A month after the devastating earthquake in Haiti that claimed over 200,000 lives, I woke on a Saturday in late February to the news of another, even larger earthquake in Chile. It was being reported as one of the biggest earthquakes ever.

This was terrible news for Chileans. For Save the Children’s emergencies team, as for much of the humanitarian community, the timing was inconvenient to say the least. Haiti, with its massive needs and vast international response had seen many agencies upscale dramatically and we were stretched to the limit. With almost 1,000 registered agencies in Haiti it has become one of the biggest emergency responses ever seen.

For a short few minutes we asked ourselves if Chile, with its robust economy and infrastructure and strong government, really needed us to intervene. But our internal position on such situations is clear and we quickly put together an assessment team. We landed in Chile a couple of days later.

In the few days that followed we did assess needs, but almost as quickly we triggered a Save the Children emergency response. We found unmet needs across all sectors with hundreds of thousands of homes destroyed, disrupted water supplies, schools and health facilities resigned to rubble. Children in particular would face many months before their lives began to resemble what they once new.

Despite the Chilean government’s reticence publically to call for international assistance, Save the Children’s intention to respond was welcomed at every level of government. They knew that, despite a certain pride in their initial response, there were huge gaps that they could not fill. These gaps were for different reasons, such as a lack of capacity, knowledge, experience, or sheer overload, but never from intent.

The gaps were also there because the government had been largely taken at its word and left to handle the quake alone. Compared to the thousand or so agencies in Haiti, Chile had a small handful of agencies, a few extra UN staff and the odd high-profile visit. On top of this, the level of input from Chilean civil society was also surprisingly light. Of the 80 children’s charities under the ACCION network, none were responding to the quake.

Save the Children, with experience drawn from earthquakes elsewhere, has established a response that looks to meet some of these gaps, not just by directly delivering aid and protecting rights but by working with the government and local charities to do so. Through a “humanitarian capacity team” we’re training government and our local partners on humanitarian minimum standards, advising on alternative approaches in sectors, such as water provision and shelter, strengthening local coordination. Where the government really doesn’t have the means, we’re filling those gaps ourselves, with such things as water storage, shelter materials and temporary places for children to play.

It’s a different model of intervention: our budget will be hundreds of thousands of pounds, rather than the tens of millions that will be spent to rebuild Haiti. But, if we manage it right, we could have a huge impact. We’ll strive to maintain the duty of care of government, while we support, advocate, and only occasionally, substitute their role as a provider of last resort.

The room was silent. The chatter of the TV crews at the back faded. Amal Abdl told us how, after several months of missing her period, she waited until no one was watching, and then went to the clinic. The doctors told her she had acute anaemia, gave her iron tablets and told her to eat spinach and dates.

“And then God gave me Muhammed.” Still holding its breath, the crowd turned to see the now three-year-old Muhammed there in the audience. “I came today to tell my story and to ask you to join our hands,” Amal Abdl said as applause erupted around the room.

Amal Abdl had previously followed her relatives’ advice that pregnant women don’t go to the doctor - women just get pregnant, that’s what they do, they told her. She followed her relatives’ advice to feed her newborn baby water and sugar - and she lost him. Thankfully for Muhammed, Amal Abdl broke with tradition and went to a clinic.  She followed their advice to check she was OK during pregnancy and to breastfeed after Muhammed was born.

Amal Abdl made her stand over six hours ago - but it’s still with us all as we pack up the office for the night and my colleagues here think about heading home to their families. Her words will probably stay with them during their (incredibly!) long commutes home across Cairo.

And as the inescapable sound of Cairo’s streets - the sheer volume of traffic, the incessant car horns - punctuates my efforts to sleep tonight, I’ll be remembering how one lady made it all quiet for just a few minutes, and told us that all it took to save her child was some understanding.

Having talked about doing “grassroots campaigning” with Save the Children groups for years, we were finally doing it.  But would it actually all come together…

We arrived at the local Co-op in Carterton (part of David Cameron’s Witney constituency) just before 9am.  Our fantastic branded campaign bus, provided by FirstGroup, arrived soon after and we set about talking to shoppers about our “Poverty Kills Childhood” election campaign and asking them to sign up to support it. 

Hard work, especially when your job generally involves sitting in an office boshing out emails  - but it’s something that every campaigner should do. 

Whilst I’m clearly not cut-out to be a face-to-face fundraiser (I’m persistent but just take the knock-backs a little too personally) the insights I gained into what people really think about child poverty, and our campaign, were really valuable. 

Luckily the sun was shining, and the people of Carterton were generally friendly and happy to take away some of our material, even if they didn’t have time to stop and chat. 

Though a few did, and the fact that 1.7 million children live in severe child poverty here in the UK, the fifth largest economy in the world, was something that many people were really concerned about.

A fair chance in life for all children, please!

We arrived at Carterton Community College at around 12pm to help Sue James and other volunteers from our Witney and Carterton branch to set up the venue. 

After a quick photo-shoot with young campaigners in front of the FirstGroup campaign bus, we got down to business. 

I kicked off the event with what (I hope…) was an inspiring call to action on our election campaign.  I decided to focus on sharing the experience of a mum from Sierra Leone, Sunkari, who lost her daughter because she didn’t have the £15 she needed to pay a doctor to treat her. 

Her story has inspired me and there didn’t seem a better way to convey that “poverty kills childhood”…

Our other Save the Children speakers – Simone Spray, Head of UK Programmes and Emily Echessa, Education Adviser drove the message home about how poverty is killing childhood.  

Simone brought valuable insights into the lives of the 1.7million children growing up in poverty in the UK – communicating the scale of the problem, whilst conveying the reality for individual children and families struggling to cope.  Emily spoke passionately about education as a route out of poverty in some of the world’s poorest countries such as DRC and South Sudan, which have also been affected by decades of conflict. 

They sent a pretty resounding message to the local candidates about ending child poverty, but how would they respond?

Tackling child poverty is a priority for all parties, right?

All the three main political parties were represented: Joe Goldberg, Labour prospective parliamentary candidate (PPC) for Witney; Simon Hoare, local Councillor and Conservative PPC for Cardiff South and Penarth (attending in place of David Cameron MP); and Richard Andrews, a local Liberal Democrat Councillor. 

We heard commitments about spending 0.7% of national income on overseas development aid and pledges to tackle child poverty from all the parties, although the messages and strategies about how they would do it differed quite sharply in some cases. 

For example, whilst one candidate said “I don’t think we are ever going to eradicate child poverty”, another defended a zero tolerance approach to child poverty. 

The Robin Hood Tax, the militarisation of aid and the introduction of a “pupil premium” to ensure better education for children living in poverty were also recurring themes.  The Chair did a brilliant job of keeping the panellists to time – strictly five minutes each and not a second more!The Q&A was lively and heated: plenty of probing questions from the audience which prompted some attempted political point-scoring from the candidates!  We finished with a great question from the audience about how much time, on a scale of 1-10 each of the parties would be dedicating to child poverty issues during the election campaign.  There was a lot of encouraging sounding intent but we’ll see in the coming weeks how much of it will be hot air…  It’s up to us to make child poverty a real issue in this election.

It was a really inspiring event – for me as much as the local volunteers who feedback how much they enjoyed it.  One in particular pointed out how it brought home how politically relevant Save the Children’s work was and that it really brought the concept of campaigning to life.  Working with our branch volunteers has made me realise that our local supporters really are the life-blood of the organisation.  I look forward to working with them in the weeks and months ahead…this is just the beginning.

Me and Sue post-event. Phew... We did it!

Tented seating arrangements on the water-front, some Kebabs with Naan, and you could be in heaven. The kids pop into your tent every little while and ask: “May we shine your shoes?” or, “Chewing gum?” And, as you dig into the feast before you, you’re wondering if they have eaten properly today.

And, speaking of strawberries, I’ve just eaten the most delicious ones! I don’t know if they are locally grown, or imported like much of the food we eat in this country. Maybe they are an extravagance.

I can’t help wondering if, in a few years to come when there is peace, there will be more tourists who can sample the joys of spring. It’s really quite stunning. Especially Paghman. 

Kabul tourists will mean more business, more growth, and more food for everyone. Then, working kids like the shoe-shine boys in Qargha, will be able to go to school and aspire for better jobs when they grow up.

The event will be attended by Chuka Umunna and Chris Nicholson, the local Labour and Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidates, who will both speak about the importance of tackling child poverty in Streatham and across the world.

In Ethiopia, I was able to visit some excellent examples of this way of working: health system strengthening which supports government systems, not undermines them. Save the Children has recruited, developed and supported Community Health Promotors, volunteers who promote awareness of health services and healthy practices in the community and support the work of the (paid) Community Health Extension Workers. They visit homes in their remote mountain community to talk about health needs, and can represent the community and advocate for their health needs.

In Amhara, we have developed a very positive partnership with the government. The extent of this is visible in the sign on the left - the main sign for the health centre in Sayint in Amhara region which carried the national flag and Save the Children’s logo. We are certainly not interfering in the job of the government which pays the salaries and the running costs of this excellent health centre.

Mr Buzayehu, the very dynamic director of the health centre, was clear that he values the way that Save the Children supports his health centre. We support it through funding and running additional services, including youth-friendly services such as “Stepping Stones” groups of young people, women and men who discuss HIV and gender, and renovating toilets and washing facilities. He and the official from the Woreda (local government) were emphatic that we support their priorities and do not impose our own.

The balance for an international NGO and the communities we work with is to help to support government systems as (the only long-term solution), as well as to encourage the government to invest more and target the poorest people better. When we get that right, it is good partnership and good advocacy.

It was very inspiring to meet the Save the Children team in Amhara Region: Mickey, Mulugeta, Bella, Brooke, Mulugeta, Alana, Mesle, Tiqist and Seifu who (together with Genet from the Addis office) really helped me understand our way of working and inspired me with their commitment and passion. I have probably spelt some names wrong but wanted to thank them all!

Yunnan is a region of mountains, lakes, and rivers, including the Salween and the Mekong, rich in flora and fauna, and home to 25 ethnic groups. A continuing drought has made this usually lush landscape look parched, but of course we are not here to study the topography.

Road to Hani village

Our week begins with some technical learning — we need to understand better the cost effective high impact interventions that make a difference to the survival and health of babies and young children.

Care of the newborn, maternal and infant nutrition, safe water and sanitation are the key topics. How to package activities and measure our success are recurring themes.

We travel with our partners from the local health bureau to a township in Mojiang County to meet with some Hani villagers who explain the challenges they face in keeping their babies healthy and accessing health care.

Many of the pregnant women and mothers of children under the age of 5 say: “We want our children to grow up healthy and we need to know how to best care for our babies, including what to feed them on and how to prevent them getting sick. We would like the health care providers to come to our homes in the days and weeks after delivery as we have to ‘do the month’.

A mother with her baby.

“My grandchild was delivered at home because he came too quickly. When we look after our daughters’ babies we give them sugar water or rice cereal when they cry”, said a grandparent of a child under the age of 5.

“The villages I serve are scattered among the mountains, the furthest is 30 kilometres away. Most people don’t read Mandarin and phoning the village leaders to ask households to bring their children for immunisations costs a lot of money. But more than 90% have medical insurance and some immunisations are free,” said the village ‘doctor’.

A number of fathers of children under the age of 5 said: “We rub alcohol into the baby’s skin when it has any problems with its breathing.”

After our meeting, we enjoy traditional Hani hospitality and all join in dancing and singing around a bonfire with the villagers. Our health staff in Yunnan know that our close collaboration with local leaders, the primary health care system and the Hani community can help to close the gap between services and the people.

As most of us head northwards again, we take with us the lessons learnt, the inspiration of the voices heard, and the determination to make the achievement of MDGs 4 and 5 a reality for EVERY ONE.

Save the Children is running a School Health Education (SHE) project in the province. Keeping the project running here is quite a feat: there is strong community opposition against female education, and there are few other NGOs working there.

The aim of the project is to improve the general health of school age children in Uruzgan and to prevent sickness, disability and accidents, which in turn will curb mortality and morbidity rates over the long-term.

Children’s groups in eight primary schools identify actions they can take to prevent disease and disability in their families. Our workers also screen the children to spot early warning signs of illness, and involve parents, teachers and government officials in the exercise.

Bibi Gulla, mother of one of the students participating in the project, says, “These messages are very important for us. It is the first time we learned about some of the diseases.  Unfortunately, women are not allowed to go to school or other places for learning.  But, our children bring these messages home to us from school.”

 “I learned first time about health and diseases. Now I know how to keep my self and my house clean. Its very important to avoid sickness,” says Javed, a young boy in the seventh grade.

Aqillah, in grade six, says, “The lessons changed my opinion about disease. Now I always keep my school and my house clean.  I’ve been telling my family members and friends who do not go to school.” Aqillah also listens to radio programmes on heath and hygiene with her friends and family. These programmes are made and aired by Save the Children.

Kamilla Malali, the only girl school’s lady teacher is also very appreciative of the project. “We collect the students in one place to learn under the teacher’s supervision. They listen to the radio together and that is an excellent way for them to learn. The children also wrote a play about the issue”.

We’re not in the centre where the recent bombs and shooting took a heavy toll. I’ve got to admit I’ve spent more than a little time working out my escape routes if we are attacked. Getting busy with my work has kept me sane. We can’t let this kind of thing stop us from delivering aid to kids in this war-torn country.

I also try and go to a happy place in my head. Like the all-women’s meeting in our office, where we talked about our careers and our lives. All of us sat with our “chadors” on, eating a meal that one of us had cooked, trying to make sense of the changing world around us. Together, women can do anything! No one actually said that at the meeting, but I left with that feeling. It was so uplifting!

My other happy place is this house, and my housemates.  Plus, my non-housemates who sneak over to use our wireless system. We cook, chat, eat, drink, chat, watch movies, chat, workout, and well, chat! It’s fun :) There are so many of us with different nationalities, backgrounds and skills, all getting different jobs done and all of us here to save the children in Afghanistan.

I heard today that a child under the age of five dies every two minutes in this country. That’s the highest child mortality rate in the world. And there are a slew of depressing indicators on top of that:

• Nearly 60% of children are malnourished and will not recover from the physical and mental damage done by not eating nutritious food early in life.
• In some rural areas, over 90% of girls are not able to go to school.
• Children have to work to support their families
• Life expectancy is just 44.

What survival tips can I help give these families? What is an Afghan child’s happy place?