COVID-19 is a global Pandemic, that threatens children’s rights around the world, exposing them to potential risks and disrupting their lives. While current trends indicate that children are not at higher risk for COVID-19, we know that infectious disease outbreaks can seriously impact children’s wellbeing – both psychological and physical. Children may be separated from their parents during quarantine or admission to hospital, which can make them very vulnerable. They might also have reduced access to essential health services, and school closures will interrupt their learning and leave them isolated.
Right now we are working with the World Health Organisation and other partners on preparedness activities across many of our country offices. Our teams are also doing everything they can to keep children and our staff safe and healthy in our programmes. Wherever we work – in schools, refugee camps, or health clinics – our priority is to ensure the safety of children, and we’ll modify our programmes to meet the changing nature of the outbreak.
As of the end of September 2020, we have reached 16.4m people, of which 7.7m are children. Support includes clean water access, acute malnutrition treatment, health worker support/training, curriculum support, distance learning support, cash and/or voucher transfers, child protection services (scroll down to FAQs section for full statistics).
This page was last updated on 15th January 2021.
Here are some ideas to help children adjust to school closure