Humanitarian Action for Children<\/em><\/a> sets out the agency\u2019s 2019 appeal and its efforts to provide 41 million children with access to safe water, nutrition, education, health and protection in 59 countries across the globe. Funding for child protection programmes accounts for $385 million of the overall appeal, including almost $121 million for protection services for children affected by the Syria crisis.<\/p>\n\u201cToday millions of children living through conflict or disaster are suffering horrific levels of violence, distress and trauma,\u201d said UNICEF Executive Director Henrietta Fore. \u201cThe impact of our child protection work cannot be overstated. When children do not have safe places to play, when they cannot be reunited with their families, when they do not receive psychosocial support, they will not heal from the unseen scars of war.\u201d<\/p>\n
UNICEF estimates that more than 34 million children living through conflict and disaster lack access to protection or child protection services, including 6.6 million children in Yemen, 5.5 million children in Syria and 4 million children in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).<\/p>\n
Child protection services include all efforts to prevent and respond to abuse, neglect, exploitation, trauma and violence. \u00a0UNICEF also works to ensure that the protection of children is central to all other areas of the organisation\u2019s humanitarian programmes, including water, sanitation and hygiene, education and other areas of work by identifying, mitigating and responding to potential dangers to children\u2019s safety and wellbeing.<\/p>\n
However, funding constraints, as well as other challenges including warring parties\u2019 growing disregard for international humanitarian law and the denial of humanitarian access, mean that aid agencies\u2019 capacity to protect children is severely limited. In the DRC, for example, UNICEF received just a third of the $21 million required for child protection programmes in 2018, while around one-fifth of child protection funding for Syrian children remained unmet.<\/p>\n
\u201cProviding these children with the support they need is critical, but without significant and sustained international action, many will continue to fall through the cracks,\u201d said Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Director of Emergency Programmes. \u201cThe international community should commit to supporting the protection of children in emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\n
2019 marks the 30th anniversary of the landmark Convention on the Rights of the Child and the 70th anniversary of the Geneva Conventions, yet today, more countries are embroiled in internal or international conflict than at any other time in the past three decades, threatening the safety and wellbeing of millions of children.<\/p>\n
UNICEF\u2019s appeal comes one month after the children\u2019s agency said that the world is failing to protect children living in conflict around the world, with catastrophic consequences. Children who are continuously exposed to violence or conflict, especially at a young age, are at risk of living in a state of toxic stress \u2013 a condition that, without the right support can lead to negative life-long consequences for their cognitive, social and emotional development. Some children impacted by war, displacement and other traumatic events \u2013 such as sexual and gender-based violence \u2013 require specialized care to help them cope and recover.<\/p>\n
The five largest individual appeals are for Syrian refugees and host communities in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey (US$ 904 million); Yemen (US$ 542.3 million); The Democratic Republic of the Congo (US$ 326.1 million); Syria (US$ 319.8 million) and South Sudan (US$ 179.2 million).<\/p>\n
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Notes to editors:<\/em><\/p>\nIn total, working alongside its partners, UNICEF aims to:<\/p>\n