What Makes War Child Different?

  • We're Child Protection specialists in conflict zones

    War Child is the only agency that specialises in child protection in conflict-affected countries. Other charities run child protection projects as part of their emergency or humanitarian work, but this is our sole focus and we're experts in it.

  • We Stay, long after the TV Cameras Go Home

    Although we may arrive during a conflict, we remain on the ground for years afterwards. Long after the war has slipped out of the headlines and the Humanitarian Aid agencies like the International Red Cross and UNHCR have moved on to the next crisis. We're often filling the post-conflict gap between the humanitarian aid ending and long term development work starting. This vacuum can last for years.

  • We Look to Work with the Hardest Children to Find

    We don't just work with children in conflict zones, we deliberately seek out the most vulnerable children who are suffering the most severe effects of conflict. These include:

    • Street children
    • Former child soldiers
    • Families forced to flee their homes
    • Girls who’ve experienced, or are at risk of, sexual violence.

    These children have often slipped through the net of the authorities and other charities. We provide them and their families with life-changing intensive and individually tailored support - rather than a 'one-size-fits-all' solution.

  • What's Your Problem?

    ...and how would you like to solve it?

    It sounds funny, but you’d be amazed by how many charities run projects for children but don’t ask them what they think or what they want.

    Asking their parents or teachers is fine, but what if they are the problem? All our projects are based on the problems and solutions that the young people themselves identify.

  • We're Completely Unreliable

    Children can’t, and shouldn’t, rely on us. We support them to become self-reliant and we strengthen their family & community’s capacity to care for their own children. That’s why we don’t offer child-sponsorships or bursaries for example.

    At its best, our work builds legacies not dependencies.

  • Where others see Victims with needs, we see Children with Rights

    The children of war don’t need pity. They have rights just like you and me, and they deserve those rights to be met. Take your pick from The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The International Convention on the Rights of the Child, The Geneva Convention - or countless other national and international statutes.

    World leaders and politicians throughout the globe have signed up to protect these rights when conflict threatens to violate them. It’s unacceptable that they don’t do so.

  • Our Child Protection Doesn't End Where our Fundraising Starts

    We don’t use photos or stories of children in a way that stigmatises, exploits or victimises them in order to tell their stories and raise donations.

    That sets us apart from many other children's charities, but it's a natural extension of our belief that it’s not a question of pity, it’s a matter of getting their voices heard and their rights met.

  • We're Low Fat

    We punch way above our weight considering we're a small charity of 30 people in the UK. Plus a dedicated team of local staff living and working in places that you wouldn't go on holiday to!

    We don't spend money on marketing or advertising. Instead we're a non-bureaucratic, innovative, creative and passionate charity that makes a lot of noise on behalf of some amazing children. See what we do and don't spend your money on.