THE HUNGER CRISIS

Globally at least 18.2 million children were born into hunger in 2024. That's an average of 35 children born into hunger every minute.

As conflicts escalate, the climate crisis deepens, global inequality widens, and cuts are made to aid, more and more children face the ever-growing threat of hunger.  

A rising tide of war – from Gaza to Ukraine to Sudan – is forcing families from their homes, destroying farmland and essential infrastructure, and creating tens of millions of refugees who struggle to get the food they need. A wave of floods, drought, storms and wildfires – driven by climate change – is devastating crops and livelihoods, leaving children without enough to eat. And economic turmoil is pushing the price of food beyond the reach of many families.

We have been providing life-saving nutritional support to children for over 100 years. But right now, at a time when global hunger is skyrocketing and approximately 16 million children under five are facing severe, potentially fatal, malnutrition each year, the funding for this nutrition support - the funding that could save their lives - has been cut.

Lifesaving nutrition programmes are being scaled back or shut down altogether and there are global shortages of Ready to Use Food, leaving vulnerable families with nowhere to turn.

This is a crisis on a vast scale – devastating millions of lives across dozens of countries. Famine has already been detected in Sudan and Gaza, and people in South Sudan, Haiti and Mali face extreme hunger and risk of death in the coming months unless there is urgent action.

We know we can have an incredible impact when we come together to support children in crisis.  Childhood hunger is not a lost cause. But time is running out.

Donate now, and you’ll help us deliver life-saving support to children. We can beat hunger together. 

Behind the appalling numbers are the stories of individual children. A little girl in Somalia crying from hunger pains in the night. A toddler in Afghanistan too weak to stand. A mother in Sudan cradling her newborn baby, desperate to breastfeed but unable to find the support she needs.

For just $67, you could supply a hungry child with a 6-week course of lifesaving peanut paste treatment.  

Six weeks of treatment brings a child back from critical danger, giving them the strength to take in diverse, nutritious, locally available foods. It gives a child the chance to regain their health and restart their childhood.  

For $300, you could provide a child with not just 6 weeks of nutrition supplies, but also the services to support that child to fully recover – including immunisations, water and hygiene, and support to their parent or carer.  

For more than 100 years, Save the Children has worked to keep all children safe, healthy, and learning, no matter what. We aren’t going to stop now.  

We are working tirelessly to ensure that critical services can continue for children – to ensure that children don't arrive at health clinics to find no treatment or food available.  

Please give what you can to the Children’s Emergency Fund to help us support children in crisis. Because every child deserves a chance of a happy, healthy childhood and future.

At just 18 months old, little Ereng has already overcome a life-threatening battle with malnutrition – thanks to the care of Charles, a dedicated Community Health Promoter trained by Save the Children.

Her parents, Lomanat and Daniel, walked for miles with Ereng and her big brother Mzee, 8, to reach Charles’ weekly clinic, held outside his home in their remote village. Though not a doctor by title, Charles is known as one by the community – his knowledge and compassion have saved countless lives.

Life for Ereng’s family is incredibly tough. As pastoralists, they once relied on livestock to survive. But recent droughts have devastated their herds, leaving them without income or reliable food. Mzee quietly shared that he hadn’t eaten anything that day.

Still, there is hope. On the day Ereng was discharged, her family smiled with relief and gratitude. Ereng's mother, Lomanat, told us:

I am very happy, because she is cured. She was in a very bad shape, she was malnourished.

Save the Children has worked in Kenya for 75 years. In 2024, we reached 73,800 people – including nearly 23,000 children – with nutrition services in Kenya.

Malnutrition is surging in Kenya, especially in arid regions hit by poor rainfall and disease outbreaks like measles and malaria.

On top of that, funding cuts have led to radical cost cutting at global, regional, and local levels that has had an immense negative impact on the availability of food, health, nutrition, and water and hygiene services.

This has left an estimated 800,200 children under five, children like Ereng, malnourished and in need of treatment in Kenya.
 

This crisis is a wake-up call for the world. The future of a whole generation of children is at stake. But, hunger is not a lost cause. Malnutrition is treatable and preventable. Low-cost interventions can save children’s lives.

Save the Children works in over 100 countries. This means with the help of local partners; we can deliver lifesaving nutrition programming and long-term livelihood support on a truly global scale. We’re also working to make sure governments and international institutions tackle the root causes of the hunger crisis. 

Step 1: Save the Children completes a food security analysis to forecast food availability and predict the impact of climate, economic or conflict shocks like El Niño or the conflict in Ukraine.

Step 2: Anticipatory Action means we work with local communities to identify risks and then mitigate them. This reduces the impact, reduces the cost and most importantly, saves lives.

Step 3: When hunger strikes, we are there to screen children for malnutrition, treat them with therapeutic nut pastes, provide medicines and medical care when cases have become complex, complete follow-up assessments for six months, give families food kits and provide families with cash so they can access food and other essential items.

Step 4: Then we go beyond food. We believe in long-term, sustainable solutions to food insecurity. To do this we combine local knowledge of pastoralism, agriculture and the local economy, with our expertise in health, nutrition, forecasting and anticipatory action to provide sustainable solutions to food security and hunger.

All the time: We are working with local communities, international, national and local organisations and governments to stamp out inequality and food insecurity through our policy and advocacy work.

Last year alone we reached over 70 million people with hunger-related interventions, including 37 million children thanks to your support.