REACHING EVERY LAST CHILD Impact Report 2015
A Save the Children worker at one of our safe spaces in a refugee camp in Greece holds up a child from Syria.
REACHING EVERY LAST CHILD Your support was simply inspirational throughout 2015 – a year filled with turmoil and possibility. This report is just a snapshot of some of the incredible things we achieved together. In more than 120 countries, our teams saved and rebuilt children’s lives in the midst of conflict, unrest, natural disasters, disease outbreaks and extreme poverty. In every location our aim was the same: to reach every last child. Thanks to you, we helped 17.5 million children – more than any other year in our history – working in some of the toughest places in the world to grow up. We also celebrated the launch of the United Nations Global Goals, which set world-changing targets for the next 15 years, including a commitment to end preventable child deaths. A new era in international development has begun and we’ll stay at the heart of progress, with you by our side.
Anna Pantelia/Save the Children
The world faces grave crises and huge need, but there is a tremendous opportunity for us to rise to these challenges and reach ever more of the world’s most vulnerable children.
Peter Bennett-Jones, CBE Chair of Trustees, Save the Children
9.8 MILLION
CHILDREN HELPED THROUGH OUR HEALTH AND NUTRITION PROGRAMMES IN 2015
SAVING CHILDREN’S LIVES Malnutrition is the underlying cause in almost half of these children’s deaths. Our health and nutrition teams are improving healthcare, tackling food crises and helping malnourished children survive and thrive.
Key achievements in 2015 • We helped 716,000 children escape extreme poverty. • Our No Child Born To Die campaign helped ensure the ambitious new Global Goals included commitments to healthcare for all children and the eradication of preventable diseases. • In the Democratic Republic of Congo, we trained 250 health workers and helped vaccinate 53,678 children. • We put 112 community health units in place across three counties in Kenya and launched a nutrition programme in Bangladesh.
Ivy Lahon/Save the Children
The mortality rate for children under five has halved since 1990. But 16,000 children still die every day.
At a health centre in the Democratic Republic of Congo Clarisse holds her baby son just three days after he almost died in childbirth. A Save the Children midwife saved his life after the umbilical cord became wrapped around his neck.
Save the Children was one of the first international organisations to start working on the refugee crisis in Greece. Kate O’Sullivan began work amid scenes of chaos in August 2015. Conditions in the camps didn’t meet even the most basic of humanitarian standards and unaccompanied children were arriving all the time. She was immediately involved in helping a 13-year-old Syrian boy who had arrived completely alone on the island of Kos. “He was terrified and crying uncontrollably because he wanted to go back to his family in Syria. By the end of the year, we had specialist services across the country giving unaccompanied children the help they needed. Even now, months after leaving Greece, the relief of knowing we still have teams looking out for these children stays with me.”
Anna Pantelia/Save the Children
KATE’S STORY
2.6 MILLION
CHILDREN HELPED DURING EMERGENCIES IN 2015
REACHING CHILDREN IN DANGER Wherever disaster strikes, we’re right there – providing care and support to children when they need it most. In emergency situations, our teams are on the ground delivering life-saving food, water, healthcare, protection and education. Key achievements in 2015 • We pushed EU politicians to restart the Mediterranean search-and-rescue mission to help unprecedented numbers of refugees and migrants crossing into Europe.
Anna Pantelia/Save the Children
A young boy looks out to sea from the shores of the Greek island of Lesvos.Thousands of people fleeing conflict arrived here last year, making a perilous journey across the sea in overloaded dinghies.
• In the wake of the 2015 Nepal earthquake, we distributed shelter materials and essential household items to more than 170,000 families, helping over 325,000 children. • The Yemen war was the biggest humanitarian crisis last year. We provided desperately-needed support to 77 healthcare facilities, and ran 25 mobile health teams across the country, reaching 235,000 children, 2,000 of whom were treated for malnutrition.
Jonathan Hyams/Save the Children
JOSHUA’S STORY Joshua lost his father, his little brother and almost his life to Ebola.The virus, which swept through Sierra Leone where Joshua lives, left him partially sighted, unable to walk and traumatised. Save the Children made sure he got the physical treatment he needed, but the emotional scars were harder to heal. Joshua struggled to speak after his brother died. Ebola survivors can also face stigma – some children are shunned by their community and even their family. However, with regular visits from our child protection worker, and the bags, pens, books and lunch money we gave Joshua to help him get back into school, his life is getting back on track. A year on, he’s the ‘Messi’ of his football team and top of his class. He’d like to be a bank manager in the future, he says, so he can pay his siblings’ school fees.
6.3 MILLION CHILDREN REACHED
THROUGH OUR EDUCATION PROGRAMMES IN 2015
Colin Crowley/Save the Children
cope, repaired classrooms damaged by war, and distributed teaching and study materials.
HELPING CHILDREN TO LEARN Millions of children living in the world’s poorest and most dangerous places are missing out on an education. We’re working to bring quality education to every child across the world and in the UK.
Our signature education programme in Rwanda teaches parents how to incorporate literacy into home life. Here, Sammy, seven, reads the alphabet to his mother, Josephine.
Key achievements in 2015 • In Syria, we helped keep 55 schools running in conflict areas, supporting 36,800 children to continue their education. We also trained 1,000 teachers in techniques to help children
• We opened two education centres in Amman, Jordan, that will give 1,400 Syrian refugee and local children a good-quality education. • In Egypt, we ran Arabic, English, French, maths and arts classes to help Syrian children now living in the country to start studying again. • Our Advancing the Right to Read programme in Rwanda has helped more than 150,000 children and their families to date. We continued to work in five districts, supporting pupils, parents and schools to ensure all children are able to read by the time they leave school.
In May 2015, Save the Children reunited Gatwech with his children Sammy, six, and James, three, all pictured. When he saw them again for the first time he was overwhelmed with joy.
,000 383 CHILDREN HELPED
TO STAY SAFE FROM HARM AND ABUSE
PROTECTING CHILDREN FROM HARM
Our teams keep children safe and help build environments where they can get expert care and support.
Key achievements in 2015 • We helped convince the UK government to reverse its policy and agree to resettle 20,000 Syrian refugees from mainland Europe. • In South Sudan, we helped 40,000 children and reunited families torn apart by war. • In the aftermath of the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, we provided direct support to 4,888 children affected by the disease in Sierra Leone. • Our National Standards of Care have been rolled out across most provinces of Indonesia to improve conditions for children in institutions. Since 2014, we’ve helped 6,000 children into familybased care.
Christena Dowsett/Save the Children
We do whatever it takes to protect children at risk of abuse, exploitation and neglect – whether they’re living on the streets, in refugee camps, or in institutions.
TACKLING CHILD POVERTY IN THE UK In the UK – one of the richest countries in the world – no child should be held back by poverty. We’re helping the UK’s poorest families to help their children reach their potential. Key achievements in 2015 • As part of the Read On. Get On. campaign to get every child reading well at the age of 11 by 2025, we developed reading tools for parents of young children and helped train 490 reading helpers to support 1,470 children in some of the UK’s most deprived areas. • By bringing together pupils, parents and teachers to support children’s education, our Families and Schools Together (FAST) programme helps improve children’s behaviour and their reading, writing and maths. Last year, we reached 4,814 children through 134 schools.
CHILDREN HELPED IN THE UK THROUGH OUR EDUCATION PROGRAMMES AND OUR WORK TO PROVIDE FAMILIES WITH THE BASICS THEY NEED
Elizabeth Dalziel/Save the Children
20,000
• Our Eat, Sleep, Learn, Play! programme reached 8,006 children by providing household essentials to low-income families to help create an effective home learning environment.
AMELIA’S STORY
Clare Hewitt/Save the Children
After a car crash, Amelia’s parents couldn’t afford basics for the family. When Amelia was two, she and her mum, Annie, were injured in a hit-and-run incident. Both Annie’s legs were broken and she suffered spine and hip injuries meaning she spent eight weeks in hospital. And because Amelia’s dad, Adam, had to look after his daughter during this time, he was sacked from his shop job.The following year Amelia got a new little sister, Ava. Money worries mounted up and they weren’t able to afford a highchair for Ava or a table for family meals.Thanks to the generosity of Save the Children supporters, we were able to give the family a table, chairs and a highchair. Now Adam is back at work and Amelia is in her first year of school.They use the table and chairs every day to eat together as a family.
IT’S ALL ABOUT YOU! Jamie Baker/Save the Children
Each year, our supporters find new ways to surprise us with their creativity, commitment and generosity. From feats of endurance to spectacular special events and a nationwide knitwear extravaganza, 2015 was a year of fantastic fundraising. Together, our supporters helped us raise more than £390 million – our biggest-ever total – to transform children’s lives around the world.
The biggest and best-dressed Christmas Jumper Day yet raised £11 million as part of ITV’s fundraising extravaganza,Text Santa.
Matt Crossick/Save the Children
There are so many ways you can help us save children’s lives and give them a better future. Find out all the ways to get involved at savethechildren.org.uk/get-involved
A night of disco at the Roundhouse in London, which raised £1.4 million for Save the Children.
OUR INCOME IN 2015 TOTAL INCOME: £390 MILLION
HOW WE SPENT YOUR MONEY TOTAL EXPENDITURE: £382 MILLION
Global Programmes: £302 million, 79% Fundraising: £31 million, 8% Support and other costs: £28 million, 7% Campaigning and awareness: £21 million, 6%
TOTAL CHARITABLE EXPENDITURE: £346 MILLION
Charitable activities: £249 million, 64% Donations: £109 million, 28 % Legacies: £19 million, 5% Other trading: £10 million, 2% Investment and income from sublet property: £3 million, 1%
For more detailed financial information, read our full report available at savethechildren.org.uk
Rapid-onset emergencies: £111 million, 32% Health: £88 million, 25% Education: £54 million, 16% Nutrition: £31 million, 9% Livlihoods: £26 million, 7% Campaigning and awareness: £24 million, 7% Protection: £11 million, 3% Rights: £1 million, less than 1%
Every child has the right to a future. Save the Children works in the UK and around the world to give children a healthy start in life, the chance to learn and be safe. We do whatever it takes to get children the things they need – every day and in times of crisis.
The Save the Children Fund 1 St John’s Lane London EC1M 4AR +44 (0)20 7012 6400 savethechildren.org.uk A limited company registered in England and Wales (178159) Registered charity England and Wales (213890) Scotland (SC039570)
Cover photo Refugees – most of them children – arriving in Lesvos, Greece, after a perilous journey across the Mediterranean Sea in a dinghy. Pedro Armestre/Save the Children