Emergency Fund

When a disaster strikes, we have to act fast to save children’s lives.

Conflict and natural disasters threaten millions of children’s lives and well-being every year and the humanitarian needs are greater today than ever before.

Right now, 357 million children are living in conflict zones around the world and more people than ever are being forced to flee their homes. Meanwhile, the number of natural disasters has doubled in the last 20 years.

No matter what the emergency, children always suffer the most.

The needs are huge, but so is our determination to reach every child caught up in crisis. Since we launched our Emergency Fund over ten years ago, we’ve been able to respond wherever the need is greatest, whether a crisis is making the headlines or has been largely forgotten by the world.

With your support, we can be ready to send life-saving food, shelter and medicines straight to where they are most urgently needed.

We’ve already seen countless attacks on children caught up in emergencies. But thanks to our Emergency Fund, we’ve been able to respond right away, wherever the need is greatest, to help start saving lives immediately.

After a powerful volcano erupted in Guatemala, we've been working around the clock in emergency shelters to support children’s needs and reunite them with family members.

When multiple earthquakes pounded Indonesia and deadly floods wiped out homes in southern India, we were on the ground immediately, distributing relief items and providing families with clean water and hygiene items to prevent the spread of disease. We’re helping children get back into school and setting up safe spaces for children who have lost their homes or loved ones to receive psychosocial support to help them cope.

And these are just emergencies that make the news – many don’t.

Through our Emergency Fund, we can also be there for children caught up in forgotten crises, in places like the DRC, South Sudan, Uganda and Nigeria, where conflict, displacement and disease are threatening children’s lives every day.

In 2017 alone, we reached over 8.5 million children through our emergency responses. And we won’t stop now.