Help the Children Impacted by the Middle East Conflict

A homeless Palestinian refugee child looks out of a school used as a shelter after leaving his house during an Israeli raid in the Rafah refugee camp in the southern Gaza strip August 4, 2006. Israel killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip as it launched a series of air strikes on militant targets that wounded four other people, witnesses and medics said. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah (PALESTINIAN TERRITORES)

One-year-old Lebanese displaced child Nour Dkmek, who was evacuated from the village of Shehabiyeh in south Lebanon, one month ago, waits to board a bus at a school yard in Bierut, Lebanon, to return home with her family Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006. On the second day of a United Nations ceasefire between Israel and the Hezbollah, Lebanon's Defense Minister said that 15,000 Lebanese soldiers will be deployed in south Lebanon by the end of the week. (AP Photo/Kevork Djansezian)

A man reacts and a child stands in the house that was hit by a Hezbollah rocket that killed three women of the same family in the town of Arab el Aramsheh in northern Israel, Saturday, Aug. 5, 2006. Dozens of Hezbollah rockets slammed into communities across northern Israel on Saturday. (AP Photo/Jacob Silberberg)
From Save the Children:

My name is Sonia Khush, and I am an emergency team leader for Save the Children, currently working in the Middle East.

Save the Children-USA, together with other members of the International Save the Children Alliance, is working on all sides of the conflict to assist children and families impacted, regardless of religious or political affiliation. We are working in Lebanon, Gaza and northern Israel, focusing on helping children cope.

An estimated 30 to 40 percent of the civilians killed since the onset are children. Families displaced from their homes have been living in schools or other public buildings, often unable to access food, clean water or health services. Crammed into small areas, anxiety has been high, parents stressed and children scared. Children have trouble sleeping and some are exhibiting aggressive behavior as a result of the tension. Save the Children has set up “safe spaces” to give children play areas in which to spend their time and provided activity kits for children and families to use while inside their homes to provide some level of normalcy. But more needs to be done.

Please support Save the Children's continued work to help the most vulnerable victims of this conflict — the children. They have nothing to do with the politics of this region and their survival, along with their emotional and mental well-being is critical to the recovery effort.