Category: Save The Children

Source: Save The Children

Source: Save The Children

Credit: Save the Children

DELHI, 18 July 2024 – A drone that can deliver food, water, and medical supplies to hard-to-reach communities in Himachal Pradesh, northern India, was handed over to local government officials by Save the Children this month in a bid to respond to disasters quicker and more effectively.

Many communities in Himachal Pradesh are still reeling from last year’s floods and landslides which affected around 125,000 people, including over 36,000 children, and resulted in more than 400 deaths.

In a first for the child right’s organisation, Save the Children (known as Bal Raksha Bharat in India) began testing the drone in the Chamba district in Himachal Pradesh as part of its flood response, and found it would be an effective way to get much needed supplies to remote communities.

The state-of-the-art drone has now been handed over to the State’s Disaster Management Authority (SDMA), who will use it to continue to deliver life-saving supplies to communities affected by disasters.

Naveen Shukla, Assistant Manager Humanitarian and Disaster Risk Reduction, Bal Raksha Bharat (Save the Children in India) said:

“We tested the drone in presence of Deputy Commissioner Chamba, Himachal Pradesh and found it can travel over 12 miles (19.3 kms) from its launch site, carrying up to 20 kgs (44 lbs)  of essential supplies. The drone can also fly in automated mode, which is important in case there’s a loss of the GPS and satellite signals during a disaster. 

“It will be able to reach people in remote and cut-off areas of high mountainous, which become even harder to reach following any disaster situation due to blocked roads. This drone will likely save lives by providing lifesaving essential supplies in the current monsoon season and beyond.”

This year India has already seen more erratic and extreme weather due to the climate crisis, including one of its worst heatwaves on record, and now Himachal Pradesh is experiencing above average rainfall as it enters the monsoon season which typically lasts from June to September.

Sudarshan Suchi, CEO of Bal Raksha Bharat (Save the Children in India), said:

“Supporting the government to use drones to deliver medical supplies in the aftermath of a disaster is a game-changer. It helps ensure that even the most isolated communities can receive timely medical assistance, which is vital during emergencies, and it has the potential to be replicated across India. The initiative is all the more important given that we are seeing more extreme weather as a result of the climate crisis.”

In the aftermath of flooding in 2023, Save the Children also renovated 10 health facilities, providing toilets and making electrical and structural repairs, to ensure they can continue to provide medical services. The organisation also carried out extensive awareness campaigns, equipping communities and health facility workers with disasters preparedness skills such as first aid and evacuation procedures.

About Bal Raksha Bharat (Save the Children in India) 

Save the Children has worked in India since the 1940s, setting up its first Delhi office in the early 1970s, and has been a registered Indian entity, Bal Raksha Bharat, since 2008. The organisation is dedicated to improving the lives of children through education, healthcare, and protection. With a focus on ensuring that every child, has the opportunity to thrive, the organisation works tirelessly to support marginalised children and address the root causes of child poverty and vulnerability.

Media spokespeople are available. To arrange interviews please contact Ruby Wright, Global Media Manager: ruby.wright@savethechildren.org. For out of working hours requests (BST) please contact

media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44(0)7831 650409.

Source: Save The Children

ISLAMABAD, 17 July 2024 – Thousands of children in Pakistan are at risk of deadly disease as the country braces itself for above normal monsoon rains and potential flooding that is becoming more frequent and severe due to climate change, said Save the Children.  

Almost 26,500 suspected cases of cholera, over 1.3 million cases of malaria and over 11,600 cases of dengue have already been recorded this year, according to the government’s National Institute for Health (NIH), an increase from 2023*, with cases likely to rise as Pakistan prepares for what experts say will be another particularly wet monsoon season. [1]

Two years ago, devastating floods displaced more than 8 million people and submerged large parts of the country. The country’s Disaster Management Agency has warned that displacement, damage to infrastructure and an increase in diseases linked to flooding are likely this year [2].

Children are particularly vulnerable to water and vector-borne diseases that are endemic in Pakistan with cholera and malaria among the leading killers of children in Pakistan as poor sanitation, contaminated water, overpopulation and poverty combine with the effects of climate crisis such as heavy flooding.

Malaria and dengue hit children harder due to their weaker immune systems and the fact that they tend to play outside where there is less protection against mosquitoes. Cholera meanwhile takes a heavier toll on young children, especially those under the age of 5 who are at higher risk of severe dehydration and death during cholera outbreaks.

Extreme monsoon rains in 2022 followed by Pakistan’s worst flooding on record triggered a record outbreak of cholera and malaria in the country. While this year’s rains are not expected to be as heavy as those in 2022, the UN last week warned that 3 million people in Pakistan could be affected. [3]

School closures, cases of water and vector-borne diseases and children’s particular susceptibility to extreme heat or drowning in floods demonstrate the unique impacts of the climate crisis on children.

Khuram Gondal, Save the Children’s Country Director in Pakistan, said:

“We need to see much more ambition on child-responsive climate finance from high-income countries and historical emitters that puts children’s distinct needs and vulnerabilities front and centre as when disasters like these floods strikes, it affects a child’s whole world. They must also commit to climate adaptation measures and help build the resilience of communities to climate-related shocks.”

While monsoon rains are normal in Pakistan, impacts such as flooding are now more frequent and severe due to climate change. Pakistan is among the world’s ten most vulnerable countries to climate change, while contributing less than 1% of the world’s total global carbon emissions.

Save the Children is part of the government task forces on cholera and on improving water and sanitation, which aim to efforts to strengthen surveillance, monitoring, and coordination around disease outbreaks.

Save the Children is also ready to respond to this year’s monsoon season, pre-positioning  essential items that will help with the management of diseases such as oral rehydration salts, water purification tablets, zinc supplements, cholera treatment kits, intravenous fluids and other items, in coordination with national authorities.[5]

Save the Children has been working in Pakistan since 1979 and has reached at least 14 million people, including children, through programmes in health and nutrition, education, child protection, livelihoods and through our humanitarian response programmes.

ENDS

* National diseases data by Pakistan’s NIH for every week in 2023 is unavailable or incomplete, but available data shows cases of cholera, malaria and dengue have all increased in 2024.

[1] Compiled by Save the Children from weekly Integrated Disease Surveillance and Response (IDSR) Reports by the NIH, as of 16 June 2024.

[2] http://www.ndma.gov.pk/

[3] https://www.unocha.org/publications/report/pakistan/pakistan-inter-agency-monsoon-contingency-plan-2024

[4] National Cholera Control Strategic Plan (Pakistan) 2024-2028

We have a spokesperson available.  

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

ATHENS, 17 July 2024 –More than 6,400 migrant children entered Greece this year, more than four times the number for the same period in 2023, said Save the Children, calling for greater protections for children fleeing war and hunger.  

Analysis of monthly figures from UNHCR suggest that between January and June this year, about 5,580 migrant children arrived by sea to Greek islands in the Aegean Sea, while about 830 arrived by land – a combined 400% increase compared to the 1,280 migrant children who arrived in the first half of 2023.  

About one in every four child migrants who arrived in Greece this year came without family or a legal guardian—totalling over 1,500 unaccompanied migrant children, or triple the figure from the first half of 2023.

Fileri Kyriaki, a lawyer with the Greek Council for Refugees—a Save the Children local partner that advocates for the rights of refugees and asylum seekers—works on the Greek island of Kos, which is struggling with overcrowded refugee reception facilities known as Closed Controlled Access Centres.

Fileri said children travelling to Greece often experience agony and fear, knowing that they could die on their journey.

“There are no safe and legal channels to migration. The children have to risk their lives,” she said. “[And when they get to Kos] there is a total and chronic lack of adequate medical services, while at the same time the island’s structure is also insufficient for its inhabitants. There’s no capacity to actually screen vulnerabilities or provide them with the health care they need.”

Unaccompanied and separated children face additional barriers when they reach the Closed Controlled Access Centres. Until a guardian is appointed, these children have no one to bring them clothes, shoes or even a cell phone to call home and talk to their family.

Fileri said unaccompanied children also have to spend about two to three weeks in a fenced area called a ‘safe area’ until they are transferred to a shelter for unaccompanied children.

“Imagine that when an unaccompanied child is placed in the safe area, they are still wearing the wet clothes they wore during the boat journey. There is nothing to do in the safe area, no activities at all, recreational or otherwise. They are bored, and the place feels like a prison – it’s not at all child-friendly.  It is a container with barbed wire around it. In that sense, children who travelled with their families can exit the camp, while unaccompanied children cannot,” she said.

Last year, Save the Children and the Greek Council of Refugees found that most unaccompanied children seeking safety in Greece had their asylum claims rejected, leaving them without legal papers and vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.

Now, with the European Union and its Member States approving the new Pact on Migration and Asylum – a legislative reform that will shape the region’s future migration system—earlier this year, there is concern that conditions could worsen for children. This move is expected to erode protections systems for children, potentially leading to more time in detention centres and more pushbacks at borders. 

Willy Bergogné, Save the Children Europe’s Director and EU Representative, said: 

“Children arriving alone in Greece are facing dire conditions that demand urgent attention, and the new EU Pact could make a bad situation even worse for them. Every child deserves safety and dignity upon arrival.  Yet, these children arriving in Greece are not being treated as children. It’s imperative that Greek authorities and the EU step up to provide robust guardianship, essential proper protection systems, and improved living standards. The Mediterranean also cannot continue to be a graveyard for children. Safe and accessible routes into Europe must be established to ensure their safe passage.”

Save the Children and the Greek Council for Refugees are calling on Greek authorities to ensure a dedicated focal point or guardian is assigned to every unaccompanied and separated child from their first day in the country and to fund robust child protection services to guarantee their safety and well-being.

The two organisations are also calling for the Greek authorities to improve  the living conditions at Closed Controlled Access Centres for children. This includes facilitating access to the host community and implement regular maintenance and cleaning protocols for facilities. Provision of essential recreational equipment and prompt action on hygiene concerns are crucial to mitigate health risks, such as frequent scabies outbreaks.

 Save the Children is calling on the authorities in charge of implementing the EU Pact on Migration & Asylum to prioritise the protection of children and take steps to address and minimise any risks that could harm their rights. The decisions made by national authorities regarding border procedures, child protection measures, and monitoring systems will make a major difference in the lives and wellbeing of children and families seeking safety in Europe. 

The Greek Council for Refugees is the oldest NGO for refugee rights in the country. It provides legal and psychosocial support to refugees, and also provides interpretation and educational support.

Save the Children works with refugee and migrant children inside and outside of Europe, aiming to support vulnerable children with the greatest needs.

ENDS 

Methodology 

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Source: Save The Children

BANJUL, 16 July 2024 – Child protection groups vowed on Tuesday to drive more awareness around the dangers of Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) after the Gambia rejected a bill seeking to end a ban following a campaign involving Save the Children’s partner the Child Protection Alliance.

The bill, if passed, would have overturned a 2015 ban on the harmful practice, which was one of the few legal protections for women and girls in the West African country. The Gambia has one of the highest rates of FGM in the world, faced by 73% of women and girls aged 15 to 49.

Since a debate on the reversal of the law began in March, Save the Children had supported a call to stop the proposed amendment by the Child Protection Alliance (CPA),  a group of about 50 UN agencies, bilateral institutions, INGOs, civil society organisations, youth groups,  and government departments. Their actions included taking a lead in drawing up a legal argument on behalf of civil society to maintain the law and taking part in consultations with the National Assembly on the bill’s potential impact.

The CPA also ran discussions with two influential religious leaders to raise awareness among communities and parliamentarians of the bill and led a joint public statement calling for the law to be maintained and highlighting the risks of repealing it.

Emilie Fernandes, Country Director for Save the Children in Senegal  said:

“This is a win for the Gambian girls and women. Harmful practices like FGM must never be allowed. Even now, FGM continues to rob young girls of their childhood. It’s a gross violation of the rights of girls and young women to health, protection, and bodily integrity, and should be viewed as an extreme form of violence against women and girls.

“In response to this regressive bill, Save the Children and its partners used a holistic approach to advocate against the legislative change while also working to challenge and shift social norms that sustain and perpetuate the practice.

“The Gambia must now respect its international obligations, particularly the African Union’s Maputo Protocol on Women’s Rights, which the country ratified in 2005. All organisations working on women/girls’ rights must be supported to continue their work to ensure the law is enforced at the community level.”

The Joining Forces Alliance, of which Save the Children is a member, also issued a statement in response to this bill.

Lamin Fatty,  the National Coordinator for the Child Protection Alliance, said:

“It has been 11 months of extensive work, ever since the introduction of the Private Member Bill to repeal the Women’s Amendment Act of 2015. The decision of the National Assembly to reject the Bill is a victory for women and girls in The Gambia. However, there remains a greater need to strengthen efforts towards creating more awareness around the harmful effects of FGM on women and girls, and engage more with law enforcement agencies for the effective enforcement of the law.”

Save the Children will continue to engage local communications channels and work with local influencers and also religious leaders on the ban on FGM and continue to support our partners like CPA to ensure that the law is enforced at the community level.

ENDS

For further enquiries please contact: 

Kunle Olawoyin, Regional Media Manager for West and Central Africa, Kunle.Olawoyin@savethechildren.org;

Daphnee Cook, Head of Global News, Daphnee.Cook@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

Source: Save The Children

JUBA, 10 July 2024 – South Sudan is on alert for a looming human and climate disaster in coming months with the world’s youngest country expected to suffer its worst floods in 60 years that will drive parts of the country to the brink of famine, said Save the Children.

The child rights agency is warning of a devastating large-scale hunger crisis among children in South Sudan, in response to new data released yesterday by the Famine Early Warning Systems Network [FEWS NET] which shows massive floods will contribute to a risk of famine in South Sudan from June 2024 until January 2025. 

Families in the areas expected to be worst impacted have already been battling years of conflict, hunger, rising food prices, previous floods, and, more recently, an recent influx of refugees and returnees from the 15-month conflict  raging in Sudan.

Despite a peace deal in South Sudan in 2018, the country is still facing one of the world’s most severe humanitarian crises, with about 9 million people – about 75% of the population ­– including nearly 5 million children – in need of humanitarian assistance.

Unity State, a low-lying and flood prone region in the central northern part of the country, has been listed as particularly vulnerable to famine. The last formal declaration of famine anywhere in the world was in parts of Unity State in February 2017, where nearly 80,000 people faced famine conditions and mass deaths were only averted by an effective and rapid aid response.

The predicted famine is being driven in part by a major flooding event, which is expected to exceed the floods of 2020 and 2022. Current water levels in Lake Victoria, a source of the Nile, have reached a 128-year high, with the government of South Sudan issuing a warning that water released from the lake will flood vast parts of the country in the latter part of 2024. FEWS-NET estimates that the area impacted by flooding could exceed 65,000 km² – or the equivalent of the entire land area of Sri Lanka.

Pornpun Jib Rabiltossaporn, Save the Children South Sudan Country Director, said:

“A horror scenario is unfolding in South Sudan. While floods are part of life for families in much of the country, we are seeing a situation where the floods will be so extreme, over such vast patches of land, that entire communities will be marooned from assistance. In some villages, families won’t be able to travel the distance required by boat to search for food, or an income, for months.

“With already extreme levels of hunger and malnutrition in children across South Sudan, and a massive conflict over the border forcing hundreds of thousands of people into crowded refugee camps, in all likelihood we will see children start to die from hunger-related illnesses as the flooding takes hold.  

“Save the Children is urgently finalising its flood anticipatory and response plan, prepping communities and prioritising the most vulnerable high-risk locations. However the alarm isn’t being heard widely enough. There is imminent disaster threatening communities in South Sudan. Unless there is an urgent scaling up of funding for preparation work, the upcoming floods are guaranteed to wreak havoc. We are going to see a large number of homes destroyed, roads and low-lying settlements flooded, and monumental levels of hunger.”

Across the border in Sudan, the fighting which broke out in April last year shows no signs of abating, with reports of massive casualties and extensive damage to critical infrastructure.  More than 700,000 people have crossed into South Sudan from Sudan in a bid to escape the horrific violence that continues in one of the world’s most neglected conflicts, according to the UN. Almost all have crossed through the Joda border crossing into Renk county in South Sudan which is already struggling with its own food crisis.

Besides Unity state, the flooding is projected to affect areas where many people are already vulnerable, including Jonglei, Northern Bahr el Ghazal, Upper Nile and Warrap states. People in most of these locations are already vulnerable due to multiple impacts, including previous flooding, conflict, displacement, food insecurity, and an influx of refugees and returnees conflict in Sudan.

Save the Children has worked in South Sudan since 1991. The child rights organisation provides children with access to education, healthcare and nutritional support, and families with food security and livelihoods assistance. In 2023, the organisation’s programmes reached over 1.9 million people including 1.1 million children and this year Save the Children hopes to reach 1.4 million people in South Sudan. 

Source: Save The Children

To ensure that refugees can access protection, states must guarantee the right to seek and enjoy asylum and uphold their commitments to the international refugee protection system. This obligation applies to all EU Member States under Article 18 of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. Yet, the recent and increasing attempts by the EU and its Member States to evade their asylum responsibilities by outsourcing asylum processing and refugee protection risk undermining the international protection system. The undersigned human rights and humanitarian organisations are alarmed by these developments and urge the EU and its Member States to safeguard the right to territorial asylum in Europe.

Discussions on the externalisation of asylum are not new, and have been consistently criticised, contested and rejected over the years. The European Commission itself ruled out the legal feasibility of such models in 2018, describing them as “neither desirable nor feasible”. Global protection needs are higher than ever and low and middle income countries are hosting 75% of the world’s refugees. Despite this, there has been a recent upsurge in proposals to shift the processing of asylum applications, or indeed the responsibility for providing refugee protection, to non-EU countries.

Italy, for instance, is currently seeking to process asylum applications of certain groups of asylum seekers outside of its territory, from detention in Albania – which risks leading to prolonged, automatic detention, a denial of access to fair asylum procedures with necessary procedural guarantees, and delayed disembarkation for people rescued or intercepted at sea. Others, such as Denmark and Germany, are assessing the feasibility of this type of arrangement. 15 EU Member States and some political groups have endorsed similar shortsighted measures to shift asylum processing outside EU territory and encouraged the European Commission to explore ways to facilitate this through further legislative reform, including through a watered down ‘safe third country’ concept.

These attempts must be seen in the context of parallel containment efforts that seek to stem departures and prevent the arrival of asylum seekers to EU territory through partnership agreements with third countries, with little to no attention to the human rights records of those authorities. Over the past years, the European Commission has continued bypassing public or parliamentary scrutiny and EU legislative frameworks as it concludes ever more controversial and untransparent deals with non-EU countries, throwing at them large sums of money with no genuine human rights safeguards or monitoring mechanisms, with the aim to contain and deter migration and onwards movement of refugees toward the EU at seemingly any human cost.

Human costs of externalisation

Most notably, Australia’s offshore detention scheme demonstrates how these models have created prolonged confinement and restricted freedom of movement, deeply harming both the mental and physical health of people seeking protection. Persistent human rights abuses arise as a result, including the imposition of conditions amounting to inhumane and degrading treatment, neglect, a lack of access to legal aid, lack of identification of and support for specific needs, and family separation. This should have served as a warning.

But more recent attempts – such as the UK-Rwanda asylum scheme, which is not yet in effect following the UK Supreme Court declaring it unlawful and in any event is unlikely to be operationalised at any significant scale – have already led to people being placed in detention and in a damaging legal limbo under threat of removal. Sending asylum seekers to Rwanda and other third countries breaches arrival countries’ obligations under international refugee norms, and undermines their commitment to the rule of lawAttempts to outsource asylum to third countries are a manifestation of states’ flagrant shirking of their legal responsibility for people in need of protection. Outsourcing asylum processing and protection to third countries who cannot provide effective protection or are already disproportionately hosting refugees, is inconsistent with the objective and spirit of the Refugee Convention. It also obfuscates jurisdiction and responsibility, making it more difficult for people to access justice when their rights are violated. Where extraterritorial asylum processing has been tested, it has caused immeasurable human suffering and rights violations.

The EU and Member States’ false promises of ensuring compliance with fundamental rights in the context of externalisation arrangements are no more than empty words. As the extensive track record of human rights violations in partner countries such as Libya demonstrates, the EU and Member States have no adequate tools and competencies to effectively monitor or enforce human rights standards outside of EU territory. Beyond the dire human cost, these arrangements also have a ruinous impact on the administration and cost of asylum systems, with the UK’s attempts to forcibly remove people to Rwanda being projected to cost a staggering £1.8 million per asylum seeker returned. This is not only an unjustifiable waste of public money, but also a lost opportunity to spend it in ways that would truly aid people seeking asylum by investing in fair and humane asylum systems and the communities that welcome them.

Ripple effects of evading responsibility

The political feasibility of externalisation arrangements has also been heavily contested, given third countries’ reluctance to take on responsibility for asylum seekers or refugees that Europe refuses to welcome. The outsourcing of asylum processing and refugee protection sends a dangerous signal to countries in the global South on EU countries’ refusal to uphold their responsibilities towards refugees and do their fair share. Far from showing international solidarity, the EU is attempting to further push its responsibilities onto countries who already host the majority of refugees with often far fewer resources – a policy that is not necessarily conducive to building global influence, the European Commission’s stated aim. Simultaneously, the bloc is reducing the non-migration-related support it offers partner countries, by redirecting already scarce aid to efforts to prevent migration, and spending large shares of development aid on domestic programmes. Almost 17% of EU Development Assistance Committee (DAC) members’ Official Development Assistance (ODA) is allocated to in-donor refugee costs, meaning it never leaves their territories. Trade or visa relations have also become bargaining chips in controversial deals with non-EU countries to press them to fulfil the EU’s domestic migration objectives.

This lack of commitment to responsibility sharing, international treaties and the global refugee protection system is not lost on partner countries, and risks undermining their willingness to provide protection: why would other major refugee hosting countries be incentivised to take on the EU’s responsibility for refugee protection, when the EU itself refuses to uphold the right to seek asylum on its territory? The potential ripple effect could be devastating for refugee protection globally.

Civil society organisations have been clear about their serious concerns with regards to the recently agreed reforms under the Pact on Migration and Asylum. Nonetheless, the transfer of asylum seekers outside of EU territory for asylum processing and refugee protection is not provided for in the Pact, nor within current EU law. After the EU and Member States have spent close to a decade attempting to reform the EU’s asylum system, they should now focus on implementing it with a human rights centred approach that prioritises the right to asylum per EU law and fundamental principles of international refugee law to which they remain bound. They should not, mere weeks after the reform has passed, waste further time and resources on proposals that are incompatible with European and international law.

Signatories
11.11.11
ActionAid International
Adopt a Revolution
AGDDS
AMERA International
Amnesty International
APDHA – Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía
ARCI (Associazione Ricreativa e Culturale Italiana)
Asociación de Mujeres migrantes y refugiadas Tierramatria
Asociación Elin
Asociación Rumiñahui
Bedsteforældre for Asyl
Brot fuer die Welt
Caleidoscopia
Caritas Europa
Casa do Brasil de Lisboa
CCFD-Terre Solidaire
CEAR
Centre for Peace Studies
Christian Council of Norway
Churches’ Commission for Migrants in Europe, CCME
Ciré asbl
CNCD-11.11.11
Commission on Migration of the European Baptist Federation
CONVIVE – Fundación Cepaim
CRLDHT
Danish Refugee Council
Danish United Nations Association / FN-forbundet
DIGNITY
Dutch Council for Refugees
Ellebæk Contact Network
EuroMed Rights
Europe Cares eV.
European Council on Refugees and Exiles (ECRE)
European Evangelical Alliance (EEA)
European Network on Statelessness
Federation of Protestant Churches in Italy (FCEI)
Finnish Refugee Advice Centre
Finnish Refugee Council
Foundation for the Promotion of Rights, Algeria
Fundación Alboan
Fundacja Inicjatywa Dom Otwarty
Fundacja Right to Protection
Geloof & Samenleving
Greek Council for Refugees (GCR)
HIAS Europe
Human Rights Legal Project

Human Rights Watch
I Have Rights
International Rescue Committee
Irídia-Center for the Defense of Human Rights
iuventa-crew
JRS Europe
Justice & Peace Netherlands
La Cimade
LeaveNoOneBehind
LGBT Asylum
Ligue des droits humains Belgique
Lysfest for Humanisme
Médecins du Monde International Network
Migration Consortium
Migration Policy Group
Mission Lifeline International.e.V.
Movimiento por la Paz, MPDL
Novact
Ocalenie Foundation
Oxfam
Platform for International Cooperation on Undocumented Migrants – PICUM
Polish Migration Forum
Polska Akcja Humanitarna
PRO ASYL
r42-SailAndRescue
RECOSOL – Rete delle Comunità Solidali
RED ACOGE
Refugees International
Refugee Legal Support (RLS)
Refugees Welcome
RESQSHIP e.V.
Salud por Derecho
Save the Children
Sea-Watch
Seebrücke
Servicio Jesuita a Migrantes España – SJM
Små Broer
SOLIDAR
Solidarity with Kærshovedgård
SOS Humanity
SOS Racism Denmark
Statewatch
Stowarzyszenie Egala / Egala Association
Svenska Kyrkan (Church of Sweden)
United Against Inhumanity
Vluchtelingenwerk Vlaanderen
Vores Asylbørn
Zusammenland gUG

Source: Save The Children

Credit: Save the Children Ambassador Sir Mo Farah meets Aisha* and her malnourished son Hassan*

• ‘Will my child eat today? Will they even have any water?’ A mother’s plea to Farah
• Olympic champion’s ‘awe’ at battles for survival after 43,000 deaths
• Multimedia content can be downloaded here

HARGEISA, 9 July 2024 – On a journey back to his birthplace, Save the Children ambassador Sir Mo Farah said it was heartbreaking to witness the devastating impact climate change is having on driving up child malnutrition rates in Somaliland. Farah also saw first-hand the vital care that is giving hope to families fighting for their children’s lives.  

The four-time Olympic gold medallist visited Gabiley in Somaliland where he spent his early years, meeting mothers and their children who were receiving treatment at a health centre run by Save the Children. 

There, mothers told him heart-wrenching stories of how recurring droughts and floods caused by climate change had made it difficult to feed their families. This has resulted in dangerously deteriorating health with nearly seven million people – or about 40% of the population – in need of humanitarian assistance.  

At a hospital in Gabiley, Farah, 41, met mothers with severely malnourished children who had travelled long distances to seek treatment. The mothers told Farah that these journeys were tough, with many forced to leave some of their children behind in order to secure care for others.  

Farah said: 

“It’s absolutely heartbreaking to see children in these conditions through no fault of their own. I can’t imagine having to leave any of my children behind to find treatment for another one – it’s an impossible choice. I’m in awe of the strength and determination of these mothers who will do anything for their children in such difficult circumstances.” 

Somalia is at the forefront of the climate crisis. Ranked as the second most vulnerable country to climate change, it has experienced back-to-back crises of increased droughts then flooding over the past few years.  

Prolonged droughts have destroyed crops and livestock, causing extreme food insecurity which, combined with conflict, has forced about 3.8 million people from their homes.   

Five consecutive failed rainy seasons have left four million people in Somalia facing acute food insecurity and almost two million children at risk of acute malnutrition. In 2022, 43,000 excess deaths are estimated to have occurred in Somalia because of the drought – half of which are likely to have been children under five.  

More recently, heavy rains and flash floods have affected 226,000 people in Somalia, two thirds of them children, while thousands of families have lost their livelihoods. 

In a village similar to the one Farah grew up in, he met Sabaad, a Save the Children community health worker who has become a lifeline for families and is creating lasting change for children who need it the most. Sabaad provides care for children in her village, making life-saving treatment easily accessible. Farah gained an insight into the critical nature of that treatment when he saw how she cared for a malnourished six-month-old boy, Hassan*. 

Farah, a father of four, said: 

“The work Sabaad is doing is so important. The community here love her, and I can see why. I spoke to some of the mothers Sabaad helped and they told me that without her, they don’t know if any of their children would be here today. 

“Some families shared with me the daily struggle they face to feed their children. It’s awful to hear that families haven’t eaten for days. Most of them told me they don’t know where their next meal will come from. They just want to put their children first, they’re not even thinking about themselves – they’re thinking, is my child going to eat today? Will they have clean water? Will they even have any water? One of the main reasons this is taking place is because of climate change, which seems to have only become worse over the last few years.” 

Sir Mo Farah has been a Save the Children Ambassador since January 2017. He generously donated £100,000 from the Mo Farah Foundation and helped launch Save the Children’s East Africa Food Crisis Appeal two months later, which raised more than £4.3 million. A dedicated family man of Somali heritage, he has spoken publicly about the drought and how malnutrition has affected children and families across Somalia and the region. Somaliland is a self-declared autonomous region of northwestern Somalia. 

Save the Children calls on the UK government and other high-income countries to take this opportunity to increase their climate funding for lower-income countries like Somalia which are bearing the burden of a crisis they did not create. The charity also urges donors to ensure that services preventing and treating malnutrition are well-funded. 

A UN appeal for US$1.6 billion for Somalia in 2024 is just 20% funded. 

Save the Children has worked in Somalia for more than 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. 

To help create a lasting change for children impacted by the climate crisis like those in East Africa, you can donate to Save the Children’s Emergency Fund here.  

 
ENDS  

NOTES TO EDITORS:   

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Source: Save The Children

GAZA, 8 July 2024 – Some women in Gaza are self-inducing labour to avoid giving birth on the move while others are scared to seek vital prenatal care because of fears of bombing and some have lost their lives due to a lack of access to doctors, Save the Children said.

An estimated 50,000 babies have been born in Gaza over nine months of conflict, with many women giving birth in traumatic, unhygienic and undignified conditions without access to basic services [1]. 

Women are facing significant challenges throughout their pregnancies, including a lack of food and clean water, frequent displacement, the traumatic loss of loved ones, and the fear of injury or death. One mother reported to Save the Children that she had not eaten meat for five months of her pregnancy and lost weight in the final months before giving birth. 

Save the Children staff have been supporting pregnant women, newborns, and families at its primary health care centre in Deir Al-Balah in central Gaza since May, and have reported horrifying conditions for women giving birth and newborns struggling to survive their first precarious weeks. 

Power blackouts pose extreme risks to critically ill babies, including those in incubators.  

Dr Raghda, a doctor of obstetrics and gynaecology, working for Save the Children in April, said:

“[I was told] we had a pregnant patient, so I immediately examined her and saw she was almost full term. When she was brought into the hospital, she had a weak pulse. Two minutes before I arrived, she’d had a heart attack. We decided to do a c-section to try and save the baby and the mother. I only had gloves, an antiseptic wipe and a knife. The baby was a girl and she was about 33 weeks.

“The mother was a nurse and used to work in Al Shifa hospital. Her bowel was outside of her body and her abdomen was full of blood. She didn’t survive.”

Sharifa Khan, a midwife with Save the Children’s Emergency Health Unit, said in June:

“We’ve seen the continuous stress and misery taking a toll on women, with some making drastic choices such as self-inducing labour using medication out of fear they might lose their babies if they have to flee again for survival. 

“We had one woman who was rushed to the Save the Children supported maternity unit with serious obstetric complications after self-medicating before term. The medication caused her uterus to overstretch and rupture, leading to severe bleeding and a distressed foetus. While the team was able to manage the case, had the mother been delayed by just a few minutes in reaching the maternity unit, the baby’s life could have been lost or the baby could have been born with disabilities due to prolonged lack of circulation. The woman might have lost her life too.

“We had another case of a mother who delivered her child safely and was discharged the following day. However she was back three days later when her baby was lethargic, had a high temperature, was refusing to breastfeed, and had a swollen umbilical cord that was discharging pus. This condition is only common in places with poor hygiene and a lack of clean water. It can be life threatening if untreated as the infection can spread to the bloodstream. Unfortunately, this is not an isolated case.”

With the decimation of Gaza’s healthcare system and significant restrictions on the work of aid agencies, pregnant women and new mothers have not had access to the basic health and nutrition requirements as per international standards, said Save the Children. This has caused severe mental and physical harm to many of the mothers and their babies, with some taking extreme measures to try to protect their unborn children.

Rachel Cummings, Save the Children’s Team Leader in Gaza, said:

“The Gaza we see today is no place for a child to be born. We know that prolonged exposure to stress and trauma, coupled with substandard medical facilities, can lead to premature labour and death of newborns.

“It’s an immeasurable political failure that this war has ground on for nine months – the same time it has taken for a mother to survive a full-term pregnancy, or for a baby to learn to crawl. Any woman who has become pregnant during this time will have only known fear, trauma, deprivation, and displacement. Any mother who has given birth will have done so lacking the critical support all women need to deliver safely. And any baby born – who manages to survive these conditions – will only have known war.

“We call for an immediate and definitive ceasefire as the only way to save lives in Gaza and end the relentless, serious violations of children’s rights. There is no alternative.”

Save the Children has been providing essential services and support to Palestinian children since 1953, and are currently working around the clock to provide support to families in Gaza. Save the Children is operating health and nutrition programmes in Gaza, including providing maternal and newborn care, supporting the delivery of babies, training healthcare workers, screening children and adults for malnutrition, and supporting mothers with feeding infants and young children in emergencies.  However, the basic conditions to reach families need to be established by the government of Israel by lifting the siege and facilitating unimpeded humanitarian access across the Gaza Strip and for all parties to halt hostilities.

NOTES: 

• On 13 October 2024, the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) estimated there were 50,000 pregnant women in Gaza. Since that time, they have reported a monthly birth rate of 5,522 babies in Gaza, including most recently in May, figures which represent both babies born alive and those which may have passed away prior to birth or died due to birth complications.