Category: New Zealand NGOs

Source: Save The Children

Siblings Halima*, 6, Kamelah*, 18-months-old and Omfaruk*, 8, at their home in Kabul, Afghanistan. Jim Huylebroek / Save The Children.

More than half of the world’s people living in poverty are children. UNICEF and the World Bank estimate that 334 million of these children are extremely poor (living on less than US$2.15 per day) and approximately one billion are multidimensionally poor; missing out on adequate monetary resources, health, education, and living standards.

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Expanding child-centered social protection programmes is a proven way to reduce child poverty. Social protection is a set of public policies, programmes, and systems that help all people reach and sustain an adequate standard of living; improve their capacity to cope with risks and shocks throughout their life cycle; and claim their rights and enhance their social status. Save the Children promotes child-sensitive social protection, which focuses on the specific needs of children.

Monika, a grandmother from Kenya, is one of the millions of participants in social protection programmes. She receives a cash transfer for her grandson under the vulnerable child cash transfer programme, which the Kenyan Government is expanding. She spends most of the funds on food and housing but has also used them to start a weaving business which allows her to send her grandson to school.

 ‘My life was bad before I got this money… I used to carry my grandson with me to go and do domestic work. I had to come back quickly because his mother is deaf and has mental health issues… after I started getting the 2,000 shillings, things got much better…’

The impact of successful social protection programmes on reducing multidimensional child poverty is well documented across diverse contexts- from high- to low-income countries. In addition to addressing material deprivation, well-designed cash transfer social protection programmes can facilitate access to vital services and build resilience to shocks, which is increasingly important as vulnerable households confront climate change. Assessments of social protection expenditures have repeatedly shown that social benefits outweigh the costs of the programmes.

But children still lack access to social protection. Despite this clear case for investment in child-sensitive social protection, most vulnerable children from the poorest countries do not have access to it. Data shows an incremental increase of children with access to child benefits from 20% in 2009 to 28% in 2023, with only 9% of children from low-income countries covered[vi]. This compares to 85% in high-income countries.

Ladan*, 10, with mum Casho*, 30, and her siblings at home in Puntland, Somalia. Mustafa Saeed / Save the Children

We work in close collaboration with governments to improve the child-focus, inclusivity, effectiveness, and accountability of their social protection systems. Our work also includes some direct implementation of social protection programmes in low-income countries and fragile states.

We typically support ‘cash-plus’ programmes that are more effective than just distributing cash. Cash plus programmes pair cash transfers with other interventions including training, capacity building, and linkages to services for caretakers on parenting, nutrition, health, and early childhood development. Our growing evidence shows a strong impact of these programmes on child wellbeing including reduced poverty, reduced violence against children, and improved health, nutrition, and early childhood development.

We also produce innovative research and evidence that we use to advocate for expansion of child-sensitive social protection. Together with UNICEF and the ILO, we launched the Child Benefits Tracker in February 2024.This interactive website includes data on child-sensitive social protection coverage, financing, policies, and programmes, country prospects, and good practices.

In a recent Save the Children-UNICEF-ILO event, Natalia Winder Rossi, UNICEF’s Director of Social Policy and Social Protection, said, ‘ending child poverty is a policy choice… and the investment case for investing in social protection is clear.’

Five recommendations for Governments to invest in social protection:

1. Create and expand inclusive child sensitive social protection systems which target the most vulnerable children including those extremely poor, with disabilities, from ethnic minority groups, girls, on the move, and who lack registration.
2. Increase, preserve, and prioritize investment in social protection programmes. Countries with low coverage can find creative ways to fund social protection such as Mongolia, which taxes its mining sector to provide universal coverage for children. Also, importantly, donors should support social protection systems and international financing entities such as the IMF need to safeguard them as many countries face increasingly unsustainable debt burdens.
3. Ensure social protection systems are shock responsive. This includes building systems and programmes that are flexible to continue during and after shocks, that can adapt to evolving needs of children, and that complement humanitarian responses.
4. Promote social protection programmes which are user friendly and accessible. Countries can now use technology to allow social protection participants to register via apps on phones and receive electronic payments. Many countries are also improving the management of data including beneficiary screening and data.
5. Support the expansion of social protection to all children through universal child benefits. This can close coverage gaps and build broad-based support for child-sensitive social protection programmes.

Found this blog interesting? Find out more about Child protection work

Source: Save The Children

MOGADISHU, 21 March, 2024 – At least 54 people have died from cholera in Somalia in recent months, said Save the Children, with nine people dying of the illness in the past week alone – the highest weekly death toll this year.

More than 59% of the 4,388 confirmed cases for 2024 – or 2,605 people – are children under five, according to the latest report from Somalia’s Ministry of Health and Human Services[1].

In the Southern States, the Banadir region has seen the highest increase in the number of reported cholera cases in the last two weeks, with 586 new cholera cases reported from 23 districts, including 331 children aged under five.

The current outbreak, which started in January 2024, is understood to be the results of the large-scale floodingthat took place in October and November 2023, according to Somalia’shealth authorities. The Banadir region was one of the worst impacted by the floods.

Save the Children is calling for urgent action by local governments and health agencies to stem the outbreak of the highly contagious disease, which spreads quickly through contaminated water. It can also spread rapidly in areas with inadequate treatment of sewage, flooded areas, and areas without safe drinking water – all issues that can be exacerbated by flooding.

Save the Children is rolling out an emergency response to prevent further spread of the disease, working with  the government, local partners, and communities to supports two cholera treatment centers. The aid agency is also providing hygiene kits and water treatment kits in and Beledweyn.

Save the Children’s Acting Country Director for Somalia, Mohamed Abdiladif said

“Somalia is at the front of the climate crisis. It was battered by rains and floods on the back of an horrendous drought. Children and families are extra vulnerable to illness.

“We are concerned that the cholera outbreak will spiral out of control when the rainy season starts in a month if urgent action is not  taken by government and donors to provide enough clean drinking water and sanitation facilities to  communities. These vulnerable communities have faced back to back tragedies having been forced out of their homes by flooding and conflict.

“We are doing all we can to provide humanitarian aid , including medical supplies, drugs, and cholera kits. However, more funds are  to provide  hygiene and sanitation items to prevent further spread of the cholera”

In 2023,  more than 18,300 cases of cholera were recorded in Somalia[2],  including 10,000 cases among children under 5[3].  Save the Children said the devastating El Nino flooding in November and December destroyed toilets and latrines, forcing communities, especially recently displaced families, into open defecation.

Save the Children has worked in Somalia for over 70 years and is a national and international leader in humanitarian and development programming in health, nutrition, water hygiene and sanitation, education, child protection and child rights governance. In 2023, Save the Children reached 4.7 million people in Somalia, including more than 2.47 million children.

Source: Save The Children

Source: Save The Children

• More than 8,700 people including 3,700 children from indigenous and rural communities affected. 
• Classrooms and health centers submerged under water, crop losses are exacerbating hunger, and lack of water has led to disease outbreaks. 

LIMA, 21 March 2024 – More than 8,700 people from indigenous and rural communities, including at least 3,700 children, have been impacted by severe floods in the Peruvian Amazon, said Save the Children, as rains continue to fall.  

Classrooms have been flooded, health centres submerged, and crops destroyed, with the brunt of the damage being felt by indigenous and rural communities in small villages in Ucayali, a border region of Peru. These communities already had limited access to services like health centres and schools and lived in low-grade housing, with an economy largely based on subsistence farming.  

Since late February, the Ucayali department has experienced intense rains which have caused major rivers to break their banks and flood small villages and farmland. As a result of the damage, the national government has declared parts of the region in a state of emergency. The affected population belongs to more than 60 communities, where people from more than 8 different ethnic groups live, including the Asháninka, Shipibo-Conibo, and Yaminahua. 

Schools would normally have opened for the year on 11 March, however the extensive damage to schools caused by the floods has led to a delay to some schools re-opening, potentially until May. At least 93 schools remain flooded. The damage to schools will worsen an already vulnerable education system in the region, which already wasn’t equipped to meet the needs of students, said Save the Children. 

Cases of acute respiratory and diarrheal diseases (ARDs) in children have quintupled since the rains began at the end of February, likely due to the damage to sewage and water systems, which has led to a severe lack of clean water. Health centres have also been damaged, making treatment for illness difficult. Communities in the area usually source water from underground wells, many of which have also been flooded and contaminated. 

Santa Rosa de Tamaya, a representative of the medical staff of the indigenous community, said:  

“I am providing care in the hallway of the house where I rent a room; only there do I try to provide as much as possible, because it also gets crowded, and it is not the optimal place for care; there are always possible risks because they can become infected.”  

The flooding has also caused extensive damage to crops including bananas, potato, corn, and yucca, which are the main economic activity for local families. Many of these products rotted before being harvested due to stagnant water. Most families use these crops for self-consumption, and those who rely on selling these foods are also suffering from hunger because they no longer have products to sell. 

William Campbell, Country Director of Save the Children in Peru said: 

“This emergency is particularly challenging given the difficult accessibility of the Peruvian Amazon. Children and their families here already face difficulties in the quality of education and health services. We are responding to prevent this crisis from exacerbating existing gaps”.   

With funding from Start Fund, Save the Children and its local partners are responding to the emergency with various actions: food distribution, provision of equipment for health personnel, rehabilitation of care spaces, delivery of kits for dengue prevention, safe water and hygiene kits for disease prevention. Additionally, coordination is underway to activate a working group to protect children exposed to situations of violence. 

Source: Save The Children

A group of Rohingya children play puzzles in a session carried out by the Geutanyoe Foundation, Save the Children’s local partner, in a camp in Aceh, Indonesia. March 07, 2024. Photo credit: Purba Wirastama / Save the Children.

JAKARTA, 21 March 2024 – About 250 unaccompanied Rohingya children[1], some as young as 11, arrived in Indonesia in the last three months of 2023, a 78 percent increase compared to arrivals throughout the rest of that year[2], said Save the Children.

The children’s rights organization analyzed figures from two quarterly reports from the UNHCR which showed a worrying increase in the number of children taking the perilous journey on their own. Last year, some 4,500 Rohingya[3] refugees, the majority from Bangladesh, embarked on sea journeys in search of better opportunities and safety, which marked a 22 % increase from 2022.  Among the new arrivals last year, 37 %, or about 1,670, were children including the 250 unaccompanied children who often face elevated risks including from abduction, trafficking, exploitation, and physical and sexual violence.[4]

Rashid*, 11, brought just a few biscuits and some drinking water in a small bag for his 5,000-kilometer (3,000 miles) sea journey from Bangladesh to Indonesia. He made it to Aceh, Indonesia, in November after 12 days at sea but misses the family he left behind including a mother and two siblings.

“The only thing I want to meet is my family,” he said.

“I remember some messages my father and mother told me through my mobile: take care of yourself, live in a quiet place … attend school, and eat on time.”

Increasingly desperate Rohingya families living in camps in Bangladesh are also being driven to high-risk sea journeys due to violence and security incidents[5]. Some, like 30-year-old mother of three Fatima* say a lack of job opportunities and education, as well growing concerns over safety in the camps, pushed them to escape Bangladesh in search of safety and a better future for their children.

“I want to be resettled to a country where my children can learn and live safely,” she said.

Because they are stateless, there is no legal pathway that allows Rohingya refugees to move around freely. Those looking for a better life are often forced to take perilous boat journeys offered by smugglers.[6] More than 60 % of new arrivals last year landed in Indonesia, while others disembarked elsewhere in Southeast Asia or were intercepted.

Syifa*, 11, is one of those who made the journey this year along with her parents and three siblings. The family were at sea for one and a half weeks before they reached the shores of Indonesia.

“I was so scared, I could only see the sea,” said Syifa, her voice trembling. “But when I saw an island, I was so happy,” she said.

Bangladesh and Indonesia are not signatories to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees but have been known for providing a haven to Rohingya refugees even when other countries in the region turned them away.

In recent months, however, Rohingya children and their families have become the target of both physical and online violence in Indonesia, driven by a campaign of misinformation and hate.[7]

Dessy Kurwiany Ukar, interim CEO of Save the Children Indonesia, said:

“The presence of unaccompanied children in Aceh is alarming and suggests that Rohingya families are desperate enough to send their children away in search of a better life. Indonesia’s government should continue to allow boats to disembark and provide ongoing support to Rohingya refugees but other countries across the region should also share the responsibility of protecting and assisting the Rohingya, including unaccompanied children.”

Save the Children is also calling on governments to provide Rohingya refugees with safe and legal pathways to seek asylum and access opportunities to improve their lives, including exploring options for large-scale third country resettlement, and for Bangladesh and regional governments to expand formal employment and educational opportunities for Rohingya refugees, in support of medium and long-term solutions for Rohingya communities.

Cox’s Bazar is home to the largest refugee settlement in the world, with almost 1 million Rohingya refugees. Save the Children is one of the leading international NGOs working in the Cox’s Bazar camps in Bangladesh. It has reached about 600,000 Rohingya refugees, including more than 320,000 children, since the response began in 2017.

In collaboration with local partner Geutanyo Foundation, Save the Children Indonesia has been responding to this humanitarian crisis since November 2023 by providing aid in two camps in Aceh, reaching a total of 937 people, of whom 346 are children.

Save the Children has set up child-friendly spaces in Aceh where children can play, learn, and recover. To ensure their hygiene needs are met, we have also distributed about 400 hygiene kits to children and families in two camps. Working with local authorities and the Geutanyo Foundation, Save the Children has also conducted activities to help foster acceptance of Rohingya arrivals from the local community. 

ENDS

*******************************************************************************************************************

[1] UNHCR REGIONAL BUREAU FOR ASIA AND PACIFIC (RBAP)

ROHINGYA REFUGEES FLEEING OVER LAND AND SEA – QUARTERLY UPDATE

as of 31 December 2023

[2] https://data.unhcr.org/en/documents/details/103909

[3] https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/myanmar#powerbi

[4] https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/pdf/tools-web-2017-0322.pdf/

[5] https://reliefweb.int/report/bangladesh/bangladesh-rising-violence-insecurity-and-protection-concerns-coxs-bazar-refugee-camps.

[6] https://www.unhcr.org/id/en/54315-14-facts-on-rohingya-refugees.html

[7] Drone Emprit: https://pers.droneemprit.id/tren-dan-volume/

*Name changed to protect anonymity.

For further enquiries please contact:

Amy Lefevre, Global Media Manager, Asia: Amy.Lefevre@savethechildren.org

Our media out of hours (BST) contact is media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44(0)7831 650409

Please also check our Twitter account @Save_GlobalNews for news alerts, quotes, statements, and location Vlogs.

Source: Save The Children

Children drew some boats on the wall of a room in the Rohingya camp in Aceh, Indonesia. March 07, 2024. Purba Wirastama / Save the Children

Jakarta, 20 March – Save the Children is calling for urgent action by regional governments to honour their international commitments and facilitate safe landings for Rohingya refugee boats, following yet another boat capsize off the coast of Indonesia.

A wooden boat carrying dozens of Rohingya refugees reportedly capsized about 16 miles (25 Kilometers) from the coastline of Kuala Bubon beach in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh today, with local fisherman rescuing some of the survivors. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Dessy Kurwiany Ukar, interim CEO of Save the Children Indonesia, said:

“We are dismayed and devastated to hear of yet another disaster off the coast of Indonesia, where a boat carrying dozens of Rohinyga refugees is reported to have capsized.

“While it is not immediately clear if children were among those on the boat, no person should have to make a dangerous and potentially fatal journey in search of a better life. Indonesia’s government should continue to allow boats to disembark and provide ongoing support to Rohingya refugees, but other countries across the region should also share the responsibility of protecting and assisting the Rohingya, including children.”

ENDS

*******************************************************************************************************************

For further enquiries please contact:

Amy Sawitta Lefevre, Global Media Manager (Asia) Amy.Lefevre@savethechildren.org  

Our media out of hours (BST) contact is media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44(0)7831 650409

Please also check our Twitter account @Save_GlobalNews for news alerts, quotes, statements and location Vlogs.

Source: Save The Children

 A woman in Gaza with an empty pan. Photo by Bisan/Save the Children

Audio testimonies from families in Gaza available for public use here

RAMALLAH, Monday 18 March 2024 – Children and families in northern Gaza are just weeks away from famine, according to data released today by leading experts on food insecurity and malnutrition, with some of the thresholds needed to declare a famine already exceeded. 

New data from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – the global scale to classify food and nutrition crises – says 1.1 million people across Gaza, or at least half of the population, are facing catastrophic food insecurity, or IPC Phase 5. With hunger even more extreme in northern Gaza, the IPC projects famine will occur any time between now and May 2024.  

Even now, children and families are being forced to live off wheat, hay, and animal food, said Save the Children, with any future famine declaration likely to come after it’s too late for too many people. The already accelerating child death rate will reach new extremes without an immediate, definitive ceasefire and unfettered aid access, the child rights organisation said.  

The report comes just days after the UN warned that one in three children under the age of two in northern Gaza are now suffering from acute malnutrition, a rate that has doubled since January.  

Nada*(1), a mother of three boys who fled northern Gaza to Rafah with her family when the war started told Save the Children this week: “Our relatives came from the north three days ago. They say people there grind hay, wheat and cattle food together to have something to eat. That’s not even proper food! They go from where they live to the sea where the aid drops happen, so they can get a can of freekeh [grain made from durum wheat] or mushrooms to eat. They live on weeds.” 

With access to and communications with communities in northern Gaza interrupted and sometimes completely cut off, Save the Children and other aid groups have struggled to reach people there, so are relying on testimonies from families who have fled to Rafah – the only place where any infrastructure is barely functioning, and where the population has swollen from 280,000 to 1.5 million in a matter of months. With families crammed in makeshift tents and a near total breakdown in food supply, clean water and sanitation systems, and healthcare, children in Rafah are also suffering from starvation and disease.  

A Save the Children staff member in Rafah, Mariam*, said her one-year-old nephew is suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) – a condition that weakens the immune system and exposes children to other diseases, in some cases doing lifelong developmental harm. Now, he has complications and is on a ventilator in an ICU.  

Mariam* said: “He has a swollen belly and irregular breathing due to an upper respiratory tract infection. […] This ordeal began two months ago when he was forced to relocate to a tent in Rafah. Shortly after, he started experiencing severe vomiting and diarrhea.  

“Now, owing to the harsh living conditions in the tents and the dearth of accessible healthcare services, he has been admitted to the ICU and is receiving mechanical ventilation. His mother said: “I am seeing my son dying and can’t do anything, It’s really heartbreaking.”” 

Already, reports from the Gaza Ministry of Health reports show at least 23 children have died because of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza – and with services hanging by a thread, fuel scarcity and roads destroyed, the real number is likely far higher. 

Conditions to safely and adequately provide humanitarian assistance to children in Gaza are deteriorating every week, Save the Children said. On 13 March one of the few remaining UNRWA food distribution centres in the Gaza strip was hit by Israeli forces, killing one staff member and injuring another 22 civilians. 

According to the UN, the daily average number of trucks entering Gaza with food, aid, and medicine dropped by more than a third in the weeks following the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling. 

Alternative methods of aid delivery such as air drops or a temporary port are no substitute for unimpeded humanitarian assistance via the already established land routes, Save the Children said. 

Any denial of humanitarian assistance is a Grave Violation against children, according to the UN Security Council’s 1999 Resolution on Children in Armed Conflict. It is also tantamount to collective punishment and illegal under international humanitarian law. Any use of starvation as a method of warfare is strictly prohibited as a war crime under international law. 

Xavier Joubert, Country Director for Save the Children in the occupied Palestinian territory, said:  

“Make no mistake – it is a human-made crisis that has led as many as a third of Gaza’s children into the grips of acute malnutrition. There are trucks of food, water and medical supplies queuing at one side of a border, while children and families starve on the other.  

“We have a clear time frame to stave off famine, and it demands urgency. If a famine is declared, it will already be too late for too many people – children are famine’s first victims and are already dying in Gaza because of malnutrition. Every minute counts for them. It should be on the collective conscience of Israeli authorities and the international community that every day without an immediate, definitive ceasefire and unfettered access for and to humanitarian aid is another catastrophic day of starvation and suffering, another step towards famine and another death knell for Gaza’s children.” 

ENDS 

 * Names have been changed to protect anonymity 

1) A Save the Children partner organisation in Rafah supported Nada and her family with shelter kits

NOTES TO EDITORS  

You can find the IPC report here.

Audio testimonies from families in Gaza available for public use here

For further enquiries please contact:

Emily Wight, Global Media Manager: Emily.Wight@savethechildren.org;

Randa Ghazy, Regional Media Manager for North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe: Randa.Ghazy@savethechildren.org;

Our media out of hours (BST) contact is media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44(0)7831 650409

Please also check our Twitter account @Save_GlobalNews for news alerts, quotes, statements, and location Vlogs.

Source: Save The Children

 A woman in Gaza with an empty pan. Photo by Bisan/Save the Children

Audio testimonies from families in Gaza available for public use here

RAMALLAH, Monday 18 March 2024 – Children and families in northern Gaza are just weeks away from famine, according to data released today by leading experts on food insecurity and malnutrition, with some of the thresholds needed to declare a famine already exceeded. 

New data from the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) – the global scale to classify food and nutrition crises – says 1.1 million people across Gaza, or at least half of the population, are facing catastrophic food insecurity, or IPC Phase 5. With hunger even more extreme in northern Gaza, the IPC projects famine will occur any time between now and May 2024.  

Even now, children and families are being forced to live off wheat, hay, and animal food, said Save the Children, with any future famine declaration likely to come after it’s too late for too many people. The already accelerating child death rate will reach new extremes without an immediate, definitive ceasefire and unfettered aid access, the child rights organisation said.  

The report comes just days after the UN warned that one in three children under the age of two in northern Gaza are now suffering from acute malnutrition, a rate that has doubled since January.  

Nada*(1), a mother of three boys who fled northern Gaza to Rafah with her family when theA war started told Save the Children this week: “Our relatives came from the north three days ago. They say people there grind hay, wheat and cattle food together to have something to eat. That’s not even proper food! They go from where they live to the sea where the aid drops happen, so they can get a can of freekeh [grain made from durum wheat] or mushrooms to eat. They live on weeds.” 

With access to and communications with communities in northern Gaza interrupted and sometimes completely cut off, Save the Children and other aid groups have struggled to reach people there, so are relying on testimonies from families who have fled to Rafah – the only place where any infrastructure is barely functioning, and where the population has swollen from 280,000 to 1.5 million in a matter of months. With families crammed in makeshift tents and a near total breakdown in food supply, clean water and sanitation systems, and healthcare, children in Rafah are also suffering from starvation and disease.  

A Save the Children staff member in Rafah, Mariam*, said her one-year-old nephew is suffering from severe acute malnutrition (SAM) – a condition that weakens the immune system and exposes children to other diseases, in some cases doing lifelong developmental harm. Now, he has complications and is on a ventilator in an ICU.  

Mariam* said: “He has a swollen belly and irregular breathing due to an upper respiratory tract infection. […] This ordeal began two months ago when he was forced to relocate to a tent in Rafah. Shortly after, he started experiencing severe vomiting and diarrhea.  

“Now, owing to the harsh living conditions in the tents and the dearth of accessible healthcare services, he has been admitted to the ICU and is receiving mechanical ventilation. His mother said: “I am seeing my son dying and can’t do anything, It’s really heartbreaking.”” 

Already, reports from the Gaza Ministry of Health reports show at least 23 children have died because of malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza – and with services hanging by a thread, fuel scarcity and roads destroyed, the real number is likely far higher. 

Conditions to safely and adequately provide humanitarian assistance to children in Gaza are deteriorating every week, Save the Children said. On 13 March one of the few remaining UNRWA food distribution centres in the Gaza strip was hit by Israeli forces, killing one staff member and injuring another 22 civilians. 

According to the UN, the daily average number of trucks entering Gaza with food, aid, and medicine dropped by more than a third in the weeks following the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling. 

Alternative methods of aid delivery such as air drops or a temporary port are no substitute for unimpeded humanitarian assistance via the already established land routes, Save the Children said. 

Any denial of humanitarian assistance is a Grave Violation against children, according to the UN Security Council’s 1999 Resolution on Children in Armed Conflict. It is also tantamount to collective punishment and illegal under international humanitarian law. Any use of starvation as a method of warfare is strictly prohibited as a war crime under international law. 

Xavier Joubert, Country Director for Save the Children in the occupied Palestinian territory, said:  

“Make no mistake – it is a human-made crisis that has led as many as a third of Gaza’s children into the grips of acute malnutrition. There are trucks of food, water and medical supplies queuing at one side of a border, while children and families starve on the other.  

“We have a clear time frame to stave off famine, and it demands urgency. If a famine is declared, it will already be too late for too many people – children are famine’s first victims and are already dying in Gaza because of malnutrition. Every minute counts for them. It should be on the collective conscience of Israeli authorities and the international community that every day without an immediate, definitive ceasefire and unfettered access for and to humanitarian aid is another catastrophic day of starvation and suffering, another step towards famine and another death knell for Gaza’s children.” 

ENDS 

 * Names have been changed to protect anonymity 

1) A Save the Children partner organisation in Rafah supported Nada and her family with shelter kits

NOTES TO EDITORS  

You can find the IPC report here.

Audio testimonies from families in Gaza available for public use here

For further enquiries please contact:

Emily Wight, Global Media Manager: Emily.Wight@savethechildren.org;

Randa Ghazy, Regional Media Manager for North Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe: Randa.Ghazy@savethechildren.org;

Our media out of hours (BST) contact is media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44(0)7831 650409

Please also check our Twitter account @Save_GlobalNews for news alerts, quotes, statements, and location Vlogs.

Source: Save The Children

LILONGWE/LUSAKA, 15 March 2024 – Two neighbouring southern Africa nations are battling completely opposite weather disasters this month, with Zambia experiencing its worst drought in two decades while Malawi battles floods that have displaced thousands, Save the Children said.

Rains have failed in Zambia for seven weeks consecutively at a time when farming families needed it most, with almost half of the nation’s planted area destroyed, according to the Zambian President. Farming families have lost one million hectares (2.5 million acres) from 2.2 million planted crops due to the influence of El Nino on the 2023-2024 rainy season, with the prolonged dry spell decimating crops and drying up water sources.  

In neighbouring Malawi, heavy rainfall in the central parts of the country led to the death of six people last week, including two children after their houses were washed away by raging floods. The heavy downpour has caused widespread flooding and displaced more than 14,000 people in Nkhotakota District, with several areas cut-off after floodwaters destroyed roads and other infrastructure including critical bridges. The current rains are devastating the same communities who were heavily impacted by Cyclone Freddy last year. 

At least nine schools are being used as camps for displaced families, affecting access to education for thousands of children. Fears of disease outbreaks including malaria are spreading fueled by congestion and poor sanitary conditions in the camps.

Save the Children is calling for urgent national and international intervention to provide families and children with basic services including food and water in Zambia and Malawi. Many of the displaced families forced to move to higher ground in Malawi, including hundreds of children, are now in critical need of emergency supplies like food, shelter, clean water, and toilets. 

James* is a 14 -year-old boy from Nkhotakota district in Malawi. He is now living with his parents and young brother in a camp for displaced people after extreme floods engulfed their home and thriving grocery store in the village.

He told Save the Children: “At first, I thought my younger brother had wet the bed, then we discovered water had flooded our room. Hurriedly, we alerted our parents and realized the extent of the devastation as we made our way to higher ground. Our kitchen was gone, and our entire village was being engulfed by the rising waters.

“In the rush to escape, we salvaged only a few belongings, losing everything else, including my personal possessions. My father was successful businessman (who) operated a thriving grocery store in our village, but it too was swept away. Our family, once secure and prosperous, now faces an uncertain future.”

Lucy*, 13, is also living in a camp for displaced children with her family in Malawi. She said:

“The flooding took away everything from me. Life in the camp is really boring. I don’t have any friends here, and I don’t have any clothes. I want to go back home and go back to school. School is very exciting for me. I wish I could have a uniform, pens, and books so I can go back to school.”

The severe drought in Zambia and floods in Malawi are the latest in a series of extreme weather events in recent years to hit the southern Africa, where children and communities are grappling with the global climate crisis.

The El Niño weather phenomenon, which has brought the unusually heavy rains, thunderstorms and extreme floods in some countries while causing extreme droughts in others, is destroying lives and livelihood in southern Africa, with its impact being exacerbated by the climate crisis.

In Malawi, the El Niño impact is hitting after a prolonged period of unmet needs for communities, with alarming levels of food insecurity. Malawi is estimated to have 4.4 million people or 22 percent of the population facing crisis levels of food shortages and worse between October 2023 and March 2024. Unless response is urgently scaled-up, the situation will deteriorate further, the aid agency said.

Jo Musonda, Save the Children Country Director in Zambia, said:

“Zambia is going through one of the worst dry spells in decades due to the El Niño climate pattern and the biggest fear is that this will lead to a drastic spike in hunger, malnutrition, water scarcity and disease outbreaks.  Families and children in areas such Western Province are already scavenging for wild fruits and roots which can sometimes be poisonous, and the most affected children are also missing class due to hunger.

“For small scale famers who have lost their livelihood, this is only going to deepen poverty and inequality and will hit the most vulnerable communities – especially the children the hardest. We are calling on the government and aid actors in the region to make information readily accessible to the communities concerning El Niño and how it will affect their livelihoods.” 

Save the Children’s Malawi Country Director, Ashebir Debebe said:

“We know that children are always the hardest hit in climate crises. In Malawi’s flooded districts, children have been forced out of their homes and are going for days without school. With lessons from the impacts of El Niño in the past, failure to act, and act promptly, will place millions of children at risk in terms of their long-term well-being and future development.

“Save the Children is calling for urgent funds to be made available to provide basic services including food and shelter to families and communities uprooted from their homes by extreme flooding.”

Save the Children is implementing a smart climate sustainable agriculture project in Malawi to enhance resilience of vulnerable communities to climate change in Traditional Authorities Malengachanzi and Mwansambo in Nkhotakota district.

Save the Children has been in Malawi since 1983 and currently works in 20 of the country’s 28 in areas of health, education, food and livelihoods security and child protection. In Zambia, Save the Children has been working for 40 years, running health, nutrition, education, and protection programmes across the country. In response to the climate crisis, Save the Children is supporting children and their families impacted by drought and floods, providing education support, emergency cash and voucher assistance and school feeding programmes. 

Source: Save The Children

A young boy holds some bread on a street in North Gaza. Bisan Owda/ Save the Children