The gloomy economic climate and ongoing media coverage of bank bonuses haven’t necessarily shown the banking world in the most favourable of lights. But then along comes the annual IFR Awards Gala dinner, at which bankers give millions of pounds to support the most vulnerable children in the world.
For Save the Children, the generous donations made by the investment banking community during the prestigious IFR Awards during the past 17 years have put the sector squarely in the middle of the philanthropic hero role. During this time the awards have raised a staggering amount for our work, helping to achieve dramatic changes for the most vulnerable children across the world. It’s a phenomenal achievement, and on January 18 this year it culminated in a donation of £1.26m to push the total above the £20m mark.
I know all too well how difficult the current banking environment is, having worked in the City as a trader for 17 years, which makes us all the more appreciative of every penny raised. The economic climate has also made it extremely tough in the charity sector, which has become more competitive than ever. But with long-term partnerships such as IFR, Save the Children is able to continue its vital work.
The money raised has enabled countless lives to be saved. Thousands of children have received an education they otherwise would not have; teachers have been trained; women empowered; and the lives of HIV+ orphans improved. Life-saving assistance has been given to children in the face of floods, earthquakes and tsunamis when they are at their most vulnerable, scared and alone.
Of course there is a huge task ahead of us, but it’s also important to acknowledge the progress that has been made in reducing child mortality. Just a few years ago 12m children were still dying every year. Today that figure is down to 7.6m. It is thanks to the likes of the investing banking community at the IFR Awards who have tirelessly donated over the past 17 years that we’ve been able to make the great progress we have. Without this continued support, we’d be far behind where we are now, so firstly, a huge, huge thank you.
Emergency response
During the awards ceremony, people would have seen and heard about just some of the work we’re doing in East Africa. Those attending the ceremony were shown a video, which included a story of Umi, a baby found by Save the Children outreach staff in a remote village in rural Kenya during the East Africa crisis earlier this year. She was tiny when she was admitted to hospital, suffering with life-threatening malnutrition. Over a six-week period she was nursed back to health and has now made a full recovery thanks to the support she received from the charity.
Many children like Umi have been helped by Save the Children’s Emergency Fund, which is one of the most emotive funds that IFR supports. This dedicated fund allows us rapidly to deploy people and resources immediately after a disaster strikes, allowing us to save more lives, faster.
To date, Save the Children has reached 346,556 children in emergency responses that were supported using the fund. This includes the current devastating drought and food crises in Kenya and Ethiopia, which have put millions of lives at risk. The Emergency Fund also allows us to take action against less well publicised emergencies, providing vital life-saving support to children. For example, we have launched responses to severe flooding in Brazil and Mongolia and responded to internal displacement in Pakistan.
The funds raised through the IFR Awards not only support children in emergencies, but also those in other vulnerable situations. Save the Children’s work saves lives first and foremost but also helps children to fulfil their potential by getting them into school, providing access to healthcare and protecting them from harm. Your contribution has enabled us to make a phenomenal change to the lives of children and families across the globe.
But, in the poorest countries children are still dying at a rate too awful to think about: each year nearly 8m children die before their fifth birthday. Most of these deaths are caused by illnesses we know how to treat or prevent, such as diarrhoea and pneumonia. We believe that we are among the generation that has the power, the knowledge and the proven success to stop child mortality in its tracks and give children a brighter future.
Our relationship with IFR is a great demonstration of how long-term successful partnerships can inspire change and transform lives. The past 17 years of support have not only been enormously generous, but also humble, innovative and flexible in its giving.
IFR wants to ensure that the money raised at the IFR Awards has the greatest impact and so half the funds raised to date have been donated to Save the Children to be absorbed where the need is greatest. This means that we cannot only support children in emergencies – responding quickly and effectively to save more lives, but also deliver projects all over the world, giving hundreds of thousands of children the best start in life. We need more corporate partners to provide this type of flexible funding to ensure that we can make the biggest difference to the children most in need.
Leveraging through co-financing
Another way to ensure that the funds raised at the awards go the furthest and have the most impact is through co-financed projects. This is one of the best ways that donors can support our work; by leveraging their donations as matched funding we can double, triple or quadruple funding in order to carry out key pieces of life-saving innovative work.
Last year, money raised through the event helped leverage a grant to fund work protecting migrant children in the Mekong Delta, South East Asia. In 2012 the IFR Awards will be making a huge difference to street and working children in Bangladesh by co-financing 25% of a project funded by a governmental grant.
Children in Bangladesh are living in extreme poverty. The country has one of the largest populations in the world, despite being smaller than the UK in area. Around 36% of this growing population lives on less than a dollar a day, forcing 7.4m children into hazardous labour to support their family’s income. Most of these children will work up to 12 hours a day in small factories, shops or as domestic staff in private homes, vulnerable to abuse and exploitation. They live on the streets, in railways stations and parks, and nearly half are forced to drop out of primary school. Life on the streets denies children a childhood, forcing them to behave as adults and fend for themselves.
Save the Children has been working in Bangladesh since 1970 and has a long history of helping children leave work that is harmful to their development and supporting communities to protect them. We have helped to improve working conditions, from small changes such as the provision of first-aid boxes and clean water, to long-term advocacy successes. After convincing trade unions to sign up to a code of conduct, 10,000 children across the country now get a set wage, an hour off for lunch and a lamp to work next to so they do not have to strain their eyes.
Through the support received from the IFR Awards, by February 2013, we plan to help children engaged in child labour and support those from poor households vulnerable to entering child labour, and their families. The total project will cost £982,000. We have already secured a governmental grant for £737,000, but by helping us fill the £245,000 co-financing gap, the IFR Awards are helping us provide up to 72,500 children with the future they deserve
The programme in Bangladesh is one of many that will only be possible because of the ongoing support received from the IFR Awards. Reaching the £20m milestone is an outstanding achievement, and we are hugely grateful for the loyalty and support shown by the investment banking community for an amazing 17 years of continuous support. You have helped save countless children’s lives – thank you!
Specific projects funded by the IFR Awards
Education and child protection in Maluku, Indonesia (2008–2010) [Picture – Kullwadee Sumnalop/Save the Children]
Makulu was severely affected by the violent conflict in 2004, which left 5,000 dead and displaced 250,000. Despite the gradual return to normality, the quality of school infrastructure remained inadequate, teaching quality was poor and poverty means many children couldn’t afford basic school materials. The violence of the conflict led to increased violence and punishment in the classroom. Together, we’ve been changing this. IFR Award funding helped us:
♦ Enable teachers to provide better quality, more interactive education to children and use alternatives to corporal punishment by training and establishing school libraries.
♦ Empowered communities to have a greater say in their children’s education. We have established school committees, supporting them to improve their children’s school environment.
♦ Empowered children in schools to make changes to their school environment and to speak out on child protection issues.
AIDS orphans & vulnerable children in Zambezia Province, Mozambique (2008–2013)
In remote areas of Inhassunge, Morrumbala and Mopeia in Mozambique, we are responding to the devastating HIV and AIDS crises. With the support we have received via the IFR Awards, we are:
♦ Supporting Orphan and Vulnerable Children’s Committees, which work with orphans and vulnerable children to ensure they have access to food, protection and can go to school.
♦ Supporting home-based carers to provide basic healthcare and support to parents and carers living with AIDS and other illnesses, enabling their children to continue their education.
♦ Distributing grants supporting local community projects.
♦ Increasing the capacity of government to provide health services to those living with HIV and AIDS, supporting government to deliver outreach health services in our project areas.
Protecting vulnerable children in the Greater Mekong sub-region (2011–2012)
In China, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, children are putting themselves at risk. They are migrating in vast numbers in search of better employment opportunities, education, or an escape route from violence at home, political repression and natural disasters. Thanks to the support received at the IFR Awards, Save the Children is now protecting at least 16,470 migrant children at risk of exploitation and abuse.
The support is contributing to a year-long phase of our long-term work to develop and embed child protection systems into government structures and policies in the region. Save the Children is working with children, governments, schools and communities to give children the knowledge and confidence they need to protect themselves from harm. We’re also enhancing the capacity of communities and local authorities to take concrete measures to protect migrant children throughout the region.
The evidence of our successes will help Save the Children to promote the rights of children on a global scale.
The Yunnan Minority Education Project in China (2004–2007)
Yunnan Province in South West China is one of China’s poorest. Many children from minority groups come to school with no knowledge of Mandarin, and risk being excluded from opportunities to learn. Your support helped us train teachers with a focus on child-centred learning and child-friendly schooling, training to improve health and hygiene, vocational training and providing life skills.
More than 100,000 primary school children have benefited from the project. It was so successful that Save the Children has been asked by the government to replicate it in other minority ethnic areas.
Case studies
Nabuth – Mozambique [Picture - LUCA KLEVE-RUUD}
Save the Children’s health worker saw that Nabuth was burning with fever and refusing to breastfeed. Nabuth’s mother, Teresa, couldn’t afford the bus fare to hospital but our health worker made sure mother and baby got there right away.
At the hospital Nabuth was diagnosed with sepsis, an infectious disease that is deadly for newborns if it isn’t treated in time. “Save the Children’s health worker saved my baby’s life. I am incredibly thankful,” said Teresa. Nabuth was one of the lucky ones. Millions of children around the word don’t have the access to the life-saving healthcare they need.
Ami – Japan [Picture – Philip Crabtree/Save the Children]
Ami, seven, with her mother, Sayaka, in the evacuation centre at Kazuma elementary school in Ishinomaki city, Japan.
Ami and her mother were separated from each other by the tsunami that hit their city of Ishinomaki on March 11. First grader Ami was in school when the 9.0 earthquake shook the coastal city of Miyagi. Following the tsunami warning Ami’s grandparents went to the school which also doubled as their local evacuation centre. In the days to come, Ami stayed with her grandparents, not knowing what had happened to her mother. Ami and her mother are currently living in the gymnasium at Ami’s Kazuma elementary school. During the day Ami takes part in Save the Children’s child-friendly space. According to a child-friendly space volunteer, many children seem energetic and happy while playing with other children and do not talk about the earthquake much.
The first child-friendly space was established on the fifth day after the earthquake and Save Children has established 19 child-friendly spaces since then; 10 are located in Miyagi and another nine in Iwate. Groups of 15 children between the ages of four and 12 years old participate in each two-hour activity. Save the Children has many years of experience in implementing child-friendly spaces all over the world.
Sumon – Bangladesh [Picture]
Sumon is eight years old and lives with his grandmother in Dhaka, Bangladesh. His parents died recently due to ill health and his grandmother is taking care of him, his brother and two sisters. Sumon’s grandmother is unemployed and supports the family by begging and borrowing. Occasionally, Sumon’s uncle helps them out with money and rice when he can.
About 20% of the population in Bangladesh live in extreme poverty. Nearly half of children who go to school drop out to find work to help their families get by, and so the cycle of poverty goes on.
Save the Children provides three meals a day for more than 600 children in the region. It also helps families through income-generation schemes so they can have a more nutritious diet all year round and children can stay in school.
Sumon says: “I started going to school this year and I’m in Class 1. We learn Bangla [the local language] and Arabic as well as English. They teach us to read and write. My favourite game is football. I don’t like cricket. My sister and I also play out in the yard with other friends from our neighbourhood.”
Save the Children aims to ensure all families are able to afford regular, nutritious meals and send their children to school, just like Sumon.
♦ If you would like more information on how your money is helping the world’s most vulnerable children or how you could support our work even further then please contact me, Douglas Rouse, in London on +44 (0)20 7012 6873.
To view the digital version of this report click here.
