Above: In Vedarkudiyiruppu, Sri Lanka, the tsunami destroyed many buildings and livelihoods. Save the Children is employing 16 local masons and 13 labourers to build a community centre that will house the pre-school, a library, a meeting hall, toilets and a mobile clinic.
Above: In Nicaragua/Honduras, Evenor, 12, carries smuggled goods at night. He risks armed police, landmines and dangerous animals to supplement his parents’ farming income.
The difference for children
One strand of our microfinance work operates in 18 countries around the world. Almost 275,000 mothers, and approximately 1 million children, benefit from this access to financial services.
After the tsunami we set up cash-for-work programmes in 155 sites in Indonesia, providing short-term jobs for 17,817 people, clearing rubble and constructing temporary shelters.
Lobbying by the Global Campaign Against Poverty, including Save the Children, helped bring about US$18 billion debt cancellation for Nigeria.
Even short-term poverty can affect the rest of a child’s life – malnutrition in early childhood can lead to life-long learning difficulties and poor health. Save the Children tackles poverty caused by war, natural disasters, health problems and power imbalances. We aim to improve children’s immediate situations, and prevent ongoing poverty that affects families in the long term.
Save the Children seeks to eradicate poverty in a number of ways. We raise awareness of child poverty among political and economic decision-makers and lobby for policy changes, based on our research and experience of working with children. Our in-depth analysis was influential in changing World Bank policy – the organisation now ensures that countries’ poverty reduction strategies prioritise children.
In 2005 we helped put children at the heart of initiatives to influence world leaders to deliver trade justice, drop debt and secure more and better aid. Across the world, unprecedented numbers voiced the demand for economic justice. Save the Children took part in international policy meetings with world leaders and urged an end to harmful conditions on aid. Such widespread collaborative campaigning secured a commitment to US$20 billion more aid, and debt cancellation for 18 poor countries. Working with others, we will continue to exert pressure to ensure these commitments are met. We will strive to obtain debt relief for other poor countries.
We empower poor children and families, by helping them find practical and sustainable ways of lifting themselves out of poverty. Our expertise in implementing microfinance programmes is well-recognised by bodies such as the United Nations. We also work with local partners, providing access to credit and savings for poverty-stricken families in numerous countries. Many schemes encourage women to form groups and guarantee each other's loans, enabling them to operate businesses and support their children financially.
In acute or emergency situations, we provide emergency relief to vulnerable children whose basic needs are not being met. We operate cash-for-work programmes to provide incomes to poor families. Under these schemes, parents are paid for valuable clearing and reconstruction work which benefits their local community.
