save the Children is uniquely prepared to act effectively for children amid these many challenges, drawing on more than 100 years of expertise in health, education, child protection and advocacy.
You help make possible ambitious climate adaptation projects like our new UN Green Climate Fund (GCF) partnership in the Solomon Islands, one of 18 projects in the GCF pipeline.
You also drive our leadership in scaling up approaches proven to work best for children. Backed by partners like you, we led the massive global effort that helped cut newborn deaths by 42% since 2000. We implemented Catch-up Clubs to help kids make up lost educational time due to displacement, disease and more. We continue to expand pioneering initiatives such as our Cash Plus program that empowers families to weather current and future crises.
OUR IMPACT IN 2022
118M
children reached globally, including nearly 1 million children in the U.S.
107
emergency responses in more than 70 countries.
9M
children supported with education, including 4.5 million girls.
754K
children treated for life-threatening malnutrition.
INVESTING FOR IMPACT
Your investment in mission support – our general operating fund – is an investment in the expert staff, systems, innovation and advocacy that underpin our organization.
With a footprint in 116 countries, including the U.S., we do whatever it takes so children can fulfill their rights to grow up healthy, educated and safe. Working alongside local partners, we hold ourselves accountable to children and families in our program delivery.
Together with them, we champion inclusion, gender equality, climate-smart livelihoods and every child’s right to a promising future.
MISSION SUPPORT IN ACTION
PROVIDING LIFESAVING CHILDHOOD VACCINES
Immunizations save over 2 million young lives annually and are among the most cost-effective health interventions we have. To get shots in children’s arms, we work with national health ministries to plan immunization campaigns and reduce vaccine hesitancy. In remote communities – the “last mile” of vaccine delivery – we make sure health facilities have the right training and supplies. We support vaccine delivery in 18 countries, prioritizing regions where immunization rates are low. Over the past year, through our partners, 197,500 children under age 1 in Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Mali and the Philippines received a vaccine or completed their routine shots for diseases such as polio, tuberculosis, pertussis and measles.
DELIVERING FOR CHILDREN IN RURAL COMMUNITIES
In rural America, access to quality early childhood programs and healthy food is limited, with some families living up to 40 miles away from the nearest grocery store. Inflation, high gas prices and unreliable transportation make it difficult for parents to shop for healthy food and access quality preschool programs. To address these challenges, Save the Children supports the operation of a fleet of 30 buses in nine states. Equipped with refrigerators, Wi-Fi and reading nooks, each bus delivers nutrition and learning resources to about 2,000. Sunny the Bus visits schools in rural California to engage children with story times and literacy activities and provide families with books and healthy food. In West Virginia, the Grab-n-Go bus we support delivers 10-pound food boxes (recipes included) to 345 students at a rural elementary school – equivalent to 3,500 meals.
KEEPING LEARNING ALIVE FOR CHILDREN IN CRISIS
Children displaced by conflicts, disasters and extreme weather events linked to climate change can lose precious months or years of school. Increasing access to digital technology like our “use anywhere” Learning Tree mobile app is one solution. We launched Learning Tree in Pakistan, a country prone to disasters like 2022’s floods that displaced 3.4 million children. Any family with a mobile device can help children practice reading and math. Other app activities build critical social and emotional learning skills. Encouraged by an assessment that showed Learning Tree improves learning outcomes, we’re working with Pakistani education leaders on its wider use. Your support helps fund innovations like Learning Tree and our commitment to keep children learning in a world where nearly half of all refugees in 2022 were children and where one in two children lives in a country at extreme risk of climate disaster.
ADVANCING EQUAL OPPORTUNITY FOR GIRLS
Girls around the world are forced into early marriage, effectively ending their educations and childhoods. Each year, 12 million girls marry before age 18. Driving factors include poverty, conflict, pregnancy and cultural norms. All play a role in Borno, Nigeria, where Zaynab* (left), 16, campaigns against this devastating practice as a Save the Children Girl Champion. She can’t forget a friend who was married off and died in childbirth. Zaynab now speaks out for girls like 16-year-old Zara*, whose family forced her to drop out of school and pressured her to marry. When Zara sought support through our Gender Based Violence Awareness Station for Adolescent Girls, we helped intervene and discourage her parents from marrying her off. Across the globe, we advocate for girls’ education and campaign to end child marriage. Zara is now focused on her future and hopes to become a fashion designer.
2023 HIGHLIGHTS
EARTHQUAKE RECOVERY TÜRKIYE AND SYRIA
When earthquakes rocked parts of Türkiye and northern Syria in February, millions of children were displaced, and their sense of well-being was shaken to the core.
I went inside the house, turned on the TV and had some food. I was eating. Then an earthquake happened, I threw the food and ran out.
The family took shelter in a tent in their village outside hard-hit Antakya, the capital city of Hatay, Türkiye. Though their house did not collapse, Umut’s family feared it was so weakened as to be unsafe – a situation experienced by many others in the region.
Through our Children’s Emergency Fund, we deployed resources quickly – disbursing over $1 million to trusted partners in Türkiye and Syria in the first few days of the crisis to meet children’s most urgent needs.
Working with partners, we’ve supported 586,951 people, including 318,657 children, and we continue to reach children with healthcare, educational support and protection services that include child-friendly spaces, family reunification and psychosocial support.
We were the first international organization to work in official partnership with Türkiye’s Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Family and Social Services, enabling us to assist unaccompanied and separated children and provide crucial, ongoing psychosocial support for children struggling to process traumatic experiences.
Umut loves it when our mental health and psychosocial support team arrives in his village, teaching new games and steps to recovery.
Watch our video below to hear from our staff member Arif who's serving communities in his home country of Türkiye.
COMMUNITY COLLABORATION IN CLIMATE READINESS
Dangerous weather extremes have become all too common with rising global temperatures, and the arrival of El Niño earlier this year has only added to a sense of urgency, worrying many experts who track risks for climate disasters. This cyclical weather anomaly recurs every two to seven years, usually lasting a year and causing variations in sea temperatures and wind trends.
The elderly and adults should listen to children because we are now aware of the environment.
The 2016/2017 El Niño affected 60 million people across 23 countries, creating widespread malnourishment and increased flood conditions ripe for disease outbreaks including cholera, malaria and dengue fever.
Climate-related disruptions, exacerbated by El Niño, threaten children's education, increase disease and hunger, and destroy livelihoods. Across Asia, a spike in dengue fever is sending children to the hospital. The effects of El Niño – such as severe monsoon floods – create the perfect breeding ground for this mosquito-borne illness. Additionally, El Niño piggybacks on other extreme weather events that have left children more vulnerable, including prolonged drought in the Horn of Africa, Cyclone Freddy in Southern Africa and severe flooding in Pakistan last year.
Our teams are working with communities and partners to prepare for and mitigate climate impacts. We're developing early warning tools for flood-prone regions in Indonesia, a drought monitoring tool for Peru, and a map-based tool in Nigeria showing risk factors for displacement such as security incidents, disease outbreaks or political issues. We’re thus able to act early to assist people before they’re forced to flee.
This work, combined with a range of other early warning initiatives, is aimed at saving lives and livelihoods and protecting hard-fought development gains.
Watch our video below to learn more about Anticipatory Action and how it helps communities prepare ahead of a disaster.
There’s no greater threat to 100 years of progress for children than climate change. Your partnership powers our fight for climate justice – and the future we share.
THANK YOU!
We’re living through extraordinary times. The planet is hotter than it’s been throughout all human history, and each new day seems to bring fresh emergencies.
But through the power of your partnership, Save the Children is at the forefront of global response. We’re standing with children to provide rapid relief, deliver life-changing development programs, and build resilient partners and communities.
Photo Credits: Save the Children
*Name changed for protection
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