Save the Children | 501 Kings Highway East, Suite 400, Fairfield, CT 06825 | 1-800-Save the Children | www.SavetheChildren.org

Every day. In times of crisis. For our future.

2014HIGHLIGHTS

Making an Impact for ChildrenJanuary 2015

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Your generous support last year enabled Save the Children to invest in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future, achieving significant impact. Thanks to you, we developed and expanded proven programs, giving children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We were there for children in emergencies,

providing child-focused readiness, relief and recovery. And we advo-cated on children’s behalf, ensuring their voices were heard and their rights realized. Together with you, we gave children in the United States and around the world the best chance for success, transforming their lives and the future we all share. Thank you!

Making an Impact, Thanks to You

LiberiaIn 2014, the world’s largest Ebola outbreak in West Africa was declared a global health emergency by the World Health Organiza-tion. Thanks to your kind support, Save the Children played a vital role from the outset by bolstering community engage-ment in Liberia. We continue to identify, triage, test and refer patients to beds in two Ebola Treatment Units in Bong and Margibi, through two Community Care Centers. And as the epidemic shows early signs of stabili-zation, we have adopted a flexible response.

Ebola orphans and child survivors have been abandoned and stigmatized in their communities. Other children, confined at home with schools closed, remain deeply dis-tressed over the loss and suffering of family members. As of December 2014, UNICEF estimates that 2,840 children have lost one or both parents to Ebola. Save the Children’s strategy is to reduce transmission, provide access to lifesaving care and strengthen the health care system. We are also helping the government prepare for the safe re-opening of schools in February.

SyriaThe crisis in Syria is in its fourth year and the humanitarian situation worsens on the ground every day. With over 5 million chil-dren in need of support, 1 million of whom have sought refuge in neighboring countries, children are at risk of becoming a “lost generation.” Save the Children has worked closely with the World Food Program since 2012, supporting Syrian refugees in Lebanon

and Jordan, and we have just started work-ing inside Syria as well. We are distributing essential relief supplies, including clothing, mattresses, blankets, shelter improvement kits, heating fuel and stoves to families living in camps, abandoned buildings and overcrowded host communities. In addi-tion, we are addressing key health, food, education and child protection needs.

PhilippinesWhen Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philip-pines in November 2013, it was one of the most powerful storms ever, and Save the Children provided immediate emergency relief. Six months later, we had supported the rebuilding of homes and livelihoods of over 1 million people, including 826,000 children. We are committed for the long term, helping communities adapt and pre-pare for future disasters. So when Typhoon

Hagupit hit the same region in December 2014, leaving a trail of destruction and thousands of families in need, our pre-paredness was credited with saving lives. We sent lifesaving essentials to remote regions; deployed a mobile health unit to Bicol; assisted the local government in Ormoc to evacuate families; and set up Child-Friendly Spaces at evacuation centers in Tacloban.

Phoebe, age 6, is transported to an interim care center in Monrovia, Liberia, after losing her relatives to Ebola.

Nada, age 4, at her home in a tented refugee camp in Lebanon, near the Syrian border.

Jennelyn and her two grandchildren take refuge at an evacuation center in Tacloban during Typhoon Hagupit.

Photos: Top, Chris de Bode/Panospictures for Save the Children; Middle, Jonathan Hyams; Bottom, Save the Children

Helping Children in Emergencies

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Helping Children in the U.S.

Early Childhood EducationSave the Children’s Early Steps to School Success program works closely with children ages 0-5 and their caregivers, providing kids with the support and learning tools they need. In 2014, thousands of children and their families across 15 states participated in the program. The vast majority of these children are growing up in poverty, facing many hur-dles to success. Despite the challenges they must overcome, more than 80 percent of the children in our program score at or above the normal range for vocabulary acquisition and enter kindergarten on par with their middle income peers, ready to succeed in school and in life.

In addition, we conducted after-school literacy programs for nearly 20,000 impover-ished and struggling readers across the coun-try. Of the regular participants, 72 percent achieved significant reading improvement, equivalent to receiving almost five additional months of school instruction.

Dawna, a young mother of three, enrolled her children in Save the Children’s Early Steps to School Success pro-gram in Grays Harbor, Washington. Her youngest, Baylee, scored well below the target for a two-month-old baby, when tested on basic gross and fine motor skills, problem solving and social skills. And at age four months, she continued to show signs of developmental delay.

Early intervention is instrumental in ensuring children’s brain growth and development during their critical first few years of life. With support from the Early Steps to School Success coordinator, family and friends, the parents were able to devote more time to helping Baylee.

“Save the Children taught us how she can learn, have a head start and not fall behind. Now, we read differ-ently– it’s more fun and I am not as scared to read out loud anymore,” Dawna says proudly. “We play to-gether, sing and read books daily. My boys read to her too, and that is really neat to watch.”

Following another assessment at age five months, Baylee’s devel-opmental progress was good and Dawna pays tribute to the collabo-rative effort of all involved. She says, “We are learning what we can do to support Baylee every day, so that she can succeed in school. She will be there before we know it, and she will be ready. She is one smart kid!”

Young Baylee gets a Head Start

Nine-year-old Kaitlyn, a third grader, attends a literacy after-school program at her school in eastern Kentucky.

Get Ready Get SafeLast year, we continued to grow our emer-gency preparedness initiative, Get Ready Get Safe, with the launch of our new Prep Rally community preparedness program. The cur-riculum teaches kids basic preparedness skills through interactive activities and games. We know that we cannot prevent disasters from happening, but how we prepare for them makes the difference in keeping children safe.

Save the Children also welcomed its newest ambassador, Lassie, in 2014. The familiar American icon, known for saving the day and helping her family thwart disas-ters, has helped lead Prep Rallies across the U.S., including in tornado-ravaged Moore, Oklahoma, on the anniversary of last year’s horrific storms.

Lassie inspires summer campers to prepare for emergencies at

a Prep Rally in Far Rockaway,

New York.

Photo: Top Right & Bottom Left, Susan Warner; Top Right Circle, Hollie Nelson

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Across the globe, millions of mothers and children lack access to affordable, lifesav-ing services that could prevent two-thirds of maternal, newborn and child deaths. Each year worldwide, 6.6 million children die from preventable causes, such as pneu-monia, diarrhea and malaria – and 300,000 women die annually due to complications during pregnancy and childbirth.

The Health and Nutrition Global Initiative strives to accelerate progress for

children and women, especially within vul-nerable populations, in both development and humanitarian settings. We employ over 1,000 healthcare staff in 120 countries around the world. Through our merger with the international humanitarian agency, Merlin, we developed a Humanitarian Pub-lic Health Strategy for global rollout.

Improving Children’s Health

NepalIn 2014, the success of Save the Children’s WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) program in reducing child mortality prompted Nepal’s government to adopt our interventions into their national pol-icies. With a focus on improving sustain-able access to safe drinking water and ba-sic sanitation, our Clean Household Approach is promoted. To achieve “clean household status,” four conditions must be in place: clean drinking water for children under age 5; hand washing for newborn care, food preparation and before eating; clean play spaces around children, especially those under age 2; and safe disposal of hu-man waste. Many girls and boys in Nepal now look forward to a clean bill of health thanks to your support.

EthiopiaIn 2014, COMBINE (Community-based Interventions for Newborns in Ethiopia) re-sults represented the first-ever Africa-based study documenting the feasibility and impact of delivering newborn infection treatment by frontline health workers. The use of injectable antibiotics to treat infec-tions like newborn sepsis and pneumonia is a successful priority intervention that immediately and effectively saves lives. As a result, thanks to the combined efforts of Save the Children and other organiza-tions, a number of low-income countries in Africa – including Malawi and Ethiopia – are successfully on track to reduce child mortality by two-thirds by 2015.

When Manju, age 20, was pregnant, her diet was un-healthy. Thanks to Save the Children’s local program, she now knows how to grow healthy crops and prepare nutritious, high-quality meals for her baby, Sandhya, age 11 months, at home in rural Nepal. Manju also learned valuable farming and animal husbandry skills.

We encourage exclusive breast-feeding and the timely introduction of complementary, high-protein food for babies after six months, such as eggs, milk and meat.

With 41 percent of Nepali children under age 5 stunted from malnourish-ment, Manju is grateful that Sandhya is a healthy baby. Since 2011, Save the Children has worked in 25 dis-tricts to reach over 350,000 children under age 2 with a strong package of nutrition-focused activities to effectively reduce maternal and child under-nutrition.

A Healthy Diet for Baby Sandhya

Children practice washing their hands at a Save the Children Early Childhood Development center in rural Nepal.

A mother and baby at Ramada Health Post, southern Ethiopia, receive lifesaving treatment from community health workers.

Chisomo, a community health worker, makes a home visit to check on the health of Amos, who lives in a remote village in Malawi.

Photo: Top Left Circle, Elvis Sukali; Middle Left Circle, Save the Children; Nepal Section, Susan Warner; Ethiopia Section, Anne-Sofie Helms

Health and Nutrition Global Initiative

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Building Life Skills for Young People

Jun, 18, was determined to escape from a life of poverty in a small, rural village in the Philippines. With the equiva-lent of just seven U.S. dollars in his pocket, he boarded a cargo ship for a 12-hour journey in search of a better future.

He settled in the city of Manila where he took numerous jobs — as a messenger in a funeral parlor, a grinder, flagman and snack vendor. Though he worked hard and sent money to support his family back home, Jun struggled to find stable, long-term employment.

Someone connected him with Save the Children’s Skills to Succeed program, and now Jun is 23 years old and a certified welder. He has been employed by several construction firms in Manila and often recom-mends that his friends dream big and acquire life skills.

He considers the program to be a real life-changer. “I am very grateful to Save the Children for teaching valuable life lessons, from building self-confidence and interacting with people of diverse backgrounds, to finding one’s purpose in life… after all, I found mine.”

Less than half of Manila’s population of 650,000 have reached or graduated from high school and only ten percent have enrolled in or finished college. The Skills to Succeed program is bridg-ing the gap and continues to shape the lives of young people who are not in school, with job training and life skills classes to help them achieve their full potential.

Jun’s dream became a reality

YouthSaveMore than 103,000 young people in Colombia, Ghana, Kenya and Nepal signed up for accounts offered through YouthSave, an innovative program that uses savings accounts as a tool for youth development and financial inclusion in developing countries. This group saved a collective total of more than $873,000 – proving that the demand for tailored youth savings accounts in developing countries is high. In addition, over 41,000 young people participated in face-to-face financial education activities in Colombia, Kenya and Nepal, and 45,000 individuals have been reached through community-lev-el events. In Colombia, a total of 7,000 youngsters received financial education tips and deposit reminders via text messages. In Nepal, a four-part radio drama on sav-ings has reached an estimated audience of 660,000 people.

Fourteen-year-old Charlotte saves about $1 a week through a savings account provided by YouthSave in Ghana.

Skills to SucceedThrough the Skills to Succeed program, Save the Children delivers market-rele-vant education, mentoring relationships, internships and apprenticeships that assist disadvantaged and at-risk young people in finding a job or building a business. Capitalizing on our life skills expertise, we have implemented pilot programs in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam that have delivered job training and placement services to more than 45,000 youth since 2012. Our donors’ support combined with that of our partners has truly empowered these girls and boys to look forward to a future filled with promise.

Liana, a high school graduate, joined the Skills to Succeed program to hone her sewing skills. She also wanted to learn how to start her own business.

Photo: Top Right, Adadzewa Otoo; Top Right Circle, Heidi Anicete; Bottom Left, Angga Darmawan

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Protecting Children from Harm

NigeriaIn 2014, Save the Children and four partners collaborated to launch a program called STEER (Systems Transformed for Empowered Action and Enabling Re-sponses) to improve the well-being and rights of orphans and other vulnerable children in northern Nigeria. With a focus on gender integration, it addresses the difficult challenges facing females in the

north and engages them in decision-making. Greater leadership across the country is urged to help mitigate the effects of HIV and AIDS on Nigerian children and families. STEER intends to reach approxi-mately 500,000 vulnerable children and 125,000 caregivers and provide them with access to community-based health services and quality care.

JordanThe issue of exploitative child labor has caused deep concern in Jordan. Although education is mandatory until the age of 16, the law is not enforced. As part of its Promising Futures project, Save the Children launched a national campaign called My Dream…My Right in 2014. The program seeks to reduce child labor in Jordan by providing educational services and strengthening the livelihoods of families of working children. Children are at the heart of My Dream…My Right, empowering them to claim their right to a quality educa-tion, protection, the shaping of their own futures and their right to dream.

The year 2014 marked the 25th anniversary of the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child. This significant milestone pro-vided an opportunity for countries to take stock of achievements, identify remaining challenges and agree on how to address

gaps to make the rights of all children a reality in all circumstances. Using a theme of See My Rights Through My Eyes, Save the Children celebrated the anniver-sary with a call to do more to protect the rights of children around the world.

Photo: Farah Sayegh/Save the Children

U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child

Jassem, age 13, lives in Za’atari refugee camp

and dreams of becoming a teacher, but was forced

to drop out of school to support his family. Save the Children established

a Drop-In Center to help children engaged in

labor, providing them with emotional support

and recreation.

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Educating Girls and Boys

Literacy BoostAround the world, more children than ever are going to school and reaching grade five, but research on reading skills in nearly 50 developing countries indicates that many students in the poorest communities are still struggling to learn to read. To address the gaps and create a culture of reading, Save the Children created the Literacy Boost program for early primary schools. Everyone in the community is involved in supporting young readers: teachers and lo-cal volunteers make materials for learning, while children outside of school borrow books and attend reading camps.

In 2014, Literacy Boost was implemented in 24 countries, serving the most vulnerable children and marginalized girls in a variety of ways. For example, a culture of literacy

and learning is promoted through improved teaching in Rwanda; books are being printed in Nepali and local languages in Nepal; and after significant progress in 18 schools in Bangladesh, the program is being scaled up to more than 4,800 schools through the USAID READ project.

Nhodo is a popular game in Hurungwe, rural Zimbabwe, where people are poor, food is in short supply and toys must be made from everyday things. Panashe, a 9-year-old girl, enjoys playing Nhodo, a counting game that is similar to Jacks. She tosses a large stone, the mudodo, skyward and then scoops up a smaller pebble from a shallow hole in the ground, just in time to catch the mudodo before it hits the ground.

Nhodo is fun to play, but once Panashe has finished helping her Aunt Veronica with the housework, what she really likes to do is read. And ever since Save the Children established the community reading camp, it’s now a lot more fun for Panashe to practice her reading skills.

Thanks to a donation from The Oprah Winfrey Foundation, Save the Children was able to provide the community with books for the local primary school’s Weekend Reading Camp where both children and adults practice their reading together or share what they have learned.

“At times we read aloud while everyone listens. The best readers receive applause from all the chil-dren,” Panashe says excitedly. Her Aunt Veronica observes, “In the past, I used to force her to read, but now she reads on her own and even asks her teachers for more books.”

Reading Camp More Fun than Nhodo

IDELASave the Children’s new International Development and Early Learning Assess-ment (IDELA) model is a user-friendly global assessment tool that measures children’s early learning and development from 3.5–6 years. With quick access to metrics using technology platforms, the data pulled can help stakeholders identify strategies to improve existing programs for the most vulnerable children. Following the first randomized control trial in sub-Saharan Africa, led by the World Bank and based on our programs in Mozambique, IDELA was well-received and has excited early childhood care and development experts. Both USAID and the Brookings Institution, in partnership with UNESCO, are keen to use the tool to measure pre-school programs based on internationally agreed metrics.

Vania, age 5, looks forward to primary school after graduating from a Save the Children pre-school.

Sita, in Nepal, is busy all day with school and household chores, but she finds time to read at night before bedtime.

Photos: Top Left, Sanjana Shrestha; Top Right Circle, Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi; Bottom Left, Pei Ketron

Save the Children invests in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future.

In the United States and around the world, we are dedicated to ensuring every child has

the best chance for success. Our pioneering programs give children a healthy start, the

opportunity to learn and protection from harm. Our advocacy efforts provide a voice for

children who cannot speak for themselves. As the leading expert on children, we inspire

and achieve lasting impact for millions of the world’s most vulnerable girls and boys.

By transforming children’s lives now, we change the course of their future and ours.

Save the Children | 501 Kings Highway East, Suite 400, Fairfield, CT 06825 | 1-800-Save the Children | www.SavetheChildren.org

Thank you!

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