Our emergency responses are becoming faster, more efficient and more effective. During 2007, Save the Children responded to children’s needs arising from conflict, migration, earthquakes and extreme weather conditions.

After a huge earthquake in Peru, more than 100,000 children lost homes or relatives. Save the Children immediately sent teams to the hardest-hit areas to assess needs and provide lifesaving relief. Our rapid appraisal of the situation helped to secure funding from the Canadian and US governments and the European Commission. Severe damage to communications networks hindered our response, but we managed to distribute blankets, tents and kitchen equipment.

When severe flooding hit South Asia, 12 Save the Children organisations collaborated to meet the immediate needs of 17,000 children. Our ongoing initiatives will strengthen health care, sanitation, livelihoods and child protection. At the onset of flooding in the Dominican Republic in October 2007, we transported food and other essential items to families that had lost possessions, crops and livestock.

In parallel with our acute response work, we continue to provide support to hundreds of thousands of people recovering from emergencies. In Pakistan we are working with more than 100 communities to repair or provide temporary replacements for schools damaged by the massive earthquake in 2005. Our five-year tsunami recovery programme is improving local education, health and livelihoods.

In Sri Lanka, we have helped children to form school-based committees, which have enabled them to identify disaster risks and persuade local authorities to take preventative action. Despite the challenges of emergency relief operations, we recognise our accountability to our staff, donors, partners and, most importantly, to the children we serve.