LIFETIMES update 6

SAVING
CHILDREN’S
LIVES AND
THEIR
FUTURES
LIFETIMES
Save the Children Healthcare worker measures two-year-old Hirsi* at a
mass malnutrition screening in a drought-hit village in northern Kenya
*Name changed to protect privacy
YOUR SUPPORT IS LITERALLY SAVING LIVES
It’s estimated one person is dying of hunger every four seconds around
the world right now.
Global hunger is at record levels and children are facing a perfect storm of crises.
Conflict, economic instability and climate shocks are currently threatening the
lives of at least 153 million children around the world.
Save the Children is on the ground right now, treating children - one by one by
one. Thank you for being there with us.
Hunger not only threatens children’s survival, it hurts a child’s whole world.
Without enough food or the right nutrition, children can’t learn, play, or sleep.
While they should be exploring with their friends, or expanding their minds in
class, instead too many are worrying about where their next meal will come
from, or if their younger sibling will recover from malnutrition.
As a global community, we need to act now and act fast. We’ve seen the
incredible impact we can have when the world rallies together to support
children in crisis. We did it for Ukraine in 2022 and we need to do it again.
HUNGER HURTS
Hunger hurts a child’s whole
world.
It hurts to abandon your home
and community to find
somewhere with food, and water.
It hurts to miss breakfast and
know there is no lunch.
It hurts being unable to help your
brother or sister as their weight
plummets and exhaustion takes
over.
It hurts when severe hunger
breaks down your muscles,
weakens your immune system
and damages your organs.
It hurts to miss school, learning
and playing with your friends.
It hurts to see your future slip
away.
Millions of children are
hurting right now as their lives
are threatened by food
shortages and skyrocketing
prices.
Up to 60 million children
are facing acute
malnutrition worldwide
right now, with at least
13.6m children severely
acutely
malnourished.

WHICH SITUATION WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
Devastating floods or prolonged drought?
Children in the Horn of Africa don't get a choice.
A catastrophic food crisis is unfolding across the
Horn of Africa, with 21 million people facing
critical hunger levels in Kenya, Somalia and
Ethiopia.
Malnutrition levels are at an all-time high with
more than 5.1 million children acutely
malnourished across the three countries.
Extreme weather is destroying communities and
leaving more children without food or a safe place
to live. The region is experiencing almost three
years of drought after five consecutive failed rainy
seasons.
Prolonged droughts in Kenya and now flooding in
Somalia have left communities fleeing their
destroyed homes and without food or water.
With long-term recovery currently out of reach in
Somalia, the prolonged drought followed by recent
floods, coupled with skyrocketing food prices and
an under-funded humanitarian response as a result
of the war in Ukraine, the risk of famine looms
larger than ever.
Your support to Save the Children today is
saving lives tomorrow.
SOMALIA
KENYA
A GENERATION OF CHILDREN AT
RISK IN SOMALIA
Flash floods at the end of May are the latest
in a series of extreme weather events in
Somalia, where children and communities
find themselves at the sharp end of the
global climate crisis.
The floods come after the worst drought in
40 years, following five failed rainy seasons
which has decimated livestock and crops,
pushing the country to the brink of famine.
Around 8.3 million people are currently in
need of humanitarian assistance and almost
2 million children are acutely malnourished.
“We’re coming across families who have
been hit by successive crises ranging from
conflict to drought and now floods and this
is taking a huge toll on them. Children were
already on the brink of starvation as
sequentially failed rains brought about the
worst hunger crisis in 40 years.”
Somalia Country Director,
Mohamud Mohamed Hassan
Save the Children New Zealand has
committed $350,000 to support our
response in Somalia and this is being
matched by the government.
We’ve currently raised $272,347.
70% of people currently
experiencing hunger
worldwide are
women and girls.

WE'RE SAVING LIVES TOGETHER IN SOMALIA
Every day, more children arrive at
Save the Children’s Stabilisation Centre
in drought-ravaged Baidoa.
They’re carried from remote farms and villages
by parents desperately seeking food and help.
But the centre is full, and makeshift wards
have had to be set up in tents outside.
ETHIOPIA
BAIDOA
SOMALIA
How we're supporting children
Providing treatment for malnourished
children
Supplying emergency food assistance
to families
Giving cash transfers to families to buy
essential supplies
Assisting communities to access clean
water
Casho* travelled on foot for two days and two
nights with her children from their rural farm in
Baidoa in search of food, water, and medical
treatment.
Casho’s family recently lost their livestock due to
drought and her children are malnourished. Her
two-year-old daughter Fawzia* is receiving
treatment for malnutrition at Save the Children's
health clinic on the outskirts of Baidoa.
Your support is literally
saving lives.
Thank you for
partnering with us.
AUSTRALIA
NEW
ZEALAND
SHE’S SMILING AGAIN
Marwa might be
smiling now, but one
month before this
photo was taken it was
a different story for
this 15-month-old girl.
Marwa had been
unable to eat anything
and she was suffering
from a fever, coughing,
vomiting and
diarrhoea.
Her mother, Hodan, heard about Save the Children’s
mobile health centre from others in her village and
managed to get a lift to the location - 15km away.
Marwa was checked and given treatment, before
they returned home - with a one month supply of
therapeutic food. When Marwa and her mother
returned for a follow up visit, she was in much better
health.
Hodan and her husband were pastoralists but lost
most of their livestock due to drought, meaning food
was in short supply which left Marwa struggling to
survive.
Thanks to
supporters like
you, Save the
Children’s mobile
health clinics are
set up for a month
in a location the
majority of the
surrounding
villages will be
able to access.

GROWING FOOD AND RESILIENCE IN SOLOMON ISLANDS
Across the Pacific, the impacts of climate change
are directly affecting many communities and
contributing to hunger in places like the Solomon
Islands.
It’s one of the most vulnerable countries in the
world to climate change and disasters. As well as
this, many communities are still struggling from
the impact of COVID-19 with almost all Solomon
Island families having experienced a decline in
income.
Many families are dependent on agriculture for
household income, but climate change and
repeated use of the same land has led to problems
with soil fertility and pests and diseases. They are
also experiencing sea level rise and increasing
droughts and heavy rains.
Save the Children has been working with 15
communities in the Solomon Islands to improve
food security by boosting food productivity.
Working in partnership with the Ministry of
Agriculture and Livestock, the project is helping
to deliver training sessions, establish community
nursery banks, establish water management
systems, distribute tools and seedlings and
provide support to local communities to access
markets to sell excess produce.
Organic farming methods demonstrated to community members.
Jemma, 17, lives in a coastal community in the Solomon Islands
with her parents and three sisters. Their home is on stilts and is
slowly going underwater.
As a child, Jemma used to play with her siblings happily and safely on
dry ground, however water now surrounds her whole home.
Tragically, Jemma has lost two of her siblings to the crisis slowly
inundating her family’s village. In 2014 her 10-year-old brother was
sitting on a nearby sea wall when he was pulled in by a high tide and
drowned. And in 2017, her 6-year-old sister Dona, who had a disability,
was swept into the ocean when she was crawling along a path near the
house and passed away. These events have devastated Jemma’s family.
The rise in sea level has also ruined her family’s nearby garden. Nothing
grows now that the soil has been inundated with salt water brought in
by the tides. Instead of supplementing their meals with homegrown
fruit and vegetables, Jemma and her siblings eat predominantly rice,
tinned food and noodles.
“The sea level rise destroys our food gardens making it very difficult
for us because we have very little farmland, and we can’t go anywhere
else. I kindly ask the good people from other countries to help those
who have been suffering from climate change and sea level rise.”
Our food security project in the Solomon Islands is helping Jemma’s
family adapt to the effects of climate change and rising sea levels and
ensuring they have nutritious food to eat all year round.
YOUR SUPPORT
MAKES A DIFFERENCE
Whether they live in Somalia or
the Solomon Islands, children
shouldn’t have to go hungry -
there's enough food in the world
for everyone.
We're deeply grateful for your
continued support to Save the
Children which is helping improve
life for many children around the
world - and in many instances,
literally saving children's lives.
Jemma and her family at home.
We know times are tough for
many people right now, but if
you're in a position to help ensure
we can continue treating children
suffering from malnutrition then
I'd love to hear from you.
mandy.carian@scnz.org.nz
ph: 04 381 7572
Thank you for your
wonderfully generous support
which is helping children to
not only survive, but to move
forward into a more positive
future.