Year in Review 2025: 10 Positive Outcomes Changing Children’s Lives

1. Breaking the cycle of poverty in rural America through education

Save the Children helped to bring early education and at-home learning to an estimated 500,000 rural children and their families across the United States, including quality early learning, literacy and math programs, plus books and essential learning materials.

Working in hundreds of underserved rural communities – where limited resources and isolation deepen hardship for families – Save the Children is helping children enter kindergarten ready to learn and reach critical milestones like third-grade reading and fifth-grade math proficiency, proven predictors of lifelong success.

With the support of the early learning program, Early Steps to School Success, 84% of participating 3-year-olds and 92% of participating 5-year-olds scored at or above the normal range on a nationally recognized language assessment. In addition, children who participated regularly in Save the Children’s in-school and after-school programs had literacy and math growth above the national average.  

2. 1.9 million messages to political leaders to support child-friendly policies

Throughout the year, Save the Children and its political advocacy arm, Save the Children Action Network (SCAN), worked together to engage lawmakers and amplify voices of parents, caregivers and advocates calling for investments in children and hardworking families.

Save the Children engaged more than 550 lawmakers on Capitol Hill, which is more than double in 2024, making the case for policies that strengthen families and communities domestically and abroad. Additionally, Save the Children and SCAN provided opportunities for volunteers, program participants, and staff from across the country to share their personal stories. Meanwhile, SCAN mobilized 1.9 million messages to Congress and state leaders on the importance of early education, addressing child hunger and supporting children in crisis around the world.

These combined efforts created a powerful echo across the country, proving that when trained volunteers, informed citizens, and innovative advocacy come together, we can elevate children’s issues and secure policy wins that shape the future of kids in America and around the world.

3. 40 tons of medical aid reached Sudan, destined for children and families

One example illustrating Save the Children’s powerful work around the world: In November, Save the Children delivered more than 40 tons of medical supplies to Port Sudan, with essential drugs, medical equipment and therapeutic food to treat children in Sudan. The delivery from Nairobi was the largest aid consignment by an international NGO since March 2025, and the supplies are now being taken by road to reach children and families in the hardest-to-access areas across the country, including in Tawila, North Darfur. 

The consignment – which includes essential drugs such as antibiotics to treat respiratory infections, fluids, and treatment for malnutrition – is enough to keep hundreds of health facilities running for 6-12 months, allowing hundreds of thousands of children to be treated. 

4. WHO recognition allows our Emergency Medical Team to deploy globally

Save the Children’s Emergency Health Unit (EHU) has become the first NGO maternal and baby specialist Emergency Medical Team to be verified by the World Health Organization (WHO), meaning it can be deployed to health emergencies around the globe.

The EHU has reached over five million people and trained 18,000 health workers. The teams - comprising doctors, nurses, midwives, physiotherapists, paramedics, logistics personnel, and water and sanitation specialists – are trained to respond rapidly and provide comprehensive support to local health systems.

Receiving the WHO certification is recognition of the specialist care needed by women and babies when disasters strike. It reinforces our ability to act swiftly in crises and provide essential care to women and newborns who would otherwise be left without support.

5. Recovery efforts help reopen 115 child care centers after LA wildfires

Save the Children and partners supported over 100,000 children across the U.S. during some of the year’s most devastating and urgent emergencies and crises – delivering critical, child-focused supplies, restoring damaged child care centers, providing mental health recovery programming, and more.

In the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires, Save the Children has helped over 115 child care centers reopen, getting children back to learning and parents back to work. When millions of families lost access to vital food supports amid the government shutdown this fall, Save the Children provided critical support to over 35,000 kids and their families, including food, emergency funding, and essential supplies.

6. $2 billion for early learning and nutrition across 8 states

Save the Children supported efforts by its political advocacy arm, SCAN, to secure more than $2.1 billion in investments for early learning and child nutrition across eight states. These wins came despite challenging fiscal conditions and growing budget pressures nationwide, underscoring the strength of coordinated advocacy on behalf of children and families.

Across states facing deficits and proposed cuts, SCAN protected and expanded funding for programs families rely on.

Advocacy efforts also strengthened support for early educators in multiple states, defended essential Ing programs from harmful cuts, and advanced policies to reduce child hunger, including expanded access to healthy school meals and new nutrition pilots for families.

These outcomes demonstrate that when children’s needs are centered in policy decisions, states can make meaningful progress, even in difficult budget years.

7. Volunteers on bicycles help mothers deliver safely in rural Zambia

In rural Zambia, trained community-based volunteers are getting on bicycles to help identify and refer mothers for pre- and post-natal care in areas where women often have to travel long distances to get health care.

In partnership with the Zambian Ministry of health, Save the Children helped to train some 140 volunteers to use bicycles to travel into remote communities, identifying mothers and babies in their homes who might need extra care, and providing them with information and referrals when needed. In 2025, the team referred 403 pregnant women for prenatal care, enabled 269 mothers to give birth safely in health facilities, and supported 259 mothers to receive postnatal care.

8. Child marriage and FGM prevented in Ethiopia 

 Save the Children and its partners have helped to prevent 211 child marriages and 416 cases of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Ethiopia since 2020.

Through a Save the Children Child Club, girls and boys in Ethiopia’s Somali region have taken steps to reduce cases of FGM in their community by advocating for change. There’s been a decline in child marriage in this community, with more girls now staying in school and pursuing their education.   

9. Bolivia bans child marriage

Bolivia became the 14th country in Latin America to ban child marriage after girls across the country and Save the Children joined a campaign to criminalize the practice.

Before the law was passed in September, more than one in five girls were forced into unions before the age of 18, according to official data, and about 3% were married before the age of 15.

The approval of this law marks a new reality for over 4 million children across Bolivia – half of them girls – and represents a fundamental victory in the fight for children.

10. New family-focused benefits available this tax season

Save the Children was part of a broad, diverse coalition working to raise awareness and build support for the new and improved family-focused U.S. tax provisions included in a budget reconciliation bill signed into law in July. These efforts focused on ensuring that tax policy reflects the real needs of children and hardworking families, and that lawmakers understood the impact these changes could have on communities across the country.

Save the Children worked with its political advocacy arm, Save the Children Action Network, to directly engage with political decision-makers, elevate the voices of hardworking parents benefiting from family-focused tax breaks, and mobilize Americans nationwide to speak up on behalf of kids and families. By combining policy expertise, lived experience and grassroots engagement, we helped to move tax reform from abstract policy to tangible support for children and families. The result is a stronger foundation for families and a clear reminder that smart tax policy is one of the most powerful tools we have to invest in children’s futures.