We’re on the ground, working to reach children and their families with lifesaving support while helping communities recover.
When war breaks out and disaster strikes, the chaos and insecurity that follows leaves children and their families at high risk. They lose their home, school and often loved ones. Their access to food, water and health care is affected, and many children are left vulnerable to abuse and exploitation.
With the sheer scale of our infrastructure and long-term development work around the world, UNICEF can act quickly, delivering lifesaving help to children in just 48 hours. When food is scarce in Yemen and across the Horn of Africa, we provide children with nutrition and health care. When schools are destroyed in Syria, we set up tented classrooms. In the Pacific, we deliver vaccines to stop preventable diseases that can thrive in the aftermath of disasters.
These are just some of the ways UNICEF responds to help children and families impacted by emergencies.
Gaza Crisis
Since the violence escalated on 7 October 2023, almost every child in the Gaza Strip has been exposed to deeply distressing events and trauma marked by widespread destruction, relentless attacks, displacement, and severe shortages of essential necessities such as food, water, and medicine.
Over 1.9 million people have become internally displaced, around half of them children, and many have sought refuge in overcrowded shelters with extremely limited access to water, sanitation and hygiene – conditions that are especially dangerous for young children.
Access is difficult and limited, but our teams won’t give up trying to get critical supplies to children. By donating today, you can help us be there for children and families in desperate need.
Helping children and their communities to recover
UNICEF responds to hundreds of emergencies every year, here in Australia and around the world. When disaster strikes, our teams act quickly to deliver clean, safe water and essential medical supplies to prevent malnutrition and illness. We help new mothers give birth safely, and we provide lifesaving vaccines to protect children from deadly disease outbreaks.
Helping communities recover also means creating safe spaces for children so that they can continue to learn and play, build innovative tents for children and families to shelter in, and provide psychosocial support to help children process and cope with their changing world.
Always there in emergencies
Ensuring children caught up in conflict don’t miss out on education.
For over a year, eight-year-old Hlib and his two brothers have been sharing a single smartphone to do their schoolwork, taking turns to log on to do their lessons. But now, they are among thousands of children in Ukraine to have received tablets and laptops from UNICEF and our partners so that they can continue to study amid the ongoing war in Ukraine.
"I was worried about their eyesight, which had deteriorated due to small texts on the small screen,” says Iievheniia, Hlib's mother. “The new tablets will make life easier for all of us.”
We’re there when disaster strikes.
When three earthquakes struck Afghanistan in October 2023, it caused a devastating loss of life and destroyed many homes and villages. It also put increased pressure on struggling health, nutrition, hygiene and education services, placing more children at risk. Because UNICEF has been in Afghanistan for over 50 years, delivering long-term programs, we were able to respond rapidly with much needed help to children and their families.
Emergency response in Afghanistan | UNICEF
In one of the areas hardest hit by the earthquakes in October 2023, UNICEF is supporting communities with emergencies supplies, healthcare and psychosocial support.
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Help us keep children safe during emergencies
We’re working to protect children and help communities recover during times of emergency.
Our recent work in emergencies around the world.
We are always there for children before, during and after an emergency.
