One unmistakable truth persists today: children around the world are facing their greatest levels of need in modern history; they are also facing their own, greatest levels of need; theirs; theirs; futures; isnbsp; battling;nbsp; some of its biggest challenges in decades.
The world’s efforts for development and humanitarianism abruptly slowed down in 2025. Billions of dollars disappeared overnight when the United States abruptly stopped providing foreign aid in January. Millions of people suddenly lost access to food, healthcare, education, and protection after critic programs were suspended and offices  closed. Children, as always, paid the price for the disruption of lifelines that communities had depended on for decades.
The shock was severe and immediate for international NGOs. We had to make some of the toughest decisions in Save the Children’s 106-year history. We had to shut down life-saving operations, close national offices, and eliminate thousands of staff members. We estimated that approximately 11.5 million people, including 6.7 million children, would experience these cuts’ immediate effects, while many others would experience long-term effects.
Children around the world are already facing significant challenges, from conflict to displacement to climate change, with decades of progress at risk of being reversed, as a result of the aid cuts.
The facts are shocking. One in every five children were living in a conflict zone in 2025, where children are being murdered, maimed, sexually assaulted, and kidnapped in unprecedented numbers. Worldwide, there are about 50 million children who have been displaced from their homes. About 1.12 billion children in the world are unable to get a balanced diet, and 272 million of them are not in school.
These figures indicate a global failure. A child’s childhood is being sabotaged, characterized by fear, hunger, and potential, hidden beneath each statistic.
The end of aid was a deeply personal choice for children rather than an abstract one. As the violence, climate shocks, and displacement increased, protection services were shut down, classrooms were closed, and health clinics were closed. Millions of children were suddenly at risk of losing years of hard-won experience in child survival, education, and rights, making them even more vulnerable to hunger, exploitation, and violence.
The global aid system itself is fragile, which was also revealed by the crisis. When a select few government donors receive the bulk of their aid, children’s lives are directly affected by sudden political shifts. The events of 2025 demonstrated how quickly international commitments can fail and how devastating that can be for the least-protected and youngest.
However, something extraordinary transpired in the midst of this chaos.
Families, teachers, health workers, and local organizations found ways to continue learning, provide care, and make spaces where kids can still play, heal, and feel safe in many places. These efforts emphasized a simple truth: Responses are strongest when they are directly related to children.
There were also progressing times. Important legal reforms improved children’s protection in a year marked by uprisings against human rights, including the passage of a digital protection law in Bolivia and the ban on corporal punishment in Thailand. These advancements served as a reminder that even in difficult times, when children’s rights are at the center of public debate and policy, can change be possible.
A moment of reckoning and an opportunity have arisen from the shocks of 2025: adapt, innovate, and follow policies that are more ethical, locally informed, and accountable to the people they are supposed to serve. This change is crucial for children. Decisions made closer to communities are more likely to reflect the real needs and aspirations of children.
Important issues that cannot be postponed have also been revived during this era of reinvention. How can political unrest be avoided for life-saving assistance? How can funding be divided up so that no one leaves the children when a single donor leaves? And how can young people and children make important decisions about their futures?
Innovation alone cannot save children, but it can. Access, accountability, and trust can be improved when data, digital tools, and community-led design are responsibly used. They increase inequality if used improperly. The issue is political and ethical, not technological.
Because bombs fall or aid becomes ineffective, children continue to want to learn, play, or dream. They organize, speak out, and envision futures that adults have failed to secure for them in camps, cities, and ruined neighbourhoods. They serve as a reminder of how crucial our work and adaptability are.
I witnessed the horrors that children are living through every day in Gaza, where the conflict has raged for more than two years and where the Strip is largely covered in rubble. In our healthcare facilities, I witnessed children who were suffering from malnutrition and who now wished to pass away to join their parents in heaven. There should never be a child living in such a terrifying environment as death. They need to be heard because they are children.
If the old aid model’s failures are exposed in 2025, 2026 must become a turning point. A different option that is based on local leadership and held accountable to the children they claim to serve is a possibility. The key is now to reshape our systems so that children always and everywhere are put first, regardless of how the world changes.
Source: Aljazeera
Leave a Reply