Category: New Zealand NGOs

Source: Save The Children

Destruction in Khan Younis, Gaza. Photo: Bisan/Save the Children.

Originally posted by Al Jazeera. 

A crisis. A horror. A tragedy. All words we’ve heard many times over to describe the situation in Gaza. All woefully insufficient.

As a Palestinian, I can assure you if there’s one thing Palestinians aren’t short of, it’s words. You may even recall that in the first weeks of this war, children in Gaza held their own press conference imploring the world “to protect them” so they could “live as other children live”.

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But the scale of the violence in Gaza since the attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed about 1,139 people, is unlike anything we’ve experienced before. Israeli forces have killed an average of 250 Palestinians a day, exceeding the daily death toll of all other conflicts in recent decades.

Over one million people have been displaced to Rafah, the only remaining place in Gaza where there is any semblance of a meaningful humanitarian response, waiting for the next military operation that could lead to a bloodbath.

And so, words have begun to fail us. Many now say there simply are no words that justly capture the torment we’re facing. I disagree.

There are still some words we can and must fall back on, words that anchor us to our collective humanity. The language of human rights, international law and accountability. Words like obligations, violations, atrocity crimes. The laws of occupation. And the laws of war.

I emphasise these words because they are the right words to use, but also because they counter other words that have come to the fore, such as the language of dehumanisation, which paves the way for atrocity crimes to be committed.

Back in June 2023, I attended my brother’s wedding in the occupied West Bank village where we grew up. If only for a brief moment, we were able to forget about the occupation we live under and the daily abuse that brings.

That moment of joy was swiftly crushed when a few days later hundreds of armed settlers marched into our village, firebombing homes and cars and attacking my family, friends and neighbours, in the 10th attack on the village in just six months.

A 27-year-old father of two young children was murdered. Many others were shot and injured. As far as we’re aware, not a single settler has been held to account.

The attacks on my village fitted a trend of increasing insecurity for Palestinians with more frequent and more violent attacks by settlers and Israeli forces occurring across the occupied West Bank. In September, a Save the Children report found that 2023 had become the deadliest year for Palestinian children in the occupied West Bank on record. The number of children killed in the first nine months of the year was triple the number killed in 2022- itself previously the deadliest year on record since 2005. And then came October 7, leading to unprecedented levels of dehumanisation and violence.

Horrifyingly, at least four of the six grave violations against children have been perpetrated since the war began, including children killed in Gaza and Israel, the abduction of children from Israel to Gaza, attacks on hospitals and schools across Gaza, and the denial of humanitarian access for children in Gaza.

At least 29,000 people have been reported killed and 69,000 wounded in Gaza while an estimated 8,000 people are missing, presumed buried under the rubble of bombed-out buildings, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

Some of the most inhumane actions carried out by Israeli forces include directing Palestinian civilians to so-called “safe zones” and then bombing these areas, and preventing food, water and medicine from reaching civilians, even as aid agencies warn that nearly every single child in Gaza is at imminent risk of famine.

These extreme levels of violence are no doubt in part a consequence of the increasing dehumanisation of Palestinians. Senior Israeli government officials have labelled Palestinians “human animals”, there have been calls by some journalists for Gaza to be turned “into a slaughterhouse”, and some Israeli soldiers were shown wearing T-shirts depicting pregnant Palestinian women and babies as military targets.

Indiscriminate attacks on civilians, forced displacement, the use of collective punishment and starvation as a weapon of war are all violations of international humanitarian law and may constitute war crimes.

Videos have been broadcast to the world showing Israeli bulldozers digging up Palestinian cemeteries, the lifeless bodies of Palestinians run over by military vehicles, and young Palestinian boys blindfolded and stripped naked in the street.

It terrifies me that many world leaders who claim to be champions of human rights and the rules-based order would have seen these same videos and failed to condemn them. In contrast, there was global condemnation when videos surfaced of some of the 130 hostages still held captive in Gaza after being seized in Israel on October 7.

Just as in so many other places before our failure to prevent the atrocities in Gaza is making a mockery of “never again”.

With everything that we now know, I wonder whether world leaders will finally use their positions of power and influence to bring this bloodshed to an end or whether they will simply continue issuing “statements of concern” and turning a blind eye.

This war should never have begun but it has certainly gone on for far too long. Every day it continues, more and more children will be killed, maimed, orphaned, and left deeply traumatised.

But even if politics continues to undermine humanity, the rule of law can still be upheld. In the weeks, months and years ahead, judgements handed down have the potential to redefine society’s course, leading to a fairer and safer world.

We owe it to all children, including those across the occupied Palestinian territory in Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and across Israel, to demand an end to the violence, adherence to international law and to hold to account those who violate it. They have a right to no less.

Join us in calling for a definitive ceasefire. Sign our petition today.

—

Mohamad Alasmar is Save the Children’s Middle East, North Africa and Eastern Europe Advocacy and Resource Mobilization Director.  Mohamad has over a decade of advocacy, programme operation and humanitarian response senior-level experience, having worked across several country offices, including Jordan, Palestine, Tunisia, Lebanon and on the regional Syria Refugee Response. Over several years of holding senior leadership roles within the Middle East and North Africa, Mohamad has built robust networks among civil society, humanitarian actors and strong governmental relationships.  

Source: Save The Children

GAROWE, Somalia, 23 February 2024 — Save the Children is calling for increased protection of girls in Somalia after a 13-year-old girl was raped by a group of armed men outside her home last Sunday, 18 February. The child was pulled from her home and attacked by multiple men, according to reports by the local community and media.

The child rights agency is calling for a full and transparent investigation of the attack, and calling on the government of Puntland and Somalia to urgently take measures to prevent sexual violence, protect survivors, and prosecute perpetrators in line with national and international human rights obligations.

Save the Children’s teams in Puntland have received increasing anecdotal reports of sexual abuse and rape against teenage girls in recent months, with survivors afraid of making official reports to authorities for fear of retaliation and stigma.

Somalia has some of the highest rates of violence against women and girls in the world, with few laws to protect women and girls from sexual and domestic violence or available shelters where they can seek refuge from their aggressors.

Earlier this month, the deaths of three women in one week, all allegedly murdered by their husbands, caused outrage in Somalia and sparked days of protests over the country’s track record on protecting women and girls.[1] In 2021, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Somalia (UNSOM) documented an alarming 80% increase in sexual violence in Somalia primarily attributed to armed men.

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

“The persistent sexual violence against Somalia’s most vulnerable women and children is deplorable and a grave violation of human rights. The traumatic rape of this young, displaced girl is unfortunately indicative of a wider trend that we at Save the Children are witnessing through our work across communities in Somalia. Gender-based violence continues to be pervasive, particularly affecting displaced, rural and minority women and girls who face added risks amidst conflict and insecurity. 

“We urge the Puntland Government of Somalia to strengthen legal protections for children, including the enforcement of a sexual offences bill. Every child, no matter where they live, deserves to live a safe, happy and healthy life, free from violence.”

“Save the Children reiterates our commitment to protecting Somalia’s most vulnerable people. We stand ready to support national and local partners in strengthening prevention and response efforts surrounding conflict-related sexual violence. No child should have to endure such unspeakable brutality.

Save the Children has worked in Somalia for over 70 years, since 1951, and is running child protection programs in the camps for displaced people providing specialised psychological care for sexual assault survivors through mental health and psychosocial support, hospital and specialist referrals, and hosting awareness-raising activities about children’s rights and abuse.

ENDS

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For further enquiries please contact:

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

Photo: A man with a Save the Children vest walks along a residential street inundated with floods in Demak, Indonesia in February 2024. Abid Amirullah / Save the Children.

SEMARANG, Indonesia 23 February 2023 – Flooding in Demak and Grobogan regencies of Central Java, 300 miles (500 kilometers) from Indonesia’s capital Jakarta, has displaced about 11,500 people, including at least 1,100 children, and forced some schools to close as the Southeast Asian country grapples with the increasing impacts of the global climate crisis.

At least 71,000 people have been affected by the floods in Central Java, which began earlier this month when heavy rain and a burst embankment flooded Demak town in Indonesia’s Central Java province. The floods have forced many public facilities to shut and damaged infrastructure including homes, schools, bridges, and government buildings.

Some 11,500[1] people have been displaced from their homes, while at least six schools have closed and a further eight have been converted into evacuation shelters.

Floods are common during the rainy season, which typically occurs between November and March, in Central Java. However, the country’s national disaster agency has said that more than 90 % of the country’s natural disasters over the past decade have been exacerbated by climate change.[2]

Anto*, 14, from Karangayartown in Central Java, said he was not able to go to school:

“I’m sad. Because of the flood I can’t go to school, I can’t study and I can’t play.”

Jayana, a resident of Karanganyar town in Central Java who has a disability, said:

“It flooded for half an hour and came up to my neck. When the flood began, we could not save anything, we evacuated and went to higher ground.”

Save the Children, along with local partner Migrant Care, has provided shelter and food to those affected and will provide educational packages to children and help people to return to their home once flood waters subside.

Fadli Usman, Humanitarian Director at Save the Children in Indonesia, said:

“Save the Children, in collaboration with Migrant Care, has provided five hundred hygiene kits to hundreds of families in three villages including supplies of water. We will also distribute educational packages to children and accompany residents when they return to their homes. We will work together to clean residents’ houses while distributing clean water and we  will build forward better by promoting the resilience of children and families.”

Indonesia is ranked in the top-third of countries in terms of climate risk, with high exposure to all types of flooding, and extreme heat.

The intensity of these hazards is expected to grow as the climate changes. The country is particularly vulnerable to rising sea-levels and ranked fifth highest in the world in population inhabiting lower-elevation coastal zones. [3]

Migrant CARE (Indonesian Association for Migrant Workers Sovereignty) is a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Indonesia focused on the rights of migrant workers. Save the Children Indonesia worked with Migrant CARE during the COVID-19 pandemic. The organization is well equipped to provide support to marginalized communities.  

Save the Children has worked in Indonesia for more than four decades. We’ve responded to nearly all the natural disasters that have occurred, including 2018’s deadly earthquake and tsunami where we were one of the first agencies to gain access to Sulawesi.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

*Name changed to protect anonymity.

References

1. Central Java Province Disaster Management Agency (BPBD) Feb. 2024.
2. Flooding in Jakarta: A Call to Increase Climate Change Awareness https://news.climate.columbia.edu
3. https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/sites/default/files/2021-05/15504-Indonesia%20Country%20Profile-WEB_0.pdf

 

Source: Save The Children

GAZA, 22 February 2024 – Families in Gaza are forced to forage for scraps of food left by rats and eating leaves out of desperation to survive with nearly five months of war and rapidly declining aid supplies leaving all 1.1 million children in Gaza facing starvation, Save the Children said. 

An aid worker for Save the Children who is currently in Rafah said her relatives in northern Gaza have been driven to desperate measures to survive. 

Nour* said: “My husband told me people have resorted to eating bird and animal food and tree leaves out of desperation. He has been forced to scavenge for scraps of food; he recently found scraps in his sister’s house that had already been ruined by rats but washed them and ate them anyway because there is literally nothing else left to eat. He said he will not perish from bombs, but from scarcity of food.” 

All 1.1 million children in Gaza are now facing death by starvation and disease as aid delivery is impossible to carry out safely, Save the Children said. Continued fighting, Israeli bombardment and insecurity have impeded safe aid delivery. 

The risk of famine is projected to increase as long as the government of Israel continues to impede the entry of aid into Gaza and access to adequate food, water, sanitation, hygiene and comprehensive health and nutrition services for children and families in urgent need.  

The UN has said that between 1 January and 15 February, more than 50% of aid delivery and assessment missions to areas north of Wadi Gaza – where levels of starvation are highest – were denied by Israeli forces. On 5 February, the UN reported that Israeli forces fired on one of its convoys carrying food supplies in central Gaza.

Any use of starvation as a method of warfare is strictly prohibited under international law and will have deadly consequences for children. 

The World Food Programme this week paused aid deliveries to northern Gaza due to security concerns, citing “unprecedented levels of desperation” and the urgent need for more aid routes to be opened up. 

Meanwhile, a report from the Global Nutrition Cluster – a group of aid agencies working in Gaza, including Save the Children – published earlier this week found that during December to January, more than 90% of children under 2 and pregnant and breastfeeding women in both northern Gaza and Rafah faced severe food poverty. The Cluster could only gather a limited sample size of data given access issues. 

The same report also found that one in six children in northern Gaza were acutely malnourished – a condition that can lead to severe wasting and that weakens the immune system, putting children more at risk of death from common childhood diseases as well as lifelong growth and developmental challenges.  

With limited aid access making any meaningful and necessary humanitarian response impossible, it is more than likely that the situation has dramatically deteriorated since this data was collected, Save the Children said.  

The destruction of civilian infrastructure during more than four months of war has decimated essential services like water, sanitation, food supplies, electricity, health – all of which affect children more quickly and severely than adults.  

Meanwhile, the suspension of funding from major donors to UNRWA will see lifesaving aid from the UN agency to Palestinians in Gaza, the West Bank and across the region run out in just weeks. 

Jason Lee, Country Director for Save the Children in the occupied Palestinian territory, said: “This is mass starvation of an entire people. How can anyone live like this? Behind the immense death toll from this war – more than 28,000 people, 70% of them women and children – starvation is causing children and families to die in slow motion. 

“The life-saving aid which families across Gaza rely on has either been drip-fed or denied by Israeli authorities – while essential services have been decimated by ongoing fighting. Conditions to provide humanitarian assistance to children in Gaza are not only not being met but are getting worse.  

“The starvation of civilians as a method of warfare is strictly prohibited under international humanitarian law. The only way to put an end to this – to keep children and families alive – is an immediate, definitive ceasefire and the immediate increase of unfettered humanitarian aid. Without all these, a meaningful response inside Gaza is impossible, and children will continue to die.”  

Save the Children is calling for an immediate, definitive ceasefire to save and protect the lives of children in Gaza, and for all parties to the conflict to adhere to International Humanitarian Law, uphold the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling and refrain from actions which undermine the provisional measures indicated by the ICJ. 

Save the Children is calling for safe unfettered humanitarian aid access for a massive scale-up in humanitarian aid supplies and the personnel needed to deliver it, particularly in northern Gaza. Unfettered access means sufficient goods, including commercial, aid, humanitarian personnel, and fuel can safely reach children and families across Gaza , as well as the opening of all access points. 

Save the Children is also calling for all donor governments and the rest of the international community to resume and scale up funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) as quickly as possible.    

Save the Children has been providing essential services and support to Palestinian children impacted by the ongoing conflict since 1953. Save the Children’s team in the occupied Palestinian territory has been working around the clock, prepositioning vital supplies to support people in need, and working to find ways to get assistance into Gaza.      

ENDS

For further enquiries please contact:

Our media out of hours (GMT) 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

Despite unimaginable hardship, we have seen children from Ukraine demonstrate tremendous resilience.

To safeguard their physical, mental and emotional well-being, Save the Children provides the necessary structures for children and their families to cope during conflict.

Our holistic programming means that we are there for children and their families during every step of recovering from conflict, including restoring their livelihoods, returning to learning and beginning the process of healing.

Together with local partners, we’ve helped over 2.6 million people, including over 1.1 million children since February 2022 in Ukraine and the region.

Continue scrolling to learn how we’re ensuring children and their families remain resilient in the face of tragedy.

Source: Save The Children

Despite unimaginable hardship, we have seen children from Ukraine demonstrate tremendous resilience.

To safeguard their physical, mental and emotional well-being, Save the Children provides the necessary structures for children and their families to cope during conflict.

Our holistic programming means that we are there for children and their families during every step of recovering from conflict, including restoring their livelihoods, returning to learning and beginning the process of healing.

Together with local partners, we’ve helped over 2.6 million people, including over 1.1 million children since February 2022 in Ukraine and the region.

Continue scrolling to learn how we’re ensuring children and their families remain resilient in the face of tragedy.

Source: Save The Children

Photo: Sarah looks out at the river that flooded her home following Cyclone Ana which hit Malawi in January 2022. Thoko Chikondi / Save the Children

Content for this release available here 

HARARE, LILONGWE, MAPUTO, 22 February 2024–Tens of thousands of children in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique are at risk of deadly disease as the 2024 cyclone season threatens to bring more floods, potentially worsening the region’s worst cholera outbreak in decades, said Save the Children.

Save the Children analysed data from the World Health Organization and national governments, which showed that cholera cases surged more than four-fold in Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique between 2022 and 2023. The number of cases jumped to about 95,300 from about 26,250 including over 1,600 deaths in the three countries, making it one of their worst cholera outbreaks in decades.

Already 2024 is threatening to be another devastating year for cholera in the region as warmer weather and unusually heavy rains and storms in southern Africa have fuelled the disease’s spread. Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi have reported more than 13,000 cases of the disease so far in 2024.

In Zimbabwe children aged under 15 account for about three in 10 cholera cases while children under five account for one in six cases, according to the UN [1]. In Malawi, which has counted over 160 cases so far this year, about four in 10 cases are children and young people under 19, according to the Ministry of Health. Both adults and children can contract cholera, but cases in children are more likely to lead to severe illness or death, with children under five especially vulnerable [2][3].

Cholera, a highly contagious disease, 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 from tropical cyclones.

Last year, cholera cases surged in Malawi and Mozambique following Cyclone Freddy, the longest-lived tropical cyclone in history, that traversed the southern Indian Ocean for more than five weeks in February and March. In Malawi, over 200 children died in the cholera outbreak which began in 2022 and ended in mid-2023.

Save the Children said that the three countries, which have been worse-hit by cyclones in recent years amid climate change, are currently battling their biggest cholera outbreaks as the peak of another cyclone and rainy season approaches.

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

“Children in Malawi faced repeated tragedies last year having battled the worst cholera outbreak on record, as well as the devastation of Cyclone Freddy. While the number of cholera cases in Malawi in 2024 are not at the levels seen in some other countries in the region, with the peak of this year’s cyclone season fast-approaching there’s a real risk that heavy rains and floods could lead to a repeat of last year’s deadly outbreak. With the destruction and displacement that cyclones bring, it’s not difficult to imagine a worst-case scenario for the spread of diseases such as cholera and malaria if we are not prepared and ready to respond.”

Save the Children’s Country Director in Mozambique, Brechtje van Lith, said:

“Mozambique is being hit from all directions as the country grapples with conflict, food insecurity, a cholera outbreak on a scale that it has not seen in decades – and all as it braces itself for another cyclone season. Any extreme weather event has the potential to cause cholera in the country to spin out of control. A malnourished child is at eleven times greater risk of dying from cholera than a healthy one. As with so many crises, it is young children who tend to bear the brunt of the disease.”

Save the Children’s Country Director in Zimbabwe, Bhekimpilo Khanye, said:

“Access to safe, clean water and sanitation is critical to control the transmission of cholera and other waterborne diseases and additional funds must be mobilised to support restoration of basic services, including water and sanitation and structural support to help communities absorb and recover from the impact of cholera and climate and weather-related disasters.”

Save the Children has stepped up its preparedness efforts in the region to help mitigate the risk of diseases such as cholera and malaria spreading out of control during the cyclone and rainy season.

In Malawi for example, we have prepositioned chlorine to disinfect dirty water, mosquito nets and buckets, while we are also supporting families with cash for food and weather-resistant crops.

In Mozambique we are working with local governments to provide soap, water purifiers and other items to facilitate access to safe water. We are also prepositioning essentials such as hygiene supplies and toilet constructions kits.

In Zimbabwe we are working with a local partner to tackle the cholera outbreak. We are conducting awareness sessions on sanitation and hygiene practices in schools and communities, training health workers, supporting community-led clean-up campaigns, providing water treatment tablets to households, and supplying cholera treatment centres with necessary equipment and fluids. Save the Children in Zimbabwe is also implementing a programme which aims to enhance access to clean and safe water for more than 60,000 individuals by installing solar-powered water schemes.

Save the Children has been working in Malawi and Zimbabwe since 1983 and in Mozambique since 1986 working on education programmes, child protection services, health and nutrition, child rights governance, climate adaption projects and humanitarian responses.

NOTES TO EDITORS

[1] https://www.unicef.org/press-releases/cholera-cases-continue-rise-parts-southern-africa-unicef-calls-increased-focus

[2] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38299980/

[3] https://www.unicef.org/stories/cholera-is-endangering-children-globally

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For further enquiries please contact:

Delfhin Mugo, Regional Media Manager, delfhin.mugo@savethechildren.org

Aisha Majid, Data Media Manager, aisha.majid@savethechildren.org

We have Dr Musa Chibwana, Regional Humanitarian Policy Advocacy Campaigns Manager for Eastern and Southern Africa based in Pretoria, South Africa and in-country spokespeople available for this release.

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

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

Source: Save The Children

Anna*, 12, studies math on a smartphone during online classes at her home in Kherson region, Ukraine. Credit: Oleksandr Khomenko/Save the Children

KYIV, 21 February 2024 – As the war in Ukraine enters its third year, around 630,000 children – over 1 in 12 of the total pre-war child population – who were displaced have returned home to face extreme needs relating to their family’s livelihoods, health, and threats to their safety, according to new analysis by Save the Children.

Save the Children analysed data from the most recent needs assessment by humanitarian data centre REACH and from the IOM to calculate the number of children in Ukraine who were displaced either overseas or domestically and returned home, only to face further poverty and suffering. 

The analysis found that the majority of returnee children have been pushed into ‘extreme need’, as they return to damaged homes and infrastructure – and are 62% more likely to experience extreme need compared to the rest of the population. “Extreme need” is the second highest need categorisation in the assessment, referring to a collapse of living standards with the risk of significant harm to physical or mental well-being.

In the two years since the conflict in Ukraine escalated on 24 February 2022, millions of people have fled to safety, with over 15 million people fleeing their homes in what was the fastest growing displacement crisis in Europe since World War II. Still now, 6.3 million people from Ukraine are refugees overseas and 3.7 million people remain displaced within the country.

Two years on, despite the war continuing and airstrikes and explosions a daily reality, over 4.5 million people who experienced displacement have returned home, including 1.1 million children. Of these children, over 600,000 have returned to situations of poverty and danger, with around 360,000 returning to the war-affected and frontline regions, including Dnipro, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Sumy, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). 

Maryna*, 39, from Kherson, fled with her family to a village near Mykolaiv in September 2022. When the family returned home to a village in Kherson region, the windows were blown out, and Maryna’s husband had lost his livelihood as the result of landmines, Maryna said: 

“The land was more or less okay, but the house was destroyed.

“When we returned here, there was no job at all because everything around was mined. Come summer they started to repair machinery that (was) left…so he (my husband) was paid a little hourly. Now, in winter, he has no job and nobody knows if there will be one in spring because the farmlands have not been demined.”

Being displaced can take a psychological toll on children and their families, as they leave loved ones and everything that is familiar behind.

Maryna’s daughter Anna*, 12, was keen to return home to Kherson, she said:

“People say, East or West – home is best. [The village where we stayed] was a much better and more well-kept place. You might have seen that we have nothing here. But home feels much better.

“We have cats and dogs here, she missed them a lot. And also, her grandma and grandpa.”

Many children return home to find their schools are closed due to the conflict. Anna* only attends online classes and it’s too dangerous to play outside, due to regular shelling. Anna said:

“I would really like to study at school, somehow, but not online. To talk to teachers at school, to children – so that there is communication, friends after all. My friend lives far away, I would like to talk to her. I do talk to her anyway, but I would like to talk to her in-person.”

Sonia Khush, Save the Children Ukraine Country Director, said:

“Children in Ukraine have endured two long years of violence and destruction. Many families have been forced to leave their homes in search of safety, and now opted to return as soon as it became available to do so. For them, no place is like their home, and we must respect their will to be where they belong.

“Going into the third year of full-scale war response, our focus shifts to helping war-affected communities to rebuild and recover, so that families have tools to get their lives back on track, and children can be children – learn, play, and laugh together with their friends – despite the atrocities that surround them.”

Save the Children calls on all warring parties in Ukraine to protect civilians and stop using explosive weapons in populated areas. There must be full and unhindered humanitarian access to families caught up in crisis, including those in war-affected areas.

Save the Children has been working in Ukraine since 2014 and has scaled up operations since the war escalated in February 2022. The organisation is working closely with multiple partners to provide life-saving assistance such as food and water, cash transfers, and safe spaces, to make sure children and families impacted by this crisis have the support they need.

Ends –

*Names changed to protect identity

Notes

• Save the Children used the latest data on returnees at a country level as per the forthcoming IOM General Population Survey Round 15, applying a child share of 25% provided by IOM to estimate that some 1.1 million returnees are under 18. The share of these children deemed to be in at least “extreme need” was obtained by applying data from the July 2023 country-wide household assessment by REACH that found that 57% of returnees are in extreme need. Applying the REACH finding to the returnee population figure suggests that some 630,000 children have needs that are “extreme” or “extreme +”.
• REACH defines extreme needs as a collapse of living standards, with a risk of significant harm to physical or mental well-being.
• Save the Children calculated the number of children who had returned oblasts in the south and east of Ukraine, the frontline of the fighting. Data was not however, available at a level more granular than oblast. IOM does not have returns data for the Crimean peninsula,  Luhanska, Donetska, Khersonska and Zaporizka.

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Source: Save The Children

A distribution of food items from Save the Children in Western Rafah, Gaza. [Save the Children]

 

NEW YORK, 20 February 2024 – The lives of at least one million children in Gaza remain at risk from fighting, starvation and disease, as well as ongoing severe mental distress from months of war, after the UN Security Council failed to pass yet another ceasefire resolution, Save the Children said.

The news comes as the death toll for children in Gaza surpasses 12,400, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza, and 36 in Israel, according to the UN.   

It also comes after the Government of Israel declared Rafah, the final place civilians thought was safe in Gaza, as its next target.  More than 1.3 million Palestinian civilians including more than 600,000 children are now trapped in Rafah with nowhere else to flee, having followed Israeli-issued “evacuation orders” directing them to the area under the false premise it would be safe. Nowhere in Gaza is safe, Save the Children said.   

Save the Children’s Country Director for the occupied Palestinian territory, Jason Lee, said:     

“We are appalled to hear of this new low in an already deep pit of failures from the international community. After four months of relentless violence, we are running out of words to describe what children and families in Gaza are going through, as well as the tools to respond in any adequate way. The scale of death and destruction is astronomical. And with tanks poised to roll into Rafah, where most of Gaza’s population has been forced to flee amid rising hunger and disease, this war is about to enter the deadliest stage possible.   

“Children are uniquely vulnerable with unique rights and protections and like with every war, they are paying the highest price. And failures of the international community to protect them – a legal duty – are driving up those costs at a speed and scale beyond any I’ve seen before. Even after four months, the UN’s highest decision-making body for international peace and security has been unable to do this.  

“Children are being failed by the adults who should be protecting them. It’s beyond time for the adults in the room to step up their responsibilities and legal obligations to children caught up in a conflict they played no part in, who just want to be able to live.” 

 

 

For further enquiries please contact:

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

Emily Wight, Emily.Wight@savethechildren.org; 

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Source: Save The Children

Photo credit: Randa Ghazy/ Save the Children

GAZA, 20 February 2024 – The war in Gaza now stands among the deadliest and most destructive in recent history and has led to a litany of grave violations against children being recorded. After almost 5 months of brutal violence the impact on children is alarming and Save the Children is now calling for all parties to the conflict to be added to the list of perpetrators of grave violations against children in armed conflict.

Inger Ashing, Save the Children International’s Chief Executive Officer, said:

“Children in Gaza have been killed and maimed by Israeli forces at an unprecedented rate and scale. About 12,400 children have been killed and thousands more are ‘missing’, presumed buried under the rubble, their deaths unmarked.[1] A further 100 Palestinian children have been killed in the occupied West Bank since the escalation. Also33 Israeli children were killed in the 7 October attacks, and children were abducted and held hostage in Gaza, causing severe emotional and mental distress.

Destruction of schools and hospitals in Gaza has become the norm, not the exception,[2]^,[3] and children have suffered incalculable mental and physical harm. Parents in Gaza have told us about symptoms of extreme emotional distress and trauma in their children, including a perpetual state of fear, disordered eating, bedwetting, hyper-vigilance, and regression. An unknown number of children have been maimed, sustaining life-changing injuries, with most unable to get even the most basic treatment or pain management due to the obliterated health system.

The life-saving supplies upon which families across Gaza rely have either been drip-fed or systematically denied by Israel, while, concurrently, essential services have been decimated. Despite the horrifying and ever-rising number of children killed by direct hostilities, far more are likely to be killed by starvation and disease than by the bombardment.

As catastrophic as previous months of this war have proven, any expansion of military operations by Israel in Rafah would likely be the most fatal chapter yet for children and families alike. Over half the population of Gaza, including more than 610,000 children, have been crammed into a sliver of land that cannot accommodate them nor sustain life. There is nowhere in over-crowded Rafah to shelter from bombs, and nowhere else that families can flee to.  In short, children are trapped. In the event of an escalation in Rafah, there will unavoidably be a significant increase in grave violations against children, which have already been committed at an unparalleled rate.

Those responsible must be held to account. All parties to the conflict – including the Israeli Defense Forces, the Qassam Brigades (Hamas), and Islamic Jihad – must be added to the list of perpetrators of grave violations against children in armed conflict and commit to implementing immediate actions to ensure the protection of children. Accountability is essential to acknowledge the serious wrongs done to children, to break the cycles of violence and prevent further violations, and to rebuild peaceful societies based on the rule of law.

Ali*, who works for Save the Children partner, said: “Nobody is happy anymore. My children tell me, ‘We don’t want anything from the world, we just want to go home’.” But most cannot go home, as their homes have been destroyed.[4] Without an immediate ceasefire, many children will not be alive to return to whatever remains. Gaza’s children deserve – and have the right to expect – far more from the world.

An incursion into Rafah would sign the death warrant for Gaza’s children. Member states must not ignore their individual and collective responsibility to act and protect without delay. There must be a ceasefire now. There is no alternative.”

ENDS

Note to editors

The six grave violations against children: the UN Security Council has identified six grave violations against children in situations of armed conflict: killing and maiming of children; recruitment or use of children in armed forces and groups; rape and other forms of sexual violence against children; abduction of children; attacks against schools and hospitals; and denial of humanitarian.

For further enquiries please contact:

Belinda.goldsmith@savethechildren.org  

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