Children in conflicts and emergencies

Adults often use children to fight their wars, with children forced at gunpoint to join armed groups. Or, in the chaos of conflict, children become separated from their parents and are forced to join a militia group to survive. They may work as combatants, cooks or ‘wives’, who are often brutally sexually abused.

We reunite children with their families, reintegrate them back into their communities and give them a more hopeful future.

When a natural disaster strikes – the Haiti earthquake or the 2004 Asian tsunami, for example – many children get separated from their families. Our protection teams work on the ground to identify children who are at risk, provide interim care and try to trace their families.

On the ground, in Haiti and other emergencies, we help keep children safe by providing ‘child-friendly’ spaces. Children whose lives have been turned upside down get the chance to play, learn and be with their friends.

In the world’s biggest refugee camp, in Dabaab in eastern Kenya, we helped set up child welfare committees, foster-parent groups and children’s clubs, and we train police, teachers and others in child protection.

Refugee and internally displaced children are vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation by adults in positions of power, such as  peacekeepers and local businessmen. We drew the world’s attention to the sexual abuse of children by aid workers and peacekeepers with our report, No One to Turn To, which was welcomed by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and, according to The Lancet, caused “shockwaves”.