Latin America and South Asia

Bangladesh

Child participants: 237
Can’t Wait to Learn Teachers and Facilitators: 12
Local partner organisations: One

In 2017 more than 700,000 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh to escape ongoing persecution at the hands of the Myanmar military. The brutal campaign of ethnic cleansing involved countless crimes against humanity and shocked the world. Today, nearly half a million stateless Rohingya refugee children are denied an education - at risk of becoming a “lost generation.”

War Child became active in Bangladesh in 2019 to address these urgent needs - with the introduction of our innovative ed-tech programme Can’t Wait to Learn. Our activities centred on a pilot run of the Can’t Wait to Learn maths game together with our partner the International Rescue Committee (IRC) - which saw a total of 596 Rohingya children playing the games by the end of the year. March 2020 will mark the end of the pilot and will help determine our future plans for the programme.

Colombia

Child participants: 11,887
Adult participants: 2,435
War Child staff: 40
Local partner organisations: Five

War Child’s programme in Colombia is designed to improve children’s wellbeing and promote their resilience. Our activities combine psychosocial support, education and child protection for enhanced effect. Children are at the heart of all our interventions - they take the lead to identify the main risks to their safety and provide feedback on the actions needed to address those risks.

In 2019 we significantly expanded our programme reach in response to the Venezuelan refugee crisis. War Child was one of the few organisations working inside Bogota to tackle tension and unrest within the city’s first migrant camps.

Over the course of the year, we provided social and emotional support to more than 8,000 children as part of our flagship TeamUp programme. Through a series of information sessions, an additional 3,000 adults also received support.

Sri Lanka

Child participants: 6,478
Adult participants: 1,812
War Child staff: Seven
Local partner organisations: Three

War Child works in Sri Lanka to support children living with the continuing legacy of the country’s civil war. We provide vital psychosocial support and work to strengthen child protection systems.

Our programming expanded over the course of 2019 to encompass new interventions - addressing the widespread trauma arising in the wake of the Easter bomb attacks. These efforts saw vital life skills and mental health services provided for 2,015 children and youth across 55 locations.

The year also charted the development of our Community Case Detection (CCD) Tool. A pilot study to analyse the accuracy of the tool in community settings was successfully completed in the country’s Eastern Province. We trained 60 people from the local community in how to use to the tool, paving the way for fast implementation in 2020.