How War Child helped children in some of the most acute crises in the world in 2024
Feb. 28, 2025
War Child and our partners worked hard last year to ease the burden of vulnerable families and children.
Despite appalling situations, with many staff directly impacted by ongoing conflict crises themselves, our country teams helped to establish and grow essential humanitarian programming around the world, reaching hundreds of thousands of people.
War Child's impact in 2024
From October 2023 to November 2024, Lebanon experienced the worst escalation in conflict since the 2006 Lebanon War. During military confrontations with Israel along the Blue Line, 4,047 people were killed, and over 16,000 injured.
Over 1.2 million people were displaced by violence and are now gradually returning home to their damaged villages following the ceasefire announcement.
The War Child country team was quick to respond to the emergency, delivering vital support including 1,257 dignity kids, 25,855 ready-to-eat meals, and a range of other essential services. They created safe spaces and provided 2,368 children with psychosocial support.
At the end of 2024, the situation in Gaza was catastrophic with 45,855 deaths, 1.9 million Palestinians displaced and 87% of houses in destroyed or damaged. With limited access to medical services, infectious diseases, respiratory infections and other health issues are major concerns.
War Child’s ongoing efforts in the Gaza Strip have so far reached 184,031 people. We have supplied 122,717 people with basic needs, 58,367 with mental health and psychosocial support, and 1,467 with education support.
We have also been working to strengthen the capacity of frontline workers and volunteers by launching a “micro-learning” channel on Telegram to teach them about psychosocial first aid, self-care, protection, and other skills that will help them support the community.
While violence and displacement persist across Colombia, 100,000 people in the Chocó department have now also been impacted by heavy rainfall causing flooding and landslides. Due to the nature of the geography, and the ongoing conflict between armed forces, organisations have not been able to reach all those affected.
In response, War Child coordinated with its network of youth-led collectives and the local humanitarian team on an emergency response to provide child protection, mental health support, shelter and other needs.
Together, we were able to deliver protection kits to the community and also WASH hygiene kits which were donated by UNHCR.
There has been ongoing conflict between armed groups in the eastern part of DRC for years. The conflict expanded in 2023, forcing many to flee. By the end of 2024, approximately 2 million people were displaced in North Kivu, while 500,000 are sheltering in South Kivu.
Conditions in existing camps continue to deteriorate, with overcrowding and shortages of clean water and sanitation exacerbating the spread of diseases like cholera. This conflict has worsened in 2025 and children are the most vulnerable. There are significant risks to their safety, wellbeing and education.
Throughout 2024, War Child worked to provide mental health and psychosocial support, reaching 36,094 children with our activities. To support more children to learn, we rehabilitated 25 schools and delivered 6,400 school kits. We were able to provide 2,224 children with case management services to protect them and try to reunite them with caregivers and families. In total, 227,699 people were reached by our activities.
A country already plagued by conflict and crisis, South Sudan in 2024 was severely affected by flooding caused by heavy rains and Uganda releasing water from dams. The floods have damaged homes, crops, and infrastructure and impacted education and health services.
Over 1.4 million people have been affected and 379,000 have been displaced by the floods. Settlement camps were already housing thousands of refugees fleeing the violence in Sudan. These were also impacted by the floods.
War Child’s response was to provide immediate support to the displaced people in transit camps and host communities. Our target was to reach 3,000 individuals, but we exceeded that – reaching over 4,000 people with our activities.
We provided 1,000 people with psychosocial support, and 4,236 people with information about how to stay safe and healthy in floods. We also provided 215 people with goods like soap, blankets and buckets.
It's 2025 and our work hasn't stopped
Through our dedicated teams and partners, we're ensuring that conflict doesn't determine the future of children and families.
