INDONESIA: Children forced to learn in tents after volcanic eruption closes schools and displaces 15,000 people

Maysa*, 28, and her husband, Bahaa*, 24, have two young children; Khalid*, three, and Khansa*, one and a half. The family is now living in a displacement camp in Syria after fleeing the violence in Lebanon. In 2019, Bahaa fled Syria to Lebanon, to escape escalating violence in his village, in search of safety and work. In Lebanon, he married Maysa*, a Syrian refugee. The family worked in agriculture, living in tents set up in the fields they worked in. Life wasn’t so easy for them, often landowners withheld their wages which were barely enough to cover basic needs. Some non-governmental organisations provided aid, which helped them get by, but life remained tough. When the violence escalated in Lebanon, the family fled to Syria to save the lives of their children. Save the Children is assisting the family by providing Ready-to-Eat kits, hygiene kits, dignity kits for women, and Plumpy Nut butter for children under 5 years. They are one of the 117 families who arrived on October 29, 2024, in one of the displacement camps in Syria and are living through difficult conditions. They have limited access to water, food, and warm clothes for their children. Despite receiving some basic supplies, such as blankets, a tent, and food baskets, the extreme cold affected their son’s health, and he fell sick. Roni Ahmed / Save the Children

When Sofiya* (13) fled her home in Kherson in southern Ukraine, she could only take a few t-shirts and a pair of shorts in a small backpack she shared with her mother, Nataliia* (44). They had lived under occupation for five months and had the chance to leave but could take basically nothing of their former lives with them. They were also leaving behind Sofiya’s father, who needed to stay in Kherson for work. Sofiya and Nataliia were displaced to the Zaporizhzhia region in eastern Ukraine. When Kherson was de-occupied, they returned to the city and their home. But the bombardments were too intense in Kherson, and Nataliia made the difficult decision to leave her home again with Sofiya to keep her safe. Nataliia and Sofiya now live in the Mykolaiv region in a rented house they share with Sofiya’s grandmother, Oksana*. When the Kakhovka dam was destroyed in June 2023, Nataliia and Sofiya’s home in Kherson was completely flooded and destroyed. The water almost covered the entire roof of their home. Nataliia says as a mother in Ukraine you need to be very brave – she says it’s also incredibly difficult to watch your children grow up so quickly due to the war. Nataliia is worried about the upcoming winter because the house they rent is only connected to electricity and means they will have no way to heat it when the power blackouts start across the country. Electricity is also very expensive, and she’s not sure how she’s going afford to keep the house warm. As a freezing winter intensifies in Ukraine, the risks for children are immense. The war has severely impacted energy infrastructure and it’s predicated that families may face up to 20 hours a day without power, threatening their health and wellbeing, access to education and ability to keep warm. Some children are also living in homes damaged by shelling, potentially leaving them exposed to sub-zero temperatures, and health risks such as hypothermia. Save the Children’s support Nataliia and Sofiya’s rented house has a large hole in the roof where it was damaged by shelling. They say when it rains that water leaks through all the light fittings and that they need to place buckets everywhere. Save the Children has provided the family with cash assistance to repair their roof as soon as possible. Sacha Myers / Save the Children