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Like many other children in Aotearoa, Sophie*, 6, wants less plastic and waste. They worry about the waste and plastic that ends up in our oceans and harms our sea life.
Children are asking leaders to urgently prioritise policies that reduce plastic and waste production.
Reduce plastic & waste pollution
Put children first at COP28
Afghanistan:
Price Hikes Push Food Out Of Reach For Millions Of Children
Millions of children in Afghanistan could be pushed into severe hunger as a result of rising food prices, drought and displacement, Save the Children warned, after the UN reported the cost of wheat, rice, sugar and cooking oil has increased by more than 50% compared with pre-COVID-19 prices.
A survey of 630 newly displaced families in Kabul, carried out by Save the Children earlier this month, already found that all of the families had run up debts in order to buy food. Many families have been forced to sell their possessions, cut back on meals or send their children out to work in order to buy food.
Save the Children warned that people's ability to buy food is likely to be further limited by the lack of operating banks and ATMS, which prevents them from accessing their savings.
Add Your Name:
TO FIGHT Climate change
add your name:
OUR TAMARIKI
To meet the 1.5º C scenario of the Paris Agreement, the world needs to reduce emissions by nearly 8 per cent per year from 2020 to 2030. We must act now!
Investing in cleaner transport options, like electric cars and greener public transport, plus ensuring high emitters are held accountable are amongst some of the solutions posed by children.
Lower carbon emissions
Children like Oli*, 14 and Lola*, 15, are demanding clear and cohesive climate action – now.
They are asking for decision makers to lead and champion policies that seek to reduce emissions in line with our net zero targets and prepare for the impacts of climate change through climate adaptation policies and projects.
Prioritise climate policy
About Save the Children New Zealand
We’re fighting for a world where every child realises the right to survival, protection, development and participation.
Our Vision
We aim to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives.
Our Mission
We are guided by our five core values: accountability, ambition, collaboration, creativity and integrity.
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To Join Oli*, Aarthi*, Jasper*, Camille*, Lola*, Saketha* and Sophie* in speaking up for climate action.
Afsana’s Story:
Growing Up In Bangladesh’s Largest Brothel
10-year-old Afsana* lives in Bangladesh’s largest brothel.
She’s tired because her mother Tuli*, a sex worker, entertains clients in the next room while she and her six-year-old brother try to sleep. Drunken men and women roam the dirty alleyways all night looking for drugs and alcohol, which are readily available in the brothel’s lanes.
But just a few hundred metres down the train tracks is another world – the primary school where Afsana gets to be a child again.
Save the Children and a local partner organisation founded the school for children from the brothel in 1997. At that time, local schools wouldn’t accept the children of sex workers, meaning girls like Afsana were left uneducated and vulnerable to following their mothers into sex work.
We need to ensure that there are educational programmes and healthcare support available to help every last child find their way out - and give them an opportunity for a better future for themselves and their families.
This is why we need your signature to help us in our efforts as we work towards providing them with:
Access to education
Access to healthcare and counselling
Assistance with re-integrating them into their community
With your support and alongside our partners, you can protect children and save girls in Bangladesh from a future in sex slavery.
Take action today and pledge to give children from a chance to an education and a life free from sex slavery.
Click the button below to sign the petition today!
Athena Rayburn, Director of Advocacy and Campaigns at Save the Children Afghanistan, said:
"The spike in prices will push food out of reach for many families, particularly those who have been displaced from their homes and are living on next to nothing. Conflict, drought and COVID-19 have already pushed millions of children into hunger and misery in Afghanistan - now they could be pushed even closer to the brink of famine."
Join the movement and take a stand for children in Afghanistan by giving them a new chance at life and break the cycle of poverty.
Every day Afsana goes to school, works hard and dreams of the day she and her mother can leave the brothel. Afsana is the second-best student in grade three and hopes to be a doctor when she grows up. “I want to be a doctor so that I can help my family if anything happens to them,” she says. But that dream will never become a reality without an education and the school Afsana attends is the place where children can get one.
Join the movement and take a stand for children in slum brothels by giving them a new chance at life through education and break the cycle of poverty.
*Names have been changed to protect identities.
What We're Asking
There is much at stake for children who will bear the brunt of the climate crisis as they experience increasing climate impacted weather emergencies in their lifetime such as wildfires, floods, or droughts.
In addition to the urgent calls from New Zealand children concerned about the climate crisis, we are seeing the impact first hand in the work we do to save and improve children’s lives all over the world. In our own backyard, we have seen the devastation caused by Cyclone Gabrielle and multiple flooding events, with some children and their families still unable to return home. In Vanuatu, back-to-back cyclones, Kevin and Judy, have left many families still struggling to access basics, while in Solomon Islands, rising sea levels are impacting communities’ livelihoods.
The Pacific is on the frontline of the climate crisis, despite doing very little to cause this crisis.
We know that the climate crisis is serious and we are committed to supporting our children share their concerns and calls to action. We will be continuing to call for political action to mitigate the impact of climate change and we will be promoting the voices of children to our political leaders and key global moments such as COP28.
YES, I WOULD LIKE TO
PLEDGE MY SUPPORT
Our children care deeply about climate change
They are demanding political action for a healthy environment that protects people, planet, and animals.
Earlier this year we received around 200 messages from children in Aotearoa New Zealand to political leaders calling for climate action.
These messages were presented to party representatives from three of our major parties, the Greens, Labour and National. Among the representatives were Ministers for the Environment and Climate Change. These messages were then presented to world leaders at the UN Sustainable Development Goals Summit, alongside messages from other children around the globe.
"You have led us well in the past and I'm certain you can do it again." Oli*, 14
Your decisions now impact our future and the planet we will inherit.
We (the children of Aotearoa) are worried about climate change. Our anxiety and despair for our planet is real. We need to know that politicians are taking action now to feel hopeful for our future.
We are asking you to join us in calling for decision makers to:
Reduce plastic and waste pollution
Lower carbon emissions
Prioritise and invest in policies for climate action
Give Young Children Growing Up In Slum Brothels A Chance For A Better Future.
Bangladesh’s largest slum brothel - just one of many in the region - is the size of a small city and houses over 1,500 women and 1,000 children.
These women and children live largely out of sight from mainstream society - facing exclusion from education, life-saving healthcare, and their communities. Needing to provide for their children, mothers who were likely sold or trafficked into the brothel to start with, find themselves unable to leave and forced to work to pay off debts.
Children live with their mothers in rooms smaller than most one-car garages. When their mothers bring their customers home, they hide under beds while their mothers are working or they are pushed into the alleyway to play. Customers will use them to run errands, like fetching alcohol or drugs, and in some cases, they are tasked with cleaning up after customers have left. Some will be groomed to be the future of the business like their mothers and grandmothers.
We are calling on the Government to consult with children before this Bill progresses further.
We can not continue to let these children suffer.
We call for an end to the cycle of sexual exploitation of children in Bangladesh.
Our target: 6,000
3,519 signatures added so far
10,700 have signed. Let's get to 11,000!
200 Kiwi children shared their messages for urgent climate action to leaders here in Aotearoa New Zealand and across the globe.
"Save our planet from burning. Save our seas from dying. Save our future generations from suffering."- Saketha*, 15
Join us in ensuring their voices are heard.
* These children and their parents were happy to have their messages shared with supporters like you.