Ensuring children return safely to learning
As part of the work to protect people, Volvo Cars supports emergency response and relief work to help make sure that immediate humanitarian needs are met. Furthermore, it supports longer term work to ensure education and learning remain a priority when natural disasters strike.
Sharing the same ambition to improve for safety for children, Volvo Cars and Save the Children work together to ensure children can return quickly and safely back to learning following a climate-related emergency or major natural disaster.
The partnership focuses on building resilient education systems in countries prone to natural disasters. It aims to enable safety and wellbeing through providing temporary learning spaces in emergency situations.
Linh Pham / Save the Children
Education is lifesaving for children in crisis
Today, millions of children around the world are left without an education due to climate-related emergencies or major natural disasters. We know that education is lifesaving, and without a quality basic education, children are less likely to escape the cycle of poverty and may never have the opportunity to fulfill their potential.
Research indicates that the number of crises affecting school-aged children and adolescents that require educational support has grown from an estimated 75 million in 2016 to 222 million in 2024. It is critical to help children of ALL ages return to developmentally appropriate learning as quickly as possible.
Find out how we get children back to school against the odds.
Linh Pham / Save the Children
About Volvo Cars
Volvo Cars was founded in 1927. Today, it is one of the most well-known and respected car brands in the world with sales to customers in more than 100 countries. "For life. To give people the freedom to move in a personal, sustainable and safe way." This purpose is reflected in Volvo Cars' ambition to become a fully electric car maker and in its commitment to an ongoing reduction of its carbon footprint, with the ambition to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040.
“Since we joined the programme,” says 18-year-old Sandi, “all our dreams that we held in our heart have come true. Now the water is here. Right in the back of our house.” The programme he’s talking about is called i2Change, and the stories of change that come from it are incredible. Save the Children supports communities involved to uncover problems and develop in-novative solutions by igniting the imaginations of young people, nurturing their talents and building their self-belief. In 2023, in West Sumba, Indonesia, Sandy joined i2Change and formed a team with two other 18-year-olds: Soleman and Anjar. Through workshops, they considered the challenges people in their community faced and decided to tackle the lack of water in Sandi’s village. Children and adults, in-cluding pregnant women, were getting up at 3am to walk 3km down a steep and dangerous verge to reach a water source, carrying two five litre containers each. Not only was it incredibly risky, it was impacting children’s education and physical development; growing nutritious food was off the table, and children were missing school because of exhaustion or embarrassment at not being able to wash. The plan: to build a borehole and taps right there in the village. Over the next few months, Sandi and his crew received specialist training and support – not only in how to design and implement their plan, but also in public speaking, influencing and the kinds of things that grow your confidence and make people others listen to your ideas. The consulted with the community and worked on a blueprint for the water system with support from Save the Chil-dren. By the time Sandi and his friends chose the team-name Golden Scorpio, they had really started to be-lieve they could make a difference to their community: gold symbolises courage, and a scorpion is a small and unassuming creature that delivers a powerful sting – and can have a big impact. In West Sumba, that impact is being felt in so many ways. Following the boys’ plan, Save the Children and its partners dug the borehole, installed nine taps, and covered the costs. The community now has regular access to water – but so much more too. Children have more time to study and play. It’s easier for families to irrigate their vegetable gardens. Children can wash twice a day and go to school as a result. They have time and energy to play like children should. No-one is making the difficult journey anymore. Given what they’ve accomplished and the changemaker Sandy has become, it’s hard to believe he used to keep to himself. Now, he’s an outspoken advocate for issues affecting children and young people and has more big plans for his community. “We can make Indonesia much better,” he says, proud and full of confidence. Ulet Ifansasti / Save the Children
Our Corporate Partners
Learn more about how we’re working with our current corporate partners.
