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Dalia* is a 9-year-old girl who survived a life-threatening shrapnel wound to her skull. Initially, doctors had told her parents that her chances of survival are slim and if she did survive, she’ll likely to be paralysed. Despite her condition, her parents say that her ability to walk and talk and move independently has led to her being deemed a low priority for medical evacuation. Dalia* lives in a cramped tent with her three siblings and parents. They are struggling with food insecurity, which has worsened by the ongoing aid blockade. Dalia* has been attending Save the Children’s education programme. Her parents say that she has benefited from taking part because it gives her and her siblings a safe space, a routine, the chance to make friends, and just be children after living through 16 months of conflict. Shaima Al Obaidi/ Save the Children

Valentyna* (29) gave birth to her daughter Polina* (2) a month before full-scale war broke out in Ukraine in February 2022. She says there was so much fear and panic when the war started, especially given she had a newborn baby, so she fled to a nearby village with Polina, her husband and her son Anton* (5). They returned home after two days, but when there was a strike on their town in the Donetsk region, they moved to another area in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Valentyna and her family have since moved back to their home, but she says living so close to the frontline is scary and there are loud explosions. Children are having panic attacks and when planes fly overhead, children drop to the ground, even if it’s in the mud. Valentyna says this has just become normal life for children in her town. Polina has only ever know war in her short life. Valentyna is worried about how the war is impacting on Polina and Anton, especially Anton, who developed a severe stutter last year. She says it makes her sad to know that Anton cannot remember life before the war, and that many children in the town now play war games because this is all they know in their lives. Although she loves her community and home in the Donetsk region, Valentyna is making the difficult decision to leave Ukraine with her children ahead of the freezing winter months. Her brother and mother live in Spain, and her hope is to join them until it is safe to return home. She says there’s a risk that a missile will hit their home, and her children will freeze while waiting for emergency services. She says her life and her children’s lives are the most important thing. Save the Children provided Valentyna and her family with a winter kit including wall insultation, window sealant, a heater, bedsheets, pillows, blankets, torches and thermoses. Sacha Myers / Save the Children

Hamza*, 10 months, lives with his family of four, his mother Zalikha*, 30, father Hamid, 27, sister Amal*, 4.5, and brother Kamel*, 3.5. Hamid* used to be the breadwinner of the family where he worked in construction and could afford basic nutrition needs for his family. Sadly, Hamid had an accident two and a half years ago, where he fainted while driving his motorbike and fell off. He had a spinal injury and could no longer work, so the family lost its source of income. Ever since, Hamid and Zalikha* struggled to provide proper nutrition for their children and as a result, Hamza* got malnutrition at the age of four months old. The family was in huge despair that they thought he would die, until the neighbours told them about Save the Children’s nutrition clinic. Zalikha* took Hamza* to the clinic where he received a treatment plan and started to improve. Bara Khattab / Save the Children

Portrait of Reem*, 5 and Yara*, 6, two friends who met at a collective shelter in Mount Lebanon. Baraa Shkeir/Save the Children