Save the Children helps children in the UK and around the world stay healthy, learn and stay safe. We do it through health care, education, food, protection and campaigning, and by getting essential supplies through, even when roads are blocked or the journey is dangerous. We are part of the global Save the Children movement, which supported 37.8 million children in 92 countries in 2025.
In the UK and around the world, we help children thrive, be heard and shape a more just, equal and sustainable future.
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About how we’re making changes that last for generations to come.
WE'VE HELPED...
37.8 million children across the world get the medicine, good food and education they need
WE ARE...
Part of a global movement that supported 37.8 million children in 92 countries in 2025.
WE BELIEVE...
In a world where every child has a chance of the future they deserve. With children, for children, we change the future for good
This Christmas, there's one delivery that matters more than any.
Behind every delivery is a team finding a way through. This is how we get help to children by bus, plane, truck, donkey, van and boat.
- Ukraine, by bus. School kits reach children learning in air-raid shelters, even after a drone attack hit the warehouse where they were stored.
- South Sudan, by plane. Planes carry medicine and peanut paste to mobile clinics when the roads are dangerous or blocked.
- Nepal, by truck. After the floods, trucks carried shelter, hygiene and activity kits to families who had lost everything.
- Somalia, by donkey. Health teams carry vaccines on donkeys and on foot when the road ends.
- Scotland, by van. A baby bank we support delivers cots, prams and nappies to families across Edinburgh who can't collect them.
- Bangladesh, by boat. A maternity boat brings midwives and supplies to river communities and doubles as an ambulance in an emergency.
This Christmas, make one more delivery that matters.
Maternal and newborn health
No one should have to give birth alone and risk losing their baby or their life.
From training midwives through to setting up Emergency Health Units, we work to enable safe birth.
It's the very first of many ways that we help to create lasting change for and with children.
Tima*, pregnant during the war in Gaza, feared for her baby’s safety. Living in a tent with limited access to clean water, she gave birth to baby Lana*—the very first baby born at Save the Children’s new maternity unit in Gaza. Days later, Lana developed sepsis, but thanks to swift treatment from our Emergency Health Unit, she made a full recovery.
Journeys like Tima's are taking place all over the world to try and reach more women in some of the most dangerous places to give birth.
In Gaibandha, Bangladesh, families on river sandbanks can be cut off from health care, and in 2024 around a third of mothers in the district gave birth at home, where complications can be deadly.
Our Mamota project funds the Mamotar Tori, a boat that carries midwives and supplies to river communities and can take a mother to hospital in an emergency.
When Khaleda* needed urgent help in labour, it got her to hospital within half an hour.
Education
Every child has the right to learn.
‘It's changed my whole life.’
Education offers hope to kids whose worlds have turned upside down. And it’s a world of possibility for girls like Ghinwa who'd otherwise be selling packets of tissues at a busy Beirut junction to support her familiy.
Millions of children never see inside a classroom. Others drop out due to overcrowded classes, conflict, or simply because they're a girl.
That’s why we’re working in the UK and around the world to help children keep learning, making friends, and building their futures.
In Ukraine, one in three children cannot attend school in person because of damaged schools and air-raid alerts.
Our teams deliver education kits by bus to children learning in shelters, like 10-year-old Yan*, who received his backpack in an underground classroom in Dnipro.
Reuniting families
No child should be separated from their family through conflict or climate change.
Our family tracing teams work tirelessly all over the world to reunite children, parents and siblings, for a lifetime of belonging.
Working with partners, we've reunited a record 7,000 children with their families in South Sudan. Families like Domaac's, who we helped to reunite after four years apart.
This is life-changing for the children who can now spend the rest of their lives back with their families after having been separated by conflict.
Food
Every child should have good food to fuel their imagination
You’ve heard it before. The story of a baby without enough to eat. You don’t need me to tell you children going hungry is unacceptable.
The good news? That number's steadily fallen over the last few decades. Because we know how to get children the food they need.
Nine-year-old Tomas* lives on a farm in Guatemala with his mum Rebeca*, who grows everything from avocados to potatoes. Rebeca works with Save the Children to supply nutritious food to local schools—feeding over 1,500 children in her community.
“When I eat well at school, it means I am more creative,” says Tomas, who dreams of being a maths genius.
Globally, we’re helping children stay fed. And predicting food crises so governments can act sooner. And working on innovative solutions to stop hunger from getting a foothold in children's lives.
In South Sudan, after three years of drought and failed harvests, baby Lopit* arrived at one of our mobile clinics with malnutrition, malaria and pneumonia.
Planes bring the medicine and fortified peanut paste that helped him recover.
Medicine
Every child should have medicine when they're sick
When pneumonia struck, Hafsat* held an oxygen mask to her baby’s face night after night. Saratou* was struggling to breathe. Hafsat didn’t sleep—she just held her hand and cried.
At home, Saratou’s sister Amina*, 14, waited anxiously. “I love her because of the way she smiles,” she said. “I’m not always happy now, because I can’t see her.”
Thanks to our INSPIRING programme with GSK, the hospital had oxygen and trained staff ready to treat pneumonia. Slowly, Saratou began to recover—and was soon back home with her family.
Since 1990, child mortality has almost halved. But there's a danger we're leaving kids behind – because of poverty, ethnicity, or gender.
Children should never die from preventable causes. We're determined to change this and pressuring governments globally.
Every day, with our partners, we’re saving lives globally.
Somalia has one of the world's highest numbers of children missing routine immunisation.
In Puntland, our health teams visit remote communities every two weeks by ambulance, on foot and by donkey, carrying vaccines in cold boxes to keep them safe.
In 2025 the programme reached over 135,000 children. More than 43,000 had their first vaccination and 26,000 were treated for other life-threatening illnesses.
Closer to home: a safe start for babies in the UK
Asia, 22, is a full-time student and young mum to 8-week-old Autumn. She started as a volunteer at Pregnancy Counselling & Care baby bank (PCCS), Edinburgh, during her pregnancy, and then also became a recipient. She and partner Reece were photographed there in July 2026. “It is life-changing even just for the littlest of things. Everything that we've been given has made our lives easier.” - Asia Emily Macinnes
Across the UK, more than 400 baby banks give families the cots, prams, clothes and nappies they can't afford. Save the Children is a founding member of the Baby Bank Alliance, which supports them with funding, goods, training and advocacy.
In Edinburgh, the baby bank we support, Pregnancy Counselling and Care Services, also delivers by van, so families without a car still get what they need.
In 2026, it supported 327 families, an increase of families supported, up 52% on the year before.
Read why it happens here too.
Campaigning
Every child deserves the chance to thrive
Sometimes one income doesn't stretch far enough, and the rules of the system make it harder for families who are already struggling. That's why we campaign - not just to help individual children, but to change the policies that hold millions of them back.
In December 2025, after years of campaigning alongside families with lived experience of poverty, we helped secure one of the biggest breakthroughs for children in a generation: the abolition of the two-child benefit cap. This single policy change is expected to lift 450,000 children out of poverty and improve the lives of an estimated 1.6 million people.
Every child deserves the chance to explore a world of possibilities. But often, rules and systems get in the way. Children face barriers that aren't just bad luck - they're a design of a system. That could mean children can't go to school because they're a girl. Or suffer from diseases because they can't access healthcare.
We campaign for these children.
Policy and Practice
Discover our key priorities for each topic, reports and statistics of our impact, our latest blogs, and the experts behind the research.
Find out more about our practice teams, the work they do and their most recent publications.
Other ways we help children
We respond to emergencies around the world. We give parents the tools to support early learning and offer advice on how to talk to kids about hard things.
When disaster strikes, speed matters. After the floods in Nepal, trucks were on the road within hours carrying shelter, hygiene and activity kits to families who had lost everything.
*Names changed to protect identities
Save the Children exists to help every child get the future they deserve.
In the UK and around the world, we make sure children stay safe, healthy and keep learning, so they can become who they want to be.
Decades of hard-won progress is now under serious pressure. Conflict, climate change and the impact of global aid cuts are putting children at extreme risk.
If we don’t act now, more children will die unnecessarily, go hungry, miss out on school – and never get the chance to reach their potential.
The next five years are critical to rebuild a world fit for children. A world where all children are fed, learning and treated fairly. And every child has a chance of the future they deserve.
That’s why we’re right there with children as they start to take that future into their own hands. As well as providing life-saving, short-term help, together with children we push for and create deep-rooted change that lasts a lifetime.
Together there is hope. Together we power possible.
That’s what our work is all about.
For a century, we’ve stood up for children’s rights and made sure their voices are heard. Our co-founder, Eglantyne Jebb, wrote the first international treaty on the rights of every child. We’ve been speaking out on the big issues that affect children ever since.
Some of the UK’s biggest policy breakthroughs for children, like free school meals and nursery schools, have happened because of us. And we campaign tirelessly to uphold our country’s commitment to spend 0.7% of its budget on international aid.
We work alongside children in more than 90 countries, including the UK. Together, with Save the Children members around the world, we have three big goals.
Our shared ambition is that by 2030, no child dies from preventable causes before their fifth birthday, all children learn from a quality basic education, and violence against children is no longer tolerated.
We know that every child is different, and every one of them has something special to bring to the world.
We break new ground to solve the toughest problems facing children today.
Here in the UK, we’re using digital apps to help parents support their children’s early language skills. In Rwanda, we’ve kick-started a reading revolution through clubs, workshops for parents and teachers, and hundreds of new storybooks. And working with GSK, we’ve developed an antiseptic gel that could save 422,000 babies’ lives in five years.
“Every child has the right to feel safe, to go to school and not to fear anything,” says 13-year-old Nabila.
It’s voices like hers that shape everything we do and say. We empower children to speak for themselves, share their stories and amplify their voices. As well as championing young activists, we listen to children who aren’t in the spotlight, so their important stories don’t go unheard.
Save the Children’s work is only possible thanks to our 5 million supporters in the UK and their amazing commitment – from wearing a Christmas jumper to running our local shops to organising fundraising events.
Together with children, supporters and partners, we give children a chance at the future they deserve.
Frequently asked questions
What does Save the Children do?
We help children in the UK and around the world stay healthy, learn and stay safe. We provide health care, education and food, protect children, respond to emergencies and campaign for change. We are part of the global Save the Children movement, which supported 37.8 million children in 92 countries in 2025.
Where does Save the Children work?
We work in the UK and around the world as part of the global Save the Children movement, which supported 37.8 million children in 92 countries in 2025.
How does Save the Children get help to children in remote or dangerous places?
Our teams find another way through when roads are blocked, by bus, plane, truck, donkey, van or boat.
Together this Christmas, we can get 500,000 life-changing deliveries to children in the UK and around the world. See how life-changing deliveries are made.
Does Save the Children work in the UK?
Yes. We support families through baby banks, campaign on child poverty and run the Parent Hub. Read about our UK work.
How can I help?
You can donate, fundraise, volunteer or campaign with us. This Christmas, make one more delivery with Save the Children - the one that matters more than any. See all the ways to help.
