Save the Children Voices from the Field

A Mother Knows

Nastasia Paul-Gera, Save the Children Fellow

West Showa, Ethiopia

May 13, 2013

I visited West Showa, Ethiopia, in October 2012 as a Princeton in Africa Fellow for Gender for the Save the Children, Ethiopia Country Program. 

The Sponsorship program works extensively across West Showa, and adolescent mothers are among its beneficiaries. The program’s primary beneficiaries are children, but work with these young mothers acknowledges that girls and boys do not live in a vacuum. Children of adolescent parents are at higher risk of health complications, as well as academic failure. Interventions that target children can’t afford to ignore their mothers and fathers, who play a critical role in children’s physical and social development.

Ethiopia is one of seven countries that account for half of the 8 million children born to adolescents every year. Studies show that these mothers face a higher risk of physical and social disadvantages.  Moreover, they are frequently school drop-outs and are at higher risk of exploitation and abuse.

To help them, the Sponsorship program began an Adolescent Mothers’ Group in West Showa, with approximately 30 participants. The group is a forum for discussions about reproductive health, life skills, self esteem, family planning, and HIV/Aids, among other subjects. Participants in the group have studied up to 3rd grade – or not at all. The small room they work in is set up like a classroom and adolescent mothers, with their young children in their arms, sit together and, guided by a curriculum, discuss these issues.

One of the topics the mothers discussed during my visit was hygiene. They stated that hygiene and water management are the responsibility of women and girls. Interestingly, they mentioned that, once a girl is in school, her domestic responsibilities will lessen and she has a greater chance of staying in school. However, if she leaves, she is responsible for all household activities. The mothers also discussed reproductive health, a taboo topic prior to the formation of the group. Through the course of the curriculum, the women will explore family planning, sexually transmitted diseases and child spacing.

The two final topics discussed during my visit were female genital cutting (FGM/C) and abductions, both extremely common practices. The young mothers stated that girls are often cut without their parents’ consent, so practitioners of FGM/C are an important entry point for efforts to eradicate the practice. Abductions, they stated, are also extremely common. Girls are frequently abducted and raped on their way to and from school and, given the cultural taboo that forbids these young girls from returning to their parents’ home, they are forced to marry the men who raped them. Community leaders are an important entry point to challenging the practice.

The adolescent mothers I met were undoubtedly sensitive to the gender-related challenges in their community and to the actions needed to address the challenges. They are already playing a role in re-shaping harmful community practices, primarily through information-dissemination to community members. They recommended expanding child-to-child programming, as well as involving men in some of the discussions. Yes, these young women are a vulnerable, marginalized and frequently ignored group, but they are also a resource with the capacity to bring about great positive change within their communities. The Adolescent Mothers Group helps address their vulnerabilities, while capitalizing on their abilities.

According to one group member, “We are different from our mothers who were dominated by our fathers. We are also decision makers.”

Interested in joining our community of sponsors? Click here to learn more.

Keeping Expectant Mothers and Children Protected During California Wildfires

Jeanne-Aimee De Marrais, Advisor, Domestic Emergencies, Save the Children

Westport, CT

May 4, 2013

As wildfires continue to wreak havoc in California, Save the Children is releasing the following two-part guidance to protect those who are the most vulnerable. Follow this combination of tips, created by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and our own disaster preparedness experts, to help expectant mothers and families with young children stay safe and protected during the wildfires or any fire emergency.

Tips for expectant mothers and parents with young children facing evacuation

• Be prepared to evacuate quickly and have important items (such as copies of medical records and medications) ready to go— you may not have much time.
• When checking into a shelter or temporary housing, alert the staff if you are pregnant or think you might be pregnant.
• If pregnant, seek prenatal care even if it is not with your usual provider. 
• Make sure health care providers at the shelter know about any special needs or health problems that you or your child have, or any medicines you might be taking (both over the counter and prescription.)
• If you don't have your infant's medicine with you, ask health care providers at the shelter for assistance in getting it.
• Make sure your baby gets plenty of breast milk or formula, and you drink enough water.
• Pregnant women and children should stay indoors, if possible, to avoid breathing smoke or fumes. Rest often and stay inside if possible.
• If you’re pregnant, rest often and get plenty of water.

 (Guidelines derived from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. To see the complete guidance--Wildfires: Information for Pregnant Women and Parents of Young Infants--please visit http://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/Emergency/WildFires.htm)

For more information on how to keep you and your children safe during a wildfire, visit the website of the Center for Disease and Control Prevention.

General fire safety tips for families

Save the Children wishes to remind parents, teachers, and caregivers about the importance of child fire safety. About 80 percent of all fire-related deaths and injuries occur in the home, and young children are at a particularly high risk. They may not understand the danger or may not be able to escape. Children under the age of 5 account for almost half of all home fire victims. Children in the poorest homes face the greatest risk of death. Every family member should know exactly what to do in case of a fire emergency. Precious seconds can be lost when someone can’t find a way out in the dark or does not know how to release a window lock. Having a family fire safety plan and practicing it will save lives.

Here are some tips for keeping families safe. For further guidance specific to your community, contact your local fire department.

• Talk to children about fire safety. Children accidentally set many of the fires that harm them. Teach children not to play with matches and lighters. If they see matches or lighters within reach, teach them not to touch but go tell a grown up right away.
• Teach children the DON'T HIDE, GO OUTSIDE rule in the event of a fire. Fires are scary, but they should NEVER hide in closets or under beds when there is a fire.
• To escape during a fire, teach children to FALL & CRAWL. It is easier to breath in a fire if you stay low while getting out. Use the back of your hand to test if a door is hot before you open it. If it is hot, try to use another way out.
• Practice STOP, DROP and ROLL: If clothes catch on fire, don’t run.  Stop where you are, drop to the ground and roll your body back and forth until the fire is out.  Running makes the fire burn faster.
• Teach children to never go back into a burning building for any reason.  If someone is missing, tell a firefighter.
• Make a family fire plan and practice it. The plan should include identifying two exits from each room and marking an outside meeting place. Practice escaping by both exits to be sure windows are not stuck and screens can be quickly taken out.
• Make sure street signs and address numbers are easily visible so fire trucks and emergency responders can find where they need to be.
• Teach children what a fire alarm sounds like and make sure that it will effectively wake them in the middle of the night.
• Ensure smoke detectors are installed on every floor and in the sleeping areas of your home, and that batteries are changed twice per year. Carbon Monoxide detectors are also recommended. Test these alarms to make sure they can effectively wake family members.
• If there are security bars or locks on doors, make sure all family members know how to release them.  All family members should be able to escape from the second floor.
• Know your local emergency number. Put stickers and magnets with emergency numbers on your refrigerator and every telephone in the house.

Parents should also take steps to learn about their child’s school or child care fire safety plan, as part of an overall emergency plan. They should also ensure that any family friends have evacuation plans in case a child spends the night elsewhere.

“I really want to return to school soon”

Fan Xiaowen, Program Manager 

Sichaun, China

April 29, 2013

Xinqun, age 12, grabbed her 6-month-old baby sister when the earthquake struck and ran to an open area, away from her home.

Both sisters were unhurt in the 7.0 magnitude earthquake that struck on April 20^th, 2013, that killed at least 190 people and injuring at least 11,000 others. Xinqun learnt to react in an earthquake after her school started holding earthquake drills, highlighting the importance of preparing children for disasters in these quake-prone areas.

“The roof collapsed, and the walls cracked. But thank goodness that no one was hurt,” she said.

The two sisters live with their grandparents and mother. Their father works in Kangding while their elder sister works in a factory in Lushan. Both were in quake-hit areas, but were unharmed.

“The first night after the earthquake, we slept in a makeshift shelter and we had hardly any food to eat. Even my mother did not seem to have enough breast milk to feed my 6 month old baby sister,” Xinqun said.

“Each time there was an aftershock, I was very scared.”

Yuxi Village is Baosheng township’s most remote village. It took more than a day for the rescue crew reach them and set up a camp site for them. On the evening of April 21^st, Xinqun and her family had a tent over their heads and received bottled water, instant noodles and rice from the government rescue team.

“I wished my sister could have some diapers,” Xinqun said. “She wets the bed now without any diapers at night, so I hope we can get her some soon. “

When Save the Children arrived the following day, we were told that no other aid (besides the dry foods, bottled water and shelter) had reached the quake-affected population but the people needed essential items such as diapers, towels and soaps. As such, a range of immediate relief items were distributed, including towels, sanitary napkins, soaps, hand sanitizer, raincoats, plastic tarp, toilet paper and baby diapers to 148 families in Yuxi village, reaching 200 adults and 244 children.

Xinqun came on behalf of her family to collect the relief items. “I’m glad that my baby sister has diapers now,” she said.

Xinqun also hopes to return to school soon. She studies in a primary school in Lushan, and comes home to spend time with her family on weekends.  

“We could not contact the teachers or the school after the earthquake so I did not go back to school,” she said.  

“I really want to return to school soon.”

“I hope to have a space to play with other children here”

Fan Xiaowen, Program Manager 

Sichaun, China

April 23, 2013

Li Zixin was playing when a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Sichuan Province on 20th April, killing at least 190 people and leaving thousands injured.

"I was playing at home," 6-year-old Zixin said. "My grandmother pulled me up and we ran outside. We watched our house collapse."

The temblor left Zixin and many of his neighbours’ homes badly damaged. When they went back in, they found that all their furniture and belongings were destroyed except for a few bowls. Zixin lives alone with his 86-year-old grandmother in Jingkou village, Sichuan Province, China, as his mother passed away when he was just six months old and his father works in Xi an in order to support the family.

"On the first night, we were too afraid to sleep in side, so we slept in an open area," Zixin said. "We did not bring any extra clothes with us."

Military officials arrived the next day, setting up a camp site for about 60 families who were displaced in the disaster.

"Grandmother and I were given a tent to sleep in and some biscuits and bottled water," Zixin said. "It was raining all day and night and the ground was very wet. It was very cold throughout the night."

Save the Children arrived in Jingkou village two days after the earthquake. The team brought with them initial relief supplies including towels, sanitary napkins, soaps, hand sanitizer, raincoats, plastic tarp, toilet paper and baby diapers.

The team was told that families had no water to wash their hands because there was not enough clean water, so the assessment team distributed 48 bottles of wash-free hand sanitizer to the camp centre.

Having lost their home and all their belongings, it may be a while before Zixin and his grandmother’s lives return to normal. The young boy has not been enrolled in preschool as his family cannot afford the school fees.

Zixin said: "I hope to have a space to play with the other children here."

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Children Most Vulnerable in the Aftermath of Sichuan Earthquake

Children Most Vulnerable in the Aftermath of Sichuan Earthquake

Fan Xiaowen, Program Manager 

Sichaun, China

April 21, 2013

It was not a typical Saturday for the children in Sichuan, China. Instead of enjoying a weekend morning, a 7.0 magnitude temblor rocked the province, causing buildings to collapse and roads to be blocked due to debris and landslides.

At least 180 people have been killed in the most affected areas of Ya’an and Lushan, children among them. Overall, 1.5 million people have been affected and tens of thousands left homeless. Rescue workers dove straight into action, trying to pull as many people out of the rubble within the first 72 hours, also known as the golden hours for rescuing quake affected people.

In Chengdu, where Save the Children’s closest field office is located, tremors were felt but little damage was sustained. Despite having families to care for as well, staff immediately arranged to go into the field to assess the damage and impact on the most vulnerable children and their families in the worst-affected areas of Ya’an and Lushan.

But the rescue and assessment efforts will not be easy. Roads have been blocked due to debris and landslides. Many could be cut off as rescue workers find their way through the rubble. Electrical lines are down and mobile communications signal poor in some areas. Wet weather has also been predicted by weather forecasters in the coming days. Mudslides and flash floods are also possible with heavy rain in the mountainous areas. Temperatures are expected to fall to as low as 13 degrees Celsius at night, and children without blankets and shelter could be left out in the cold. 

More than 24 hours have passed, and children could have spent the night without clean water, hot food, blankets and a bed to sleep in. As we go into the worst-affected areas, we are especially concerned about the children who have been separated from their parents in the chaos.

It is going to be a very distressing period for young children, especially those who have lost their homes and playgrounds and had school interrupted. They will almost certainly require a safe place to play, learn and talk through their experience in order to regain a sense of normalcy again.

About 230,000 children have been affected in this earthquake and we are now working around the clock to reach vulnerable children and their families.

 

A School is Transformed; Communities and Generations are Changed Forever!

Dr. Tererai Trent, Scholar, Humanitarian, and Founder, Tinogona Foundation

March 29, 2013

Tererai Trent was selected by Oprah as her All-Time Favorite Guest in May 2011, and honored with a special gift – a donation from The Oprah Winfrey Foundation for Save the Children to rebuild the Matau Primary School and improve learning for children in the community where Tererai grew up in Zimbabwe.

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On a sunny day, bright light streams in from the holes in the roof to the classroom below. But during the rainy season, water pours in. Teachers rush to move their students and learning materials into the dry corners of the room.

When it storms, roaring winds rip the roofs off school buildings. The result? The open-air classrooms are condemned for use and students are shuffled into already crowded classrooms, or have to attend school in shifts.

And so it continues, year after year, the relentless sun, rain and wind. It takes a toll on the school structure. On the floor where children sit, the cement is broken away, leaving gaping holes throughout the room.

These are the conditions under which children went to the Matau Primary School. But I could be describing any number of schools throughout my beloved Zimbabwe.The environment is not safe and distracts children from learning. That is why I have always dreamed of building a better school for the children of my village. Today, with tears in my eyes, I can tell you that my hopes and dreams are about to come true.

Thanks to the generosity of Oprah, Save the Children and my community embarked on a project to build a new primary school in Matau.

Here is what has been completed since we began this journey in 2011:  

• 5 new classrooms, painted and equipped with locally made desks, chairs, etc.
• 2 teachers’ houses
• 1 borehole drilled and piped. (This is the first time children can access clean water on the school grounds. Tinogona t-shirt money paid for this.)
• 1 preschool center
• 1 playground
• New latrines and hand washing stations

Children and teachers are already filling up these beautiful spaces, which were lovingly built with nearly 400,000 bricks made by hand by community volunteers.

Here is what will be finished in a few months:

• 1 library (filled with books)
• 1 administrative building
• 1 new classroom
• Here is what we will finish repairing and rehabilitating over the next several months:
• 7 teachers’ house
• 6 secondary school classrooms

They say a picture speaks a thousand words. The images here of the Matau Primary School, showing the before and after, the transformation, speak for themselves. It is incredible. Tinogona. It is achievable!

This entry was originally posted on Tererai’s Facebook page on March 26th.

Building government health systems in Bangladesh

Areba Panni, Advisor-Strategic Communications, MCHIP/Save the Children

Dhaka, Bangladesh

March 28, 2013

Bangladesh is a low-income nation in South Asia and one of the most densely populated countries in the world.  Despite this, maternal mortality rates have decreased by 40 percent since 2001 and the country is on track to achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on reducing maternal and child deaths by 2015. In fact, only eight other countries out of the 74 that account for most of the maternal and child deaths can claim this achievement. Maternal deaths remain concentrated in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, an indication of global disparities in women’s access to much needed care during pregnancy, delivery, and the postpartum period as well as family planning services.  Bangladesh’s astonishing progress in the health sector can be credited in part to the government and communities working together at the district level to deliver lifesaving assistance to mothers and babies in need.

An innovative safe motherhood project “MaMoni,” meaning “mother-child,” has been supporting health systems coordination and service delivery in fifteen sub-districts of rural Bangladesh since 2009.  Funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the MaMoni project is run by Save the Children in Bangladesh and two local NGOs, Shimantik and FIVDB, in partnership with Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. The project aims to integrate household, community, and governmental efforts to achieve improved health outcomes from the district level down to the grassroots.  

As part of its reform agenda called “USAID Forward,” USAID is focused on delivering results in an efficient and sustainable way, by building the capacity of country governments and by providing more funds to country governments directly. In Bangladesh, USAID is boosting the capacity of the government to deliver health services to rural areas. The agency has aligned its approach with the government’s health sector strategy and for the first time is investing $40 million over five years in the Bangladesh government through the World Bank’s “Single Donor Trust Fund” to support health care and other sectors. 

The investment by the United States and other donors to improve the government’s health service delivery systems is making a big difference for women facing birth emergencies. Last year, Mariam Begum, who was living in a small village, was experiencing pain and heavy bleeding following the birth of her child. A local community volunteer, trained by MaMoni staff to recognize severe conditions like Mariam’s, helped arrange her transport by a water ambulance to the nearest government-owned health center where she was further evaluated. When the health center was unable to deal with the severity of her condition, she was transferred to the district hospital.  Mariam’s life was saved due to the quick assessment of her condition by a community volunteer and the linkages between the community and government health workers. 

In addition to facilitating delivery of emergency services, MaMoni focuses on institution building and community engagement and will assist the management of 11,000 community clinics set up by the government in the country to roll out trainings for community health care providers. MaMoni trains government health workers to offer women pre- and post- pregnancy counseling, birth assistance, vaccinations, and counseling on exclusive breastfeeding.

A network of more than 13,000 community volunteers set up and trained by MaMoni respond to the needs of mothers and newborns, spot cases that require treatment in health facilities, and help organize local health planning meetings. The community volunteers collect health information from the community and meet with frontline government health workers at the end of every month to update registers. Large wall charts in the government’s family welfare centers track where pregnant women live, their due dates, and whether they are experiencing complications that should be monitored.   MaMoni staff are in regular dialogue with the government to help improve their information systems and service delivery.

Based on these best practices from MaMoni, USAID is working with other districts to introduce health systems strengthening projects. USAID’s ultimate goal is to demonstrate a successful model and enable the government of Bangladesh to take it to scale throughout the country.

USAID’s investments in government capacity building help to ensure the long-term sustainability of health programming in Bangladesh beyond the life of MaMoni and other projects.   With these investments, survival rates of at-risk mothers like Mariam increase and the coordination between communities and the government improves the quality of and the access to women’s health services throughout Bangladesh.

 

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The Garden of My Heart

Dr. Tererai Trent, Scholar, Humanitarian, and Founder, Tinogona Foundation

March 26, 2013

Tererai Trent was selected by Oprah as her All-Time Favorite Guest in May 2011, and honored with a special gift – a donation from The Oprah Winfrey Foundation for Save the Children to rebuild the Matau Primary School and improve learning for children in the community where Tererai grew up in Zimbabwe.

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Spring arrived today, and I keep thinking about Matau in Zimbabwe, where my roots are firmly grounded. Nearly two years ago, Oprah gave me an incredible gift to help the children in my home village blossom into educated and aspirational adults. Today, we are nearing a rebirth and renewal in this little pocket of Africa, and in the garden of my heart.

Mothers, father, teachers, brothers, sisters – have all come together with Save the Children to feed the minds and cultivate growth in learning among the youngest seedlings. Extraordinary things can happen when you put the right tools in the hands of communities. They flourish. There is so much exciting news to share.

It begins with smiling and laughing preschoolers, pushing each other higher and higher on the swings. Two years ago, there were no playgrounds in these rural villages. Through the education project, communities are learning how to build safe playgrounds with local materials provided by the villagers themselves. Two playgrounds have already been constructed.

Play is good for children. It helps them grow and learn important skills, and it is fun. It is wonderful to see the joy on the children’s faces in these photos. Their smiles are contagious.

This entry was originally posted on Tererai’s Facebook page on March 20th.

The Courage to Dream: The Story of Rotse

Avemar Tan, Sponsorship Officer

Manila, Philippines 

March 21, 2012

The village where Rotse lives has no access to electricity. Sanitation systems are rare and not every house has its own water supply. At 13, Rotse has never seen a television or a cellphone and, if not for Save the Children, would never have seen a camera.

Rotse is from the indigenous tribe of T’boli and speaks the T’boli dialect. Until recently, the Philippine government mandated the use of Filipino in schools, marginalizing children like Rotse. Nevertheless, Rotse loves school. She wakes up every morning when the roosters crow and the first hint of sunshine pierces the sky. Rotse and her family do not own a clock. In her entire life, she has seen only one clock, the one on her classroom wall. She and her family tell time as our ancestors did, by the crow of the rooster and the position of the sun.

After school, Rotse helps her mother and siblings with the chores, then uses the remaining daylight to study lessons she hardly understands – words and sentences that are, to her, in a foreign language.

Rotse’s mother was married when she was only 12, given in exchange for a carabao (a Philippine water buffalo) that her family needed to till the land that was their source of food. With tears in her eyes, she tells us how her parents’ decision changed her life. She recounts the hardships she suffered and is firm in saying she wants something better for her daughter. Rotse seems to share this thought, expressing her desire to finish school and make life better for her family.

We ask Rotse what she wants to be when she grows up. Our translator says, “She wants to be a teacher.” Feeling this is not an accurate translation, we prod the interpreter to tell us more. Finally she relents, “A maid, she wants to be a maid, for the Ilonggo [a wealthier local tribe].” Rotse’s mother and aunt laugh it off, but Rotse’s innocent answer offers a glimpse of how hopeless she feels.

Rotse’s tale is just one story of how children in the Philippines struggle with the poverty that is robbing them of hope. But with your help, Save the Children sponsorship programs can offer children like Rotse a better future – and the courage to dream.

Interested in joining our community of sponsors? Click here to learn more.

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Little Hands working towards Big Changes

Liberia’s Government Takes the Helm to Protect Vulnerable Children

Geoffrey Oyat, Child Protection Manager

Monrovia, Liberia

February 28, 2013

Mr. Mulbah, a farmer in Gleegbar Town in northwest Liberia, was persuaded by a distant family member to send his four older children to a boarding school in Monrovia in 2007.  This school, Aunt Musu said, would provide a better life for his two sons and two daughters since there was no good school in Gleegbar Town. Four years later, Mr. Mulbah was notified that his children were living in an orphanage, where they had been beaten, starved, and forced to beg for money on the streets. Mr. Mulbah’s children were returned to him in July 2011 and he is now caring for a family of nine and sending all his children to the local school in Gleegbar Town. Although Mr. Mulbah is now reunited with his children, many other parents in the region still face uncertainty about their kids’ whereabouts.

Poor services and poverty in rural areas compel parents to send their children to the capital city Monrovia with hopes for a better life for their children. Parents enroll their kids in orphanages with false promises of funding for their education. An assessment done by Liberia’s Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in 2008 found that a majority of the 5,000 children living in orphanages in Liberia are not orphaned but wrongly placed.    

The Government of Liberia is faced with the daunting task of supervising orphanages and ensuring the protection of Liberia’s two million children. Moreover, the country is still recovering from a 16-year civil war and its institutional capacity remains weak.

Over the past decade, Save the Children has been assisting Liberia’s Department of Social Welfare, the government ministry responsible for child protection on measures and structures to prevent and respond to abuse, neglect, exploitation and violence affecting children. 

With funding from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID)’s Displaced Children and Orphan’s Fund, and administered by World Learning, Save the Children Liberia has been removing children from the streets, unsafe orphanages, and other risky circumstances, and reintegrating them with their parents when possible. We have also helped parents to improve their skills and economic opportunities to prevent family separations in the first place.  

With its latest package of reforms called “USAID Forward”, USAID is investing more resources in building the capacity of Liberia’s institutions to take over essential functions such as child protection and health services that were primarily led by international NGOs and private contractors in the years immediately following the war. By shifting these responsibilities –from US entities to the Liberian public sector – USAID is fostering sustainable development and reducing the need for U.S. development assistance over time.

Over the past several years, Save the Children's role has expanded beyond providing child protection services alongside Liberia’s Department of Social Welfare. We are now working to help improve the government’s tracking and protection system for vulnerable children. In the USAID-funded project called, “Educating and Protecting Vulnerable Children in Family Settings” project, we are setting up a case management system for the Department of Social Welfare, in partnership with World Learning, to enhance the government’s ability to prevent vulnerable children from being separated from their families and reintegrate those that have been separated. World Learning has also been working to build the capacity of the Department of Social Welfare in child protection and other priority areas. Since the project began, we have prevented 457 separations and returned 221 children, ages 4 to 18, to safe homes.

Once the project is over in 2014, the Department of Social Welfare will take leadership over the protection and unification of children in Liberia. They will have quality baseline information on vulnerable families in six counties and an active county-level database of families linked to the national record. Moreover, members of Liberia’s judiciary and police will be able to work with 36 community groups and local leaders trained by Save the Children to identify child protection risks, relevant laws, and local services provided by the Department of Social Welfare.   

Building stronger and more responsive government institutions is a challenging task, particularly in a country like Liberia that has been so deeply impacted by war. Efforts by Save the Children, however, help to ensure that U.S. development assistance not only improves the lives of vulnerable children in Liberia now but also strengthens the country’s public institutions to lead and drive effective service delivery for at-risk kids in Liberia in the future.