Emergencies

Recent Emergencies

Children are often the most vulnerable to injury and disease in emergency situations and through our work we have ensured that children in countries affected by emergencies have had access to food, shelter, healthcare, clean water and education. Read about how Save the Children responded to meet the needs of children in extremely dangerous and difficult places.

Hurrican Stan. (Copyright: Save the Children, )
Hurricane Stan devastates Central America

Thousands of families were forced from their homes in El Salvador and Guatemala as a result of torrential rains, floods and landslides from Hurricane Stan in 2005. Save the Children worked closely with authorities to assist displaced families.

East Africa drought. Simon Ngawasa and his son Nabuin, 6 feed weever bird nests to their last remaining cow in Ngara Mara, Isiolo district of Kenya Saturday 11 March 2006. The worst drought in years is being felt by many Kenyans especially in pastoralist areas where most have lost their entire herds to hunger and lack of water making it impossible for them afford food staples, medicine or even school fees for their children. In Kenya, drought resulting from consecutive seasons of failed rains is affecting 25 districts with some 3.5 million people, (Copyright: Stephen Morrison / Save the Children, )
Hunger Relief in East Africa

In East Africa, an increasing number of children and families are at-risk of malnutrition, many are already starving. Save the Children is providing relief by facilitating livestock trading programmes as well as food and nutrition services especially for under 5s.

Ruins of Aceh. The ruins of down town Aceh, Indonesia, after the devastation caused by the tsunami. (Copyright: Save the Children, )
Boxing Day Indian Ocean Tsunami

Families were uprooted and homes destroyed as millions of peoples lives were changed on Boxing Day 2004. Save the Children was quick to respond to the crisis and as a result of our rapid response thousands of children were saved in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India.

Indonesian Earthquake. Afi, 16, (front) and Rita, 13, in the ruins of their village of Sukorejo, in the district of Klaten, one of the communities worstly hit in by the earthquake. (Copyright: Save the Children, )
Indonesian Earthquake

On the 27th May 2006 an earthquake reaching a magnitude of 6.2 struck central Java in Indonesia. The affected population totaled 2.7 million. The support provided by Save the Children ensured that after the earthquake children could continue their education in emergency schools.

Middle East in Crisis. Displaced children who are sheltering in the local school in Ain Magdalayne village, Jezzine, being given play kits distributed by Save the Children. (Copyright: Jenny Matthews / Network Photographers, )
Crisis in Middle East

Save the Children has worked in the Middle East since 1949, when health services were provided to Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. We support a wide variety of programmes in Lebanon, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Israel and Palestine aimed at improving the lives of children living in poverty.

Niger. Four-month old Salaha Chaibu sits on her mother’s lap at Bande feeding centre, waiting to be tested for malaria. (Copyright: Tugela Ridley / Save the Children, )
Food crisis in Niger

"So many people in Niger are so desperately poor that a small shock creates a humanitarian disaster" says Toby Porter, Save the Children’s Director of Emergencies. "There is no war in Niger, no rebel groups, no despots, no problems getting the aid in. It is just poverty."

Central America Earthquake. An earthquake survivor rests in a tent at a shelter in Pisco August 21, 2007. (Copyright: REUTERS/Mariana Bazo, )
Earthquake in Peru

Nearly a quarter of all structures collapsed in Ica, Peru, when an eartquake shook the costal district on 15 August 2007. Save the Children responded by distributing life-saving blankets, cold-climate tents and kitchen equipment to  families made homeless by the earthquake.

Earthquake. Girls from the Government Girls High School, in Bagh walk past destroyed classrooms . About 90 children from the school lost their lives in the earthquake of October 8th 2005. 2000 people from Bagh district died. As well as education kits and teacher training, Save the Children UK has provided the school a semi-permanent classroom. On her visit, Jasmine Whitbread, CEO of Save the Children UK, met children and their families affected by the October earthquake in Muzaffarabad and Bagh. Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan. (Copyright: Tom Pietrasik / Save the Children, )
South Asia Earthquake

More than a million school children were affected by the Pakistan earthquake in 2005. Around 8,000 schools were destroyed or damaged, Already Save the Children has built a number of temporary and semi permanent school shelters enabling children to return to education.

Sudan. he cattle place in Rumbek, Southern Sudan where Pastoralists and their children stay close to the police station for security after clashes between different factions within the Dinka tribes. Most children of pastoralists do not attend school. (Copyright: Petterik Wiggers / Save the Children, )
Sudan

Prolonged civil strife and mass exodus of people has profoundly disrupted the socio-economic fabric and livelihood of the inhabitants of Darfur. A number of livelihood intitatives including farming assistance and literacy training for women are being led by Save the Children to supoprt these communities.