Did you know that all our Wonderbooks children’s books are inspired by real-life children who Save the Children has worked with?  

Wonderbooks is a children’s book subscription with a difference.  By supporting Save the Children through Wonderbooks, you’re helping kids around the world explore a world bursting with possibility. Children like Maryam, Lincoln, Rolo and Sera, from your last Wonderbooks will benefit from your donation and our work with local communities. Together we power possible, one book at a time! 

How do we support these children and their families? We work to keep children safe, healthy and learning here in the UK and in other 117 countries. When children in the UK and around the world are well-fed, healthy and learning, we all have more reasons to smile. In 2020, we helped 45 million children across the world get the medicine, good food and education they need.  Your support means small farmers in Somalia can grow crops that can resist droughts. It means we can make apps that link struggling families in Bangladesh to healthcare for their kids. It means Ukrainian children have child friendly play spaces in our refugee camps in Romania and Poland. In short, your monthly donation help keep kids safe, healthy and happy and it also promotes children’s voices – sparking a new generation of curious, determined people like you. Here we break down your £9 donation by our cost and your impact.

Since we’ve launched, we’ve sent around 25,000 Wonderbooks to more than 3,000 readers! Each donation has the power to help provide 1 child with a school-in-a-bag kit, buy 5 midwives’ birth kits or 1 kilos of maize seed . These respectively are a huge boost to a child’s education, help feed a hungry family and an increase in the wellbeing of newborn babies and their mothers. 

That’s all thanks to you and other WonderParents’ donations. We’ve also received amazing and heartwarming feedback on our children’s books from our WonderReaders. 

From : Suzanne  

“Fantastic, insightful books – a great resource to teach children about the world and the challenges faced by other children in other locations. Whilst these children have different challenges, it really is a fantastic example of resilience & adaptability to circumstance, that really helped my children understand how they would cope in different situations. The useful guides that accompany the books have brilliant discussion points and exercises to follow – my daughter wants to have a school like Munni’s 😊“ 

From: Emeline  

“I cannot recommend these children’s books more highly. In my opinion they are an invaluable addition to the life of a child growing up in the western world where life is so privileged compared to the everyday challenges that other children face. My son is fascinated and humbled that he has a different life but in these stories he can see hear about the lives and countries of others always infused with what is universal, love, friendship and family. I am proud my son is growing up to be a child of the world not a small corner of our extraordinary globe.” 

Thank you again. With your incredible support, we can make sure more children, like the ones in Wonderbooks, get a chance of the future they deserve. If you enjoyed reading our real life story books, it would be great if you could leave us a Trustpilot review.

If you know someone who might enjoy Wonderbooks or you think your child’s library might enjoy a set please feel free to pass on the word of mouth!

Photo Credit: Hanna Adcock / Save the Children

Teachers are the bedrock of national education systems. Over the last two years, as the world has responded to the pandemic, 85 million teachers worldwide have led efforts to keep children learning through and beyond the crisis.i   

But too often, teachers are overlooked in education reform and new commitments. As conflicts and crises have increased, teachers have not been supported in line with growing demand. A gap in workforce numbers and capacity has become a gulf, even more exposed by the recent pandemic.ii

Our new policy brief highlights the risks to children’s learning and wellbeing if we continue to fail teachers. It finds that in order to fully unleash the power of teachers, we need Ministries of Education, donors and international partners to invest in evidence-based education system strengthening, supporting teachers to be the best professionals they can be. They should engage teachers in policy making to ensure that all their skills, expertise and most importantly passion are leading the way in education innovation.

WHY DO TEACHERS NEED MORE SUPPORT?

Teachers are our eyes and ears in the world’s classrooms, where the next generation of global citizens will emerge. Teaching quality is the single most important influence on learning outcomes at the school level.iii

Teachers are also increasingly taking on other responsibilities to protect and help children. Through crisis, teachers find themselves having to provide extra support to their learners – sometimes physically, as well as emotionally – which they are often poorly trained to do.

The largest investment in any education system is teacher salaries. In over half of all low- and lower-middle income countries the cost of the education workforce accounts for 75% or more of the national education budget.iv To ensure value for money when education budgets are limited – teacher recruitment, professional development, and retention requires sufficient, sustainable, and consistent financing. However, the failure to allocate enough equitably distributed financing to education in many low- and lower-middle income countries results in teacher shortages, overcrowded classrooms, and poor conditions for teaching and learning.v

WHAT IS WORKING?

The pandemic demonstrated the natural instincts and abilities of teachers to respond quickly and creatively to the challenges they faced.

In Zambia, teachers told us that it was ‘very important’ that they take part in policy discussions because ‘we know what is required in the school, classroom and children’s individual needs. This would also avoid wastage of resources whereby government and other development actors end up buying us wrong materials.’

In Vietnam, teachers highlighted the value of professional development through a peer network model. The majority of the teachers who took part in this model stated that peer support improved their teaching skills, and they appreciated helping each other.

In Jordan too, teachers in the Transforming Refugee Education towards Excellence’ (TREE) programme co-designed and tested a new Teacher Professional Development curriculum, and self-reported their own levels of wellbeing – working together to develop solutions to deal with any challenges.

Building on our long experience working with teachers in low-and-middle-income countries, Save the Children created the global Enabling Teachers Common Approach, which underpins all of our programmatic and advocacy work on teachers. This approach develops teachers’ professional competencies and improves the enabling environment required for their motivation and success.vi  Elements of this approach are active in over 25 countries, with delivery happening at local and national level.

SO WHAT NEEDS TO CHANGE?

When teachers are supported, they are the most natural innovators and advocates for education, having impacts on children and communities far beyond what we can easily measure.vii

To properly support teachers, we need to consider the intersection of systemic barriers they face. That’s why we’re calling on decision makers to look closely at their policies and budgets, and re-evaluate and strengthen the role that teachers play in both. Teachers need to be an active part of scoping a new landscape for themselves where they are supported to reach their potential.

If global and national policy makers are serious about protecting education systems from the threats of Covid-19, conflict and climate change, then unleashing the power of the world’s teachers will be essential to guarantee a quality, safe and inclusive education for all.

See our new briefing which sets out recommendations under three pillars:

• Invest in evidence-based education system strengthening
• Support teachers to be the best professionals they can be
• Engage teachers in policy making

Find out more about our education programmes

Find out more about our work with teachers 

Our final suggestion, is to check our children’s book about Munni, a girl determined to gain an education and teach others by setting up her own rooftop school in India.

Photo Credit: Nour Wahid / Save the Children

Sabine Copinga, Communications Adviser, blogs from Zaatari Camp on the Syrian border in Jordan.

When we talk about the children affected by Syria’s crisis, we  tend to talk about ‘refugees’ or ‘traumatised children’ in plural.

But the fact is that there’s an individual child behind every refugee and every trauma. Each with his or her own name, face, character, dreams, wishes, sorrow, memories and loved ones.

The goal of the child-friendly spaces that Save the Children is running is to bring back the individual child.

EXTREME STRESS

Because of the traumas, profound stress and irregular live they have lived, most kids have forgotten who they are as a person.

Because of everything they have been through, their heart has disconnected from their head. This is a physical response to the profound stress they have been through.

It causes uncontrolled behaviour. They don’t know how to cope with their emotions, resulting in aggression, an apparent lack of emotions or an overdrive of emotions.

Many have no clue any more of their identity. They can’t remember the dreams they had before.

STRUCTURE AND A CHANCE TO PLAY

By bringing back order in their lives and by offering sports and play, we help children reconnect with themselves. Days in the child friendly spaces pass by with order and regularity, so children know exactly what to expect. This gives them peace of mind.

Children can express their emotions through smileys and they are given things to do both individually and in teams. Today we tinkered; each child took part in the production of a piece of art. We also played football. Team sports make you work as a team and find your own role in a group.

FINDING THEMSELVES

Through the child-friendly spaces, we offer children support as they do the ‘work’ to find themselves again.

Children start to laugh again, simply because something funny happens. A child will remember how to dream again or his or her favorite colour.

Today I met Mohamad, Kamal, Farah and Bilal. Children who love red, blue, yellow or green; who used to made a snowman with olives as eyes back home and remember this with a smile on their face; who want to become a doctor, carpenter or engineer when they grow up.

Children who look forward to horsing around when they go home from the child-friendly space.

Our Wonderbooks collection of children’s books features a real life story book about a Syrian refugee boy, Asif and the Songbird. It’s a story about how Asif and his friends find a new life, are able to attend school and play at Save the Children’s child friendly spaces in Lebanon.

By signing up to our children’s subscription stories you will be helping many more refugee children like Asif. Find out more here.  

This blog was first published on Tuesday 23rd June 2013

We’ve all seen the horror and heartbreak on the news of the war in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, children in Syria and Yemen are on the frontlines of other devastating conflicts.

Will you help spread a message of hope and solidarity to children caught up in conflicts around the world?

Share a Flower for Children on our social media.

FLOWER POWER

Sharing flowers is a simple act we can all do – children and adults alike. By sharing a flower, you can send a simple, powerful message of solidarity to the children living through the horrors of war.

Flowers can express our feelings when words fail. Feelings of love, grief and new beginnings.

In our child-friendly spaces – where children get the chance to play, learn, feel safe and regain a sense of normality amid conflict – children often draw, paint and photograph flowers as symbols of hope and peace.

“Every time [a flower] falls, it springs up again” Yara*, 17, Syrian refugee

HOPE AND SOLIDARITY

Right now, children around the world are facing the devastating impact of war. Will you help spread a message of hope and solidarity to children caught up in conflicts around the world?

Take a simple action to show that you stand with children in conflict.

Share a Flower for Children on your social media.

Share on Instagram

Take a photo of your favourite flower. Draw one yourself. Or ask your children to draw a flower for a child in conflict.

Then share it on your social media channels with your friends and family. Use the hashtags #StopTheWaronChildren and #FlowersForChildren so you are part of the global show of solidarity.

Image: Alix*, 5, from Venezuela, plays with a flower near her family’s apartment in Lima, Peru.

*Names changed

Discover our blogs

Rosni and the Hundred Hungry Goats

Click here to watch Save the Children’s Girl’s Champion for Nigeria, Maryam Ahmed, read her poem ‘A Girl With A Book’.

”I was born in in Nigeria, and I am a Save the Children youth ambassador. When I was 14 years old, I became a child right’s activist.

I am proud to be a girl from northern Nigeria who was able to finish school. Now I am at university! This is not something you see very often. In my community, only 4% of girls get to finish secondary school. While this number may sound extreme, unfortunately it’s not uncommon around the world. Globally, girls are three times more likely to be out of school than boys.

Without education, the world’s girls will be left behind. That’s why, today and every day, we’re recognising that girls are worth educating and empowering. So I promote the rights and the well-being of girls, while showing brilliant people like you how you can be part of the solution.

Investing in girls gets amazing results, and education and empowerment are our best bets for keeping them on the path to success.

Thank you for your supporting girls’ right to education through Wonderbooks!”

​​​​​​​​​​​​​​Click here to watch Save the Children’s Girl’s Champion for Nigeria, Maryam Ahmed, read her poem ‘A Girl With A Book’.

See this story come to life through our Wonderbooks. By signing up to our children’s books you will play a role in helping girls like Maryam get an education.

As hostilities in Ukraine escalate, children may see and hear things about the crisis in the news, leading to feelings of uncertainty, anxiety and fear, which parents and caregivers need to address, Save the Children’s psychologists warn. Ane Lemche, a psychologist and child counsellor with Save the Children, said children around the world might not fully understand what is happening in Ukraine and may have questions about the images, stories, and conversations they are exposed to.

Previous Save the Children research in conflicts such as Iraq and Syria has revealed heartbreaking accounts of children terrified by the shelling and airstrikes, anxious about the future, and distraught at not being able to go to school. The majority of children showed signs of severe emotional distress.

“What is happening in Ukraine can be frightening for both children and adults. Ignoring or avoiding the topic can lead to children feeling lost, alone and more scared, which can affect their health and wellbeing. It is essential to have open and honest conversations with children to help them process what is happening,” said Ms. Lemche.   

Experts at Save the Children share five tools and tips that caregivers can use to approach the conversation with children:

1. MAKE TIME AND LISTEN WHEN YOUR CHILD WANTS TO TALK

Give children the space to tell you what they know, how they feel and to ask you questions. They may have formed a completely different picture of the situation than you have. Take the time to listen to what they think, and what they have seen or heard.

2. TAILOR THE CONVERSATION TO THE CHILD

Be mindful of the child’s age as you approach the conversation with them. Young children may not understand what conflict or war means and require an age-appropriate explanation. Be careful not to over-explain the situation or go into too much detail as this can make children unnecessarily anxious. Younger children may be satisfied just by understanding that sometimes countries fight. Older children are more likely to understand what war means but may still benefit from talking with you about the situation. Also older children will often be more concerned by talk of war because they tend to understand the dangers better than younger children do.

3. VALIDATE THEIR FEELINGS

It is important that children feel supported in the conversation. They should not feel judged or have their concerns dismissed. When children have the chance to have an open and honest conversation about things upsetting them, it can create a sense of relief and safety.

4. REASSURE THEM THAT ADULTS ALL OVER THE WORLD ARE WORKING HARD TO RESOLVE THIS

Remind children that this is not their problem to solve. They should not feel guilty about playing, seeing their friends, and doing the things that make them happy. Stay calm when you approach the conversation. Children often copy the sentiments of their caregivers – if you are uneasy about the situation, chances are your child will be uneasy as well.

5. GIVE THEM A PRACTICAL WAY TO HELP

Support children who want to help. Children who have the opportunity to help those affected by the conflict can feel like they are part of the solution. Children can create fundraisers, send letters to local decision-makers or create drawings calling for peace.

Save the Children has been operating in Ukraine since 2014, delivering essential humanitarian aid to children and their families. This includes supporting access to education, distributing winter kits and hygiene kits, and providing cash grants to families. Our specialists support children to overcome the mental and psychological impacts of their experiences of conflict and violence and increase their ability to cope with stress in their daily lives.

For further enquiries please contact:

• Sam Halyk Samantha.halyk@savethechildren.org / +44(0)74235 19077
• We have child psychologists available to spokesperson.
• Our media out of hours (BST) contact is media@savethechildren.org.uk / +44(0)7831 650409

One of our Wonderbooks is a real life story about a boy, Asif, his pet bird and his life before the Syrian conflict and after. With the help of Save the Children staff in Lebanon and the safety net of our child friendly places, Asif is able to study and play with other children. By signing up to our children’s subscription stories you will be helping many more refugee children like Asif. Find out more here.