Health

In Bale Zone, Oromia Region, Ethiopia, many families live in remote villages far from health posts, where poor roads make access to services even harder. With training and support from Save the Children through the Gates Foundation project, health extension worker Sofiya* is reaching zero-dose children through vaccination campaigns. Her work, supported by community volunteers and leaders, has helped families like Halema’s* ensure that even newborns, like her 6-day-old son Ali*, receive life-saving vaccines.

Children in Gaza have entered 2026 facing ongoing storms and flooding that have ripped tents and left them exposed to water-borne diseases with an urgent need for supplies to rebuild shelters, Save the Children said.

Children in Gaza are sleeping on the bare ground with no shelter, in flimsy shorts and t-shirts that are sodden with sewage water after their tents flooded in a weekend of heavy rains, putting them at risk of disease, Save the Children said

Save the Children Uganda was recognized and appreciated by the Ministry of Health and the Committee of Experts on the National Safe Motherhood Committee for its outstanding contribution to strengthening the policy environment, planning, and monitoring and evaluation of Adolescent Health and School Health programmes. This recognition further highlighted our role in supporting the implementation of the National Adolescent Health Costed Implementation Plan (ADH CIP) and in building the coordination capacity of districts heavily burdened by teenage pregnancy.

After a year of record-breaking temperatures, it is important to understand how extreme heat affects children

Junior was born with low birth weight (2400g) to a vulnerable teenage mother who soon developed mastitis, severely impacting breastfeeding and causing Junior's weight to drop to 2100g. After a community health worker's intervention led to their enrollment in a MAMI pathway at a local health center, Junior was eventually referred and admitted to Metuge District Hospital for severe acute malnutrition, receiving F-100 treatment and comprehensive care for seven days. Following discharge, he continued monitoring at a MAMI space with ongoing nutritional and breastfeeding support, while his mother participated in support sessions. The family, initially believing Junior wouldn't survive due to cultural beliefs, witnessed his full recovery, transforming his grandmother into a community health volunteer, highlighting the success of health education, community support, and nutrition interventions.

Fuel shortages in Gaza could cut off supplies of clean drinking water to about 44,000 children supported by Save the Children in a matter of days, increasing the risk of waterborne illnesses such as cholera, diarrhoea and dysentery, with these children only a small number of those impacted by fuel running out.

Nearly 1,000 people have been killed so far this year in Sudan while seeking health care or visiting loved ones in hospital

In Mt Darwin, Zimbabwe, the streets came to life with more than just the usual daily buzz. A mobile roadshow, led by the Ministry of Health and Childcare with support from Save the Children, brought entertainment and education on Cholera prevention.

Children in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Kenya will benefit from new paediatric medical equipment as a result of a child-lens investment by Save the Children Global Ventures (SCGV).

A rare tropical disease that is the leading infectious cause of blindness worldwide was halved in one of the world’s worst-affected communities due to foreign aid but is now at risk of resurgence following aid cuts, as is another tropical eye disease, Save the Children said.

The Saving Women and Pre-term babies Project (SWAP) project is improving the survival of small and sick newborns and mothers likely to deliver pre-term babies through mobile technology. The Protecting Infants Remotely by SMS (PRISMS) which is a mobile technology application is designed to streamline and standardize newborn care in low-resource settings.

Marenet*, 57, is a mother of six who has suffered from ureterovaginal prolapse (UVP) for over twelve years, a condition that began during the delivery of her last child. Marenet’s family are subsistence farmers living in a remote village in the Tigray region, an area significantly impacted by a conflict that lasted for more than three years. This conflict caused extensive devastation to the region’s health infrastructure and overall health services. The impact of the war is still visible, and recovery will require a long time.To address these problems, Save the Children launched the surge team strategy with financial assistance from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. By deploying highly skilled medical and surgical teams to remote and inaccessible facilities, local people were able to receive life-saving services. These services targeted individuals with low incomes who could not afford health care and other related expenses. Consequently, the community benefited from free health treatments.Marenet’s story highlights the transformative impact of the medical care she received, giving her hope and a renewed sense of vitality.

Azeb*, 30, recently gave birth to a healthy baby boy after receiving fertility treatment from the surge team in her hometown of Tigray. This milestone came after nine failed pregnancies due to miscarriages. Azeb had never thought she would be able to conceive and had suffered marginalization and social ostracism due to long-standing misconceptions associated with miscarriage and infertility in her community.Her baby boy, now four months old, is in good health. She brings him to the facility for his regular monthly checkups and immunizations. We met and talked with Azeb during one of her visits to the health center for her child’s follow-up appointment. During the visit, she received advice on how to care for her baby and other health messages. Her baby also received his monthly vaccines, which protect him from infectious diseases.

The Save the Children Immunisation Accelerator, backed by GSK, has selected two standout projects to improve child vaccination rates in Nigeria and Ethiopia, where millions of children remain unvaccinated.Both projects were chosen from 120 submissions and will receive $100,000 in support. These innovations aim to transform immunization outcomes and are part of a broader mission to ensure no child suffers from preventable diseases.

The mpox epidemic in the DRC is unfolding in a country already plagued by conflict, hunger and disease. Children are nearly four times more likely to die from mpox than adults, making them particularly vulnerable to this outbreak. Read the blog to learn more about the situation, our response, and how you can help.

"Since the start of the rains in June, flooding has added another layer of difficulty to delivering humanitarian aid to people in dire need"

Increased rates of acute malnutrition in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has put millions at heightened risk of contracting and dying of mpox

Hundreds of thousands of children now displaced from their homes are facing disease, hunger from crop destruction, and disruption to their education

Press release Save the Children mpox spreading South Kivu DRC children

Staff account by a humanitarian worker in Haiti who has been directly affected by the rising violence

As children in Vietnam prepare to head back to school, many face safety risks due to damaged infrastructure after floods. Save the Children.

Save the Children staff account from a physician who has dedicated his medical skills to helping children in Gaza.

Children are particularly vulnerable to the new strain of the deadly mpox virus that is spreading globally

Save the Children press release Gaza school airstrike 100 killed children

Child casualties in Ukraine surge by nearly 40% in the first half of this year, in nearly 900 days of war. Save the Children press release

Massive landslides in India’s southwestern Kerala state have killed more than 385 people. More than 1,580 children displaced. Save the Children.

Extreme weather events forced at least 38,000 people from their homes in Afghanistan in the first six month of this year

Harrowing testimony by a paediatric nurse on her deployment to Gaza to support our medical and humanitarian efforts.

Save the Children press release on hunger and severe acute malnutrition in Sudan

Hundreds of children living in the remote Gofa zone of Southern Ethiopia remain at risk of death and injury from rain-induced disasters

Classes across the Philippines were suspended following a powerful typhoon that swept across the country.

Thousands of children in Pakistan at risk of deadly disease as monsoon rains start

Floods from heavy rains have killed about 40 people in eastern Afghanistan and about 1,500 children have lost their homes Save the Children said.

South Sudan on the brink of famine as it braces for worst floods in 60 years

An estimated 50,000 babies have been born in Gaza over nine months of conflict, with many women giving birth in traumatic, unhygienic and undignified conditions

Hundreds of thousands of children in Gaza and Sudan are at risk of famine. But what does that mean exactly?

Conflict in Sudan is driving hunger to record levels

Devastating new figures reveal Gaza’s child hunger catastrophe

The number of children killed, injured or facing other grave violations in Sudan soared six-fold in 2023 to a record high

Gaza's missing children: Over 20,000 children estimated to be lost, disappeared, detained, buried under the rubble or in mass graves

Save the Children press release immunisations Gavi conference

Yemen: Principals of affected United Nations Entities and International Non-Governmental Organizations demand the immediate release of detained perso

India’s heatwave shows no sign of abating as the country’s meteorological department warned of extreme heat.

A volcanic eruption in the Philippines has forced at least 684 schools to close.

As Thai children head back to school following a long summer break, a lack of funding has hindered many displaced children from Myanmar.

While monsoon rains are normal in Sri Lanka, impacts such as flooding are now more frequent and severe due to climate change

Save the Children’s analysis showed that more than 33 million children and 39 million adults live in both the “crisis” phase 3 of hunger as determined by the IPC

Attacks on ‘humanitarian areas’ highlight fallacy of the claim that civilians are safe anywhere in Gaza

Save the Children press release on response to landslide in Papua New Guinea

Save the Children has sent four emergency response teams to support in the recovery

Afghanistan: Nearly three in ten children forecast to experience crisis levels of hunger in 2024, new figures show.

An anguished account by a young Palestinian that is stranded in Cairo whilst his family is enduring the war in Gaza.

More than half of Pakistan’s school age children – about 26 million - will be locked out of classrooms for a week due to an ongoing heat wave.

Afghanistan floods: ‘There is no life left for us here. You want to put your head in your hands and shout and cry.’

Around 1.4 million children in Burkina Faso are facing a hunger crisis.

Testimony by Jean-Claude a pediatric nurse in DRC who is at the forefront of the hunger crisis and is treating malnourished children daily.

A year of conflict has left Sudan’s immunisation safety net frayed. Gavi and Save the Children are helping vaccinators patch it back up.

A protracted drought across large swathes of the Philippines is impacting over 900,000 families

Testimony by Sacha Myers on her visit to the Gaza Strip where she saw the real horrors of this war and its impact on children.

On 6 May, Israeli forces ordered thousands of people to flee parts of Rafah. Over a million - 600,000 children - are at risk of forced displacement.

Nearly one in five children (17.9%) born this year will enter the world without a doctor, midwife or nurse present, putting them and their mothers in danger

Armed groups have trapped more than 140,000 people, including over 80,000 children, in the town of Menaka in Mali.

Bangladesh has ordered the closure of all primary and secondary schools for another week following country-wide closures brought about by a heatwave.

It will take another 60 years to meet a global target to eliminate of all forms of corporal punishment unless the current rate of progress is sped up.

Despite immunisation being one of the most effective public health interventions, millions of children still remain unvaccinated.

About 73,900 households in Vietnam’s Mekong River Delta have limited access to fresh water following a weeks-long heatwave. Save the Children.

Save the Children press release on Sudan raising one fifth of funds raised for Notre Dame cathedral

As Thailand gears up to celebrate world’s biggest water fight, extreme weather risks dampening children’s joy.

During one year of war in Sudan more than 10 million children have been in an active warzone

Save the Children is providing healthcare support to children and families in Sudan thanks to the work of brave local healthcare workers.

A month-by-month account of Bisan's experiences of 6 months of war in Gaza.

This year, with 70 elections, it's evident that health is intricately tied to political choices. How can leaders realise the right to health for all?

Words by Pierre Joseph*, 34, a Save the Children advisor in Haiti on the situation he and his family are living whilst under siege.

Extreme heat in the Philippines has forced hundreds of schools to shut as its government warns temperatures could soar further this week.

Nine children killed by a single landmine in Afghanistan The children - five boys and four girls, all aged between 5 and 10 - found the decades old mi

Mongolia’s extreme winter conditions, or Dzud, shows no sign of abating and Mongolia has lost 5.2 million livestock.

About five million people in Haiti, including one in two children, are now facing acute levels of food insecurity.

Over half of the world’s people living in poverty are children. Expanding child-centered social protection programs is proven to reduce child poverty.

Cholera kills 54 people in Somalia with cases rising – Save the Children

More than 8,700 people including 3,700 children from indigenous and rural communities affected Classrooms and health centers submerged under water, crop losses are exacerbating hunger, and lack of water has led to disease outbreaks.

About 250 unaccompanied Rohingya children arrived in Indonesia in the last three months of 2023.

A boat carrying Rohingya refugees reportedly capsized off the coast of Kuala Bubon in Indonesia.

Save the Children press release on hunger in Gaza showing children and families facing imminent famine

Five months into this war, conditions to provide food to children in Gaza are getting worse. This Ramadan in Gaza, things are the wrong way round.

Thirteen years of conflict in Syria have led to fear, loss and mass displacement for children. What does the future look like for Syria?

More than one million children in Haiti – a quarter of the nation’s children – are living in areas controlled or under the influence of armed groups.

Flooding and landslides on the Indonesian island of Sumatra have affected about 15,500 children and 40,000 families.

Urgent, life-saving funding is needed to respond to the massive and worsening crisis in Sudan

The devastating impact of the climate crisis on children in Colombia’s largest indigenous group, the Wayuu, is illustrated in this powerful series of

Five months of violence, displacement, starvation and disease on top of nearly 17 years of a blockade have caused relentless mental harm to children in Gaza

Save the Children press release on alternative aid delivery including ports and airdrops

Save the Children statement on people killed in Gaza queuing for food aid

Press release on hunger in Gaza as reports emerge of children dying from lack of food

Constant bombardments, mines, and drone attacks have left a generation traumatised, displaced and fearful for their lives

A crisis. A horror. A tragedy. All words we’ve heard many times over to describe the situation in Gaza. All woefully insufficient.

Flooding in Demak and Grobogan regencies of Central Java has displaced about 11,500 people, including at least 1,100 children.

About 97,000 families have been forced to flee their homes due to landslides and flooding in the Philippines’ southern region of Mindanao.

South Sudan: At least 75 people killed including three children as violence surges in Abyei

Rohingya refugee children who have been forced to flee Bangladesh and Myanmar are now asking authorities in Indonesia for more freedom to leave.

Imagine it this way...you haven't even been born yet. Your mother is so stressed she goes into premature labour.

They may not always make the news, but these crises impact millions of people, including vulnerable children, around the world

Another brutally cold winter is underway in Mongolia, a country at the frontline of the global climate crisis.

Olga Shults, Save the Children’s Food Security and Livelihoods manager, Ukraine, explains the hard choices families have to make when forced to flee.

Severe climate disasters, violent conflicts, and deepening inequalities and economic shocks are shattering the lives of children

Denying children in Gaza access to food will have lifelong consequences for Palestinian children with rising numbers at risk of malnutrition

Statement in response to the UN Security Council’s vote to pass a resolution on aid delivery in Gaza

About 893,000 children are likely to now be internally displaced in Gaza, meaning an average of nearly 12,000 children a day have been forced to flee

The Government of Israel’s military actions are pushing children and families in Gaza towards famine, Save the Children warned today

Save the Children press release on fighting in Al Jazira state, Sudan

How Save the Children supported a child in Sudan have a surgery and recover amidst the ongoing conflict and collapsed healthcare system.

Press release on babies born in Sudan with no healthcare in next three months from Save the Children

Save the Children press release on IPC figures on hunger in Afghanistan

STAFF ACCOUNT: “There is tension and fear in the air, that we are waiting, waiting for something worse to happen.

"WE ARE FAILING THE CHILDREN OF GAZA”: CONDITIONS TO PROVIDE HUMANITARIAN ASSISTANCE TO CHILDREN IN GAZA ARE NOT MET

‘Nowhere to go’ - Over one million children in Gaza at risk of being killed

A new cholera outbreak in Ethiopia’s Somali region is exacerbating suffering for thousands of children and families recently displaced by floods.

Hospital workers selflessly trying to save lives in challenging circumstances are becoming targets themselves

GAZA: Repeated diplomatic failures continue to cost thousands of children’s lives says Save the Children ahead of UN Security Council meeting

Sudan: About 7,600 children fleeing homes daily in world’s largest child displacement crisis