Safe

Our Approach

Keeping children and their families safe is the centre pillar of Street Child’s work: all children have a right to be safe and safeguarded from risks, especially those which impact their ability to attend school. 

Supporting children in conflict areas

Street Child programmes run in many areas affected by ongoing conflict. A key area of focus is providing classes and WASH facilities for displaced children. Additionally, in areas such as Cameroon, Mozambique, and Nigeria, we have been working to identify, support and specifically address the needs of unaccompanied and separated children.

  

We also work with children associated with armed forces and groups, providing specialised psychological support. The families of these children are supported with skills training and family business grants. 

Mental health support

Increasingly, Street Child has prioritised mainstreaming mental health and psychosocial support for children and caregivers as the impact of compounding crises of conflict, COVID-19, and climate change are long-lasting and widespread. 

 

Since 2008, we’re proud to have supported:  

  • 137,562 children with mental health or psychosocial support.  

  • 72,783 children with protection services, such as specialised psychological support services.

Health crisis

The COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread school closures and millions of children out of school. During the crisis, Street Child drew upon learning from the Ebola crisis and focused on strengthening community knowledge and improving hygiene practices. In response, campaigns were run to provide children with schooling via audio recordings, reducing the number of lost hours of school whilst mitigating infection risk.

 

Street Child worked to expand our response to the most marginalised communities. In some of the most remote areas of Nepal, we reached more than 250,000 people with COVID-19 prevention and preparedness information through community campaigns, print, and radio and provided 4,000 of the most marginalised households with food assistance. 

Climate change response

Street Child’s programmes run in some of the worst climate-affected countries in the world. Somalia has been facing the most severe drought in 40 years and to lessen its effects, we are running a drought emergency and resilience project. This programme supports efforts by the international community to reduce the high rates of illness and death caused by extreme drought and lack of access to clean water.  

 

Additionally, Bangladesh and Nepal are ranked as the countries that are the most vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In Bangladesh, we have been working with local partners to respond to affected communities by implementing low-resource solutions with high impact, including maintaining zero use of plastic in programme areas as well as employing green gardening to protect the environment. In addition, we are running programmes focused on sustainability and environmental education in local schools. 

Keeping children safe in numbers

81,907

Children have been reached with protection services.

172,972

Children have been reached through programmes such as mental health support and psychosocial services.

17,986

Adults have received mental health or psychosocial support.

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