Save the Children

NZ appeal calls for support to feed Fijian families

As cases of COVID-19 continue to rise in Fiji, Save the Children is providing grocery packs to feed hundreds of children whose families' incomes have been impacted.

The Fiji government has been urged to form a clear strategy on social support for families during the outbreak.

The call comes as a surge in food shortages has Fiji's charities run off their feet, while health authorities struggle to contain the spread of the virus on the main island Viti Levu.

There are now over 600 active cases since the latest outbreak began in April.

Syrian children in state of 'toxic stress', Save the Children says

The damage to an entire generation of children could soon become irreversible without immediate help, it adds.

The stress of war has led to increased bedwetting, self-harm, suicide attempts and aggressive behaviour among many children, according to a new report.

The findings are based on hundreds of interviews in Syria.

Save the Children says its study is the largest of its kind into the mental health and well-being of Syria's children amid the war, which began in 2011 and has left more than 300,000 people dead.

Girl under 15 married every seven seconds, says Save the Children

The study says girls as young as 10 are forced to marry much older men in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, India and Somalia.

Save the Children says early marriage can trigger a cycle of disadvantage across every part of a girl's life.

Conflict, poverty and humanitarian crises are seen as major factors that leave girls exposed to child marriage.

Parents complicit in Solomon Islands child trafficking

The finding is one of many to feature in a report by the aid agency Save The Children, based on a wide ranging exploration of child trafficking practices in the Solomons.

Researchers discovered that some logging site managers have been finding children for some of their laregely foreign workforce, and there are also reports of girls being recruited for sexual exploitation in Honiara schools.

Save the Children Vanuatu progressing

The affected population has received aid through a mixture of distribution, emergency training and service provision across six sectors: Health, Shelter, Education, Food Security and Livelihood, WASH, Child Protection.

With shelter, food and hygiene the most pressing needs in the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, Save the Children worked in partnership with the World Food Programme and the National Disaster Management Office to effect food distributions to the entire populations of Epi, Tongoa, the Shepherd Islands and the outer islands of Efate – almost 23,000 people.