What Does Save the Children do?

Save the Children transforms children’s lives, providing the world’s poorest families and communities with the tools they need to break the cycle of poverty, ill-health and illiteracy, giving children the best chance not only to survive, but also to thrive. Since its beginnings in Appalachia in 1932, it has expanded to over 40 countries in the developing world, as well as 19 states throughout the United States.

What has Save the Children Accomplished?

• Its innovative after-school programs in the United States have offered hope and opportunity to children living in poverty in this nation’s remote rural areas and inner cities. • Its decades of success in improving maternal and child health have led to a new $50 million global initiative to reduce the 4 million newborn deaths that occur each year. • Its pioneering concept of village schools has successfully educated thousands of children in Africa, particularly girls, who would otherwise not have gone to school. • Its microloan programs provide poor women with opportunities to earn a living and to meet their children’s basic needs. • Its model COPE program, which trains communities to care for children orphaned by AIDS and strengthens families devastated by the pandemic, has been selected for replication in several countries in Africa. • And it remains a leading relief agency in dealing with the effects of disasters such as recent earthquakes in Central America, famines and floods in Africa, and political turmoil in Indonesia, Afghanistan and the Balkans.

How Does Save the Children Work?

By partnering with communities, governments, foundations, corporations, national and international agencies and other private organizations, Save the Children designs and implements effective community-based programs that empower children and families with education, health care and income opportunities.

In countries experiencing emergencies, natural disasters, political upheaval or violence, Save the Children intervenes to meet the immediate needs of children in crisis and also works with families and communities to achieve long-term recovery, rehabilitation and self-reliance.

Support comes from more than 160,000 sponsors and contributors, as well as government and private grants. Over 80 percent of the organization’s expenditures go towards program activities.

Save the Children is a member of the International Save the Children Alliance, one of the world’s largest child-assistance organizations. With over 30 members and programs in more than 100 countries, the Alliance is recognized internationally as an effective and powerful voice for children.

What is the State of the World’s Children today?

Despite dramatic progress in children’s survival and well-being over the last decade,

• One out of every six children in the United States is still living in poverty, threatened by illiteracy, teen pregnancy, drug-abuse and violence.

• In the developing world, more than 600 million children must survive on less than $1 a day. Most do not have access to basic services such as health care, schooling, clean water and sanitation. Their conditions worsen when events beyond their control – an unexpected drought or flood, illness, a lost job, war or political unrest – place them at immediate and extreme risk.

What is Save the Children’s Vision for the Future?

To ensure that the first decade of the 21st century is one of transformational change for children everywhere, Save the Children has embarked on a Breakthroughs for Children campaign consisting of four high-impact initiatives:

America’s Forgotten Children. Despite economic growth of historic proportions, nearly 13 million children in the United States still live in poverty. In the poorest rural areas, the situation is at its most grave. Save the Children is expanding its nationally-recognized Web of Support after-school initiative to provide these children and youth with safe places, constructive activities and caring adults, while continuing to build its U.S. network of youth leaders, advocates and mentors to stimulate academic and personal growth.

Every Mother/Every Child. Seven decades of experience have demonstrated that the most effective way to ensure children’s well-being is to invest in the well-being of their mothers. Through ground-breaking programs, global advocacy and citizen mobilization, Save the Children is working to empower mothers in the developing world by providing them with access to maternal and child health care, including family planning, education, and economic opportunity.

Children in Emergencies and Crisis. Global investments in children’s well-being are severely undermined by the effects of political and social instability, war, natural disasters and HIV/AIDS. Save the Children is expanding its innovative programs that help minimize the impact of emergencies and HIV/AIDS on children, while developing effective community-based action to help prevent gender-based violence, child trafficking and recruitment of child soldiers.

Changing Lives Through Sponsorship. Sponsorship is one of the foundations upon which Save the Children builds its community education and health programs and improves individual children’s lives, both in the United States and throughout the developing world. Support from sponsors, combined with the expertise of our field staff, enables communities to help design, implement and sustain programs that create lasting change for children and their families.