Welcome to the Leap! This issue is packed with reels of love, just click each story's button to watch messages from Alfred*, Yasemin* and Rashel.
Photobooth portrait of Alfred. Shona Hamilton / Save the Children
Photobooth portrait of Abdulaye. Shona Hamilton / Save the Children
Alfred loves drawing scenes from his village and the people around him, and Abdulaye dreams of becoming a nurse. For them, love looks like drawing, dancing, playing football, and helping each other with homework.
Yagazie Emezi / Save the Children
‘When I have work to do, he helps me. I help him too when he has work to do. So, that is why I love him. We eat together. We do laundry together. Sometimes I can be hungry and he brings food for us to eat' - Alfred.
Alfred and Abdulaye’s village is at risk of disappearing. Rising waters caused by climate change mean it’s half the size it used to be. But your support has helped the community protect their homes and build a future. They now have bigger and better food harvests, new flood defences and more stable income for families. And Abdulaye’s family can now afford to send him to school. Thanks to you, the boys can focus on homework and football - not on whether their home will disappear.
None of this would’ve been possible without you being on Alfred and Abdulaye’s side.
Alfred's drawing of his village, Djelah. Yagazie Emezi / Save the Children
Abdulaye, 11, plays football in Djelah, Sierra Leone. Yagazie Emezi / Save the Children
How else your support is helping
Fabeha Monir / Save The Children
The sound of siblings
When an earthquake struck their home in Turkey, Cihan* and Hilal’s* family were left struggling. They both needed new hearing devices, but there was no way to afford them. Without being able to chat, joke or bicker like siblings do, their mental health suffered.
But because of you, Save the Children could be there to step in.
We arranged new implants for Cihan and Hilal to hear again. Now they love playing jenga, painting with their sister Yasemin and being able to laugh together again. And Cihan especially loves playing with their hearing impaired cat, Gece.
'My mother is my favourite'
Rashel lives in Bangladesh, where flooding makes everything harder for the 10-year-old and his parents. They struggled to afford basics like food and clothes. Thanks to our Suchana programme (meaning ‘New Beginnings’), his mum received seeds and tools to grow her own vegetable garden and with it, a steady income.
For Rashel, love looks like helping his mum grow cabbages, beans and bananas, and using his own money to buy her shoes and a saree.
Fabeha Monir / Save The Children
Fabeha Monir/Save The Children
Fabeha Monir / Save The Children
Keep scrolling to see February's Photo of the Month.
Adriana Loureiro Fernandez / Save the Children
Gael* wraps mum Lia* in a big hug in Central America after finishing an education assessment - one of the ways Save the Children helps keep children learning when they’re forced to leave their home and make long journeys. He also received an education kit, so he can keep learning as he travels.
Not in the news
The Oxford Children’s Word of the Year 2025 is...peace! Did you guess correctly?
*Names changed to keep children and their families safe.
