Save the Children today welcomes Canada’s commitment to provide $300 million over three years to meet the needs of those affected by the crisis in Myanmar, including those displaced inside the country as well as over 713,000 Rohingya refugees who have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25, 2017.
Ahead of the G7 Whistler meeting next week where Development Ministers will discuss responses to humanitarian crises, Save the Children applauds Canada’s multi-year commitment to this crisis, alongside Canada’s continued leadership on gender equality in humanitarian response.
“We welcome Canada’s new strategy and significant funding contribution to help meet the needs of those affected by this crisis, which has evolved into one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. In particular Save the Children is hopeful that this leadership from Canada will help spur increased commitment at the G7 to ensure multi-year funding for this and other protracted crises, helping meet the different and evolving needs of girls and boys, men and women facing conflict, displacement and disaster,” said Save the Children CEO Bill Chambers.
With almost 400,000 children facing a humanitarian disaster, this is very much a children’s emergency, with different affects on girls and boys. Save the Children has been especially concerned about the education and protection needs of adolescent girls, who can encounter particular barriers in accessing humanitarian aid, while also facing elevated risk of sexual and gender-based violence.
“Canada’s new strategy aligns with Save the Children’s calls to ensure that long term solutions based on the rights and in the best interest of children and their families, are developed, while concurrently working to improve the living conditions, security, rights and education opportunities for children, especially girls,” added Chambers.
As a Canadian aid agency operating in both Bangladesh and Myanmar, Save the Children stands ready for continued collaboration with the Government of Canada in its response to the Rohingya crisis.
ENDS
About Save the Children: Save the Children is the world’s leading independent organization for children, delivering programs and improving children’s lives in more than 120 countries worldwide. We save children’s lives. We fight for their rights. We help them fulfil their potential. We believe that all children have the right to survive, learn, and be protected, and we will do whatever it takes to reach every last child. Our programs reached more than 157 million children in 2016. Learn more here: www.savethechildren.ca or follow us on Twitter,Facebook and Instagram @savechildrencanada
Media Contact
For additional information please contact Save the Children Communications, Media & Public Relations team.:
About Save the Children
Save the Children believes every child deserves a future. In Canada and around the world, we give children a healthy start in life, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. We do whatever it takes for children – every day and in times of crisis – transforming their lives and the future we share.