Save the Children

Every child deserves the best chance for a bright future. Because of valued partners like you, more children than ever before are surviving and thriving. In the U.S. and around the world, more children are growing up healthy, educated and safe. When crisis strikes, more children are benefiting from the unique care they need. More children’s voices are being heard and their issues given top priority by world leaders. Together, we’re transforming children’s lives, changing the course of their futures and ours. Thank you!

Every Day: A Healthy Start

NEWBORN SURVIVAL AND CHLORHEXIDINE

Almost one-quarter of newborn deaths in Bangladesh are caused by infection – and a new baby’s recently cut umbilical cord is a common entry point for bacteria. Save the Children is helping to reduce these preventable deaths by scaling up an efficient and low-cost way to protect newborns against bacterial infections. Chlorhexidine is a safe and commonly used antiseptic. When applied to the umbilical cord stump immediately after birth and during the first week of life, it can help protect babies from infection. Trials have shown that chlorhexidine can prevent over 20 percent of newborn deaths. With Save the Children’s support, Bangladesh adopted the use of the antiseptic for newborn cord care in 2013. Since then, we’ve helped roll out chlorhexidine programming across the entire country by training more than 85,800 health workers who have reached an estimated 181,600 newborn babies.

Every Day: The Opportunity to Learn

BUILDING A GLOBAL CULTURE OF LITERACY

Literacy Boost is Save the Children’s answer to a global learning crisis. More than 250 million children ages 5-12 are unable to read or write, whether they are in school or not. Literacy Boost aims to expand learning opportunities both at home and in the community. This “life-wide learning” approach creates a culture of literacy that extends beyond school walls. The program has already helped almost 4 million children in more than 30 countries.

A new Stanford University study in Gicumbi, a rural area in northern Rwanda, shows that the average Literacy Boost student reads more fluently and scored higher in reading comprehension than more than 60 percent of the students who did not participate in the program. Save the Children’s program in Rwanda combines teacher training, assessments, community action, innovative classroom design and support for the publishing of children’s books in order to increase literacy.

In Times of Crisis: Readiness. Relief. Recovery.

RESPONDING TO EMERGENCIES IN THE UNITED STATES

When lead seeped into the water supply in Flint, Michigan, we supported the distribution of safe water and nutrient-rich
food packages to help children threatened by a serious public health emergency. We also responded to devastating floods this summer when torrential rains swept through West Virginia and Louisiana. Our staff in those states immediately sprang into action, using your support to aid children in our existing programs and in surrounding communities. We provided essential items like food, water, blankets and car seats, along with other much-needed supplies so children could be kept healthy and safe as their families began to recover. In West Virginia and Louisiana, your support is also helping us restore children’s access to child care and education.

• Save_the_Children_2016_Highlights.pdf (PDF)