This World Children’s Day, on 20 November, is a special day for ChildFund Australia and the children and young people we work with. It’s a day to promote and protect children’s rights, and recognise the challenges that children around the world face – and the many ways we can continue to support them and their communities to break down these barriers.

Children around the world want a better future

We have reached the halfway point to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals. While change is happening, we’ve lost momentum in improving the lives of people and the planet. There is still more work to be done to address our collective health, safety and wellbeing, especially for children.

To better understand these challenges, we asked young people around the world about standing up against injustice and what changes they want to see in their communities.

“Youth are the changemakers of a nation. They can stand up for themselves and exercise their rights as young people in their society. They are free to do anything that they feel can benefit the country. Young people have the power to bring change.”
Silvania, 17, Timor-Leste

“I want to see young people in my community learn how to use the Internet to have a positive mindset in all situations and constantly improve themselves to achieve their dreams. Currently, the Internet has a lot of bad information, and many different temptations that make young people behave negatively and forget about their studies. I hope country leaders and international organisations will always care about children and have interventions to give us a healthy online environment to develop.”
Hong, 16, Vietnam

“I would like to see an end to child abuse, drug abuse, child trafficking, and cigarette usage among children and teens in my community. I would also like to see parents recognise their children rights, uphold those rights, and support their children’s development.“
Sovanpanha, 13, Cambodia

Give a gift that changes children’s lives

To celebrate the 2023 World Children’s Day theme – For every child, every right – we’ve rounded up some of our most impactful charity Gifts for Good that help support children’s rights, including the right to clean water and food, and the right to an education.

For less than $100, you can make a difference to the lives of young people this World Children’s Day with the greatest gift of all – a safe and healthy childhood. And with Christmas just around the corner, it’s the perfect time to get into the holiday spirit and give back by choosing meaningful charity gifts that have a lasting positive impact. Here are some of our top picks from our Gifts for Good catalogue that won’t break the bank this Christmas.

A walker – $80

Children with disabilities have the right to enjoy the magic of childhood without worrying about being able to move from point A to B. Donating a walker could help a child get to school, be with their peers and receive an education. Your gift will support a child with greater freedom, independence and resilience for a brighter future.

Gift school supplies – $76

Many parents can’t afford the essentials that their child needs to excel in school. When you donate a set of school supplies, your charity gift provides a young student with pens, pencils, notebooks, and other stationery that they can use in the classroom. Plus, a handy backpack to carry them in!

A warm jacket – $30

Did you know that children are more vulnerable to losing body heat than adults? It’s important that children are kept warm and snug. Yet too many children living in poverty don’t have enough warm clothing. Donating a jacket can help protect a child’s health and wellbeing as temperatures in many places around the world start to dip.

One mosquito net – $10

Every two minutes, somewhere in the world, a child dies from malaria. Countless more suffer needlessly from this devastating — and preventable — disease in remote and rural areas. Your gift of an insecticide-treated mosquito net is one of the most cost-effective ways to save young lives and help a child sleep safe at night.

A dairy goat – $99

Goats are one of the very best ways to help children and families in need. Your gift provides nutritious dairy products, such as milk, cheese and yoghurt for children. And parents can sell the surplus dairy products for much-needed income. This is a perfect gift for creating positive change that will last!

Gift clean water – Donation of your choosing

Create a legacy of lasting change. Imagine your impact when you give the gift of clean, safe water and sanitation that a child, school — or even an entire community — can rely upon. Your generosity could help dig lifesaving wells, purify contaminated water and keep children safe and healthy, protecting them against water-related diseases.

’Tis the season of giving

Support children living in challenging circumstances this World Children’s Day! Adding one of the above life-changing gifts to your Christmas shopping list is a great place to start. You can also choose to send a monthly donation to help transform thousands of children’s lives all year long.

Every gift, big or small, makes a difference for a child living in poverty.

A Deadly Price for Water

It is said that water is life, but what if accessing water was one of the most dangerous things you could do? Every day, millions of children are risking their lives because of poverty, for a resource essential for survival.

By ChildFund Australia

Joece* lives in a remote village of about 750 people in northern Kenya’s Samburu County. She is only 10 years old but for most of her childhood she risked her life just so she can have water to drink and bathe. From a young age, Joece and her friends walked for hours each day to collect water from a polluted river, the only water source near their village.

“The river water is very dirty,” Joece said. “The animals drink from it and then poo and pee in it, even kids do too. Sometimes you get very sick from drinking it.”

Outbreaks of cholera were common in Joece’s community. It’s a disease that causes severe diarrhoea and dehydration, and can be life threatening.

Water is essential for survival, but for Joece, and many more children, water also comes at a deadly price. In Kenya, almost 10 million people drink directly from contaminated water sources and an estimated 5 million people practise open defecation. Contaminated water and poor sanitation are linked to the transmission of several diseases – not only cholera and diarrhoea, but also dysentery, hepatitis A, typhoid and polio.

Every day, around 1,000 children under the age of five die because of unsafe water, sanitation and hygiene.

Help children survive

Thirteen-year-old Agnes* is also from Samburu County. Like in Joece’s community, families in Agnes’ village have for generations relied on water from a dirty river for drinking and cleaning. The water was contaminated with sewage from a nearby town.

“It was the only water available and we had to drink it,” Agnes said. “We got stomach aches. There were a lot of times I got sick and I wouldn’t be able to go to school or play with friends.”

For children like Joece and Agnes who live in remote communities, the journey to collect water can be long and steal precious time away from them. Instead of playing or studying, they are risking their lives and futures to collect water– a basic human right.

Sad, horrific memories of losing children

Along with the risk of contracting deadly diseases through drinking the river water, Agnes and other children in her community also faced the danger of crocodiles. Families in Agnes’ village carry with them sad, horrific memories of losing children as they collected water or bathed in the river.

“The river is a very scary place,” said Agnes, who started fetching water from the river when she was four years old. “My best friend’s brother was tending the goats down by the river when he was taken by a crocodile.”

Ken, a village elder who is now in his 40s, remembers losing a friend in his childhood. “When I was a young boy, I went to the river with a friend. He was snatched by a crocodile that day. He jumped in and never came out again. Since then, I have never liked going to the river.”

Help children have the childhood they need

A gift of clean water

Access to safe water is paramount to children’s survival.

With the support of people like you in Australia and ChildFund’s local partners in Kenya, we were able to help Joece and Agnes – and their communities – stay safe and healthy by installing a deepwater borehole system in their villages. The system bores deep underground to the water table below and pipes fresh, clean water to four taps at two different stations on either end of the village.

Now, Joece and Agnes, and hundreds more people in their Samburu County villages, can access clean water within minutes. “We used to have to go so far and now we’re happy because the water is right here in the village,” Joece said. “And there are no more dangerous cholera outbreaks.”

A beacon of hope

The construction of the boreholes began as Kenya entered a period of extreme drought that affected 3.3 million people across the Horn of Africa. Children and their families were forced to leave their homes in search of food and water, putting their wellbeing and safety at risk.

“It was very bad,” Joece said. “People were hungry and even starving. The rivers dried up, but we were still able to get water from the new borehole. There was no water anywhere else.”

Together, we can help more children like Joece and Agnes access clean, safe water in their communities for generations to come.

Your support can help save the lives of children around the world.

Please donate now

*Names have been changed to protect individuals’ identities.

Gifts for Good

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