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| A mother and child from our program in Bangladesh. Photo Credit: Asha Cheriyan |
Save the Children knows that children are more likely to be safe, educated and healthy when their families are not worried about where the next meal will come from. The Livelihoods programs at Save the Children seek to help families and households reduce hunger, and improve their financial security by working with local partners, local government and international organizations to break the cycle of poverty. With recent food price spikes in the news, we know that it is critical to support families to grow or buy the food they need for their children to thrive. In the US, families spend about 7% of their income on food, but in the developing world, it’s often 50-70% of their income. To effectively fight hunger, we need to make sure that high quality, nutritious food is available and that families have the financial resources they need to purchase it.
What We Do
Reducing Hunger
Save the Children works in both emergency and non-emergency environments to address the three keys to reducing hunger:
- that nutritious food is available
- that people can afford the food for sale in the market
- that the food is being properly utilized so children get the vitamins and minerals they need to grow
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Did You Know?
925 million people in the world are hungry-that’s more than the population of the USA, European Union and Canada combined.
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In emergencies, this can mean making sure that markets have enough healthy food that people can purchase, and that vendors have the resources to restock their stores. We know that it’s not just about the immediate response, though. Using a mix of money and donated food, often from the U.S. Government or the World Food Program, we are able to help families recover from a disaster.
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Our Programming
After the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Save the Children organized cash for work recovery programs, paying local Haitians to clear debris. This helped families pay for school fees and buy food, and supported rebuilding of the local economy.
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We also work in communities that are continually at risk for hunger, often due to limited natural resources, climate change and extreme poverty. For a country like Ethiopia where 85% of all people work in agriculture, droughts or floods can cause disastrous effects. Droughts and floods not only limit the ability for households to grow enough food, but they also reduce the family’s ability to sell what they produce to buy nutritious food for their children. Save the Children is focused on improving families’ ability to recover from these kinds of events, and making sure that chronically hungry households are helped and better prepared for the challenges ahead.
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| Children wait for a nutritious meal prepared by their mothers and other community members through a Save the Children project in Nampula Province, Mozambique. Photo Credit: Asha Cheriyan |
Achieving Financial Security
For many households and families, financial security means more than just having enough money today. It’s about having the means and methods to continue making money, and being able to take the risks to maintain that financial security so they can provide for their children’s needs. Save the Children works with communities to reduce the risks related to poverty through agricultural programs, income earning opportunities, and access to financial services.
The majority of rural households engage in some sort of agricultural activities, so to help them achieve financial security, Save the Children works at improving families’ agricultural practices. Whether it is helping farmers grow more nutritious crops for their families or connecting them with markets so they can sell their crops for money, our Livelihoods experts make sure that women and children benefit.
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Innovation
Giving young people the tools to accumulate savings not only opens up economic opportunities, but also affects their attitudes and behaviors in positive ways. Savings can help young people fund future education or start small businesses. They can also improve young people’s self-esteem and future orientation, which may, in turn, help them make positive choices like staying in school and avoiding health risks. Click here to learn more about our innovative YouthSave project.
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For many of the people that Save the Children works with, traditional financial services like loans, savings accounts or insurance are not available. Without the support of financial products, families are often unable to start or expand a business, or take steps to get out of poverty. We work with these groups to research, design and test financial products like savings accounts, business loans and health insurance, to make sure that they and their businesses have the chance they deserve to thrive.
Last Updated December 2011
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