Sharing the love on Supporter Week

Katherine, Head of Supporter Services

I’m just back from the Zaatari refugee camp. It’s on the Baghdad road, a few sand-blasted kilometres from the Syrian border, right on the top of the shoulder of the map of Jordan.

Save the Children runs an early learning centre in Zaatari for Syrian refugee children. There must have been about 50 or 60 children at the ‘school’, small kids of about three or four up to six- and seven-year-olds. It’s the kind of place my nieces and nephew would love. In one room, the four-year-olds were using Playdoh to learn the shapes of the alphabet. In another, the boys were playing with life-sized fuzzy felt animals. And in the ‘quad’ the bigger kids were in full dress rehearsal mode for their end-of-term dance presentation.

You think about the really tough start these kids have had and then see how much each child is loved, treasured, and celebrated. It makes me proud to call the teachers my colleagues and to think of the amazing work being done in my name, and yours too, in a small school far away in Jordan.

So thank you, as none of this would be possible without you…

Sarah

Greetings from Indonesia.

Amazing work, passionate staff and so many kids who really are creating the future; a 17-year-old who runs a little IT business, trainee midwives delivering babies in the mountains many hours from any health facility, and being told by very clearly by seven-year-olds what we must do if there is an emergency.

Sending you smiles from the kids of Jakarta slums – thank you.

Thalea

I was lucky enough to visit an Early Years Development programme in the Songwe region in southwestern Tanzania and was completely blown away by the impact this simple, cost-effective and sustainable work is delivering; supporting caregivers in giving their children the best start in life is only possible because of your generous support!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you ever so much for everything you do for children in Tanzania and around the world!

Tom

In May, I visited a Rohingya refugee camp. At the Child-Friendly Learning Space set up there by Save the Children, I saw, despite the ordeals, these families experienced fleeing Myanmar, children being children, happy and playing.

I also met a group of refugees fleeing conflict and persecution from the militia in their home state, who were living deep in a forest, hard to get to and so far from any education or other basic services like healthcare.

They are even now under constant threat of being further beaten and persecuted by the local authorities, who are trying to force them to return to a place they will likely be beaten and killed for returning to.

Your support really does help change the future for some of the world’s most marginalised children. Thank you.

Lucy

In Zanzibar corporal punishment occurs in a number of schools.

We visited a secondary school who have implemented a Save the Children programme to stop caning by the teachers. Students were often disciplined in this way and it created a very negative school environment for the students and their concentration was affected.

Now, after receiving training by the Save the Children programme, the teachers were taught to discipline the students in nonviolent ways.

The overall performance in the school improved and students look forward to coming to learn each day. It was so heart-warming to hear from the students themselves about how this has changed their own lives and performance, and what they are planning to go on and achieve in their future. Thank you so much for supporting programmes like this around the world.