Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Save the Children conducted research in three refugee camps in Dadaab in Kenya which explored the impact of COVID-19 on children’s education, young mothers’ livelihoods and gender-based violence. This study highlights programmatic adaptations made in response to COVID-19, identifying what has worked well or less well and considers practical recommendations for the sector. The research gathered views from children, young mothers, caregivers and key stakeholders working in child protection and education in the camp.

COVID-19 outbreak has presented an unprecedented impact on the livelihoods of millions of children and their parents around the world. The disease is spreading at an alarming rate. By 23rd July, 15 406 223 million people were infected globally and 631,030 had died of the disease. At the same time, Somalia had registered 3,161 positive cases and 93 deaths. To better understand the impact of COVID-19 on child protection, livelihoods, health, nutrition, gender, and gender-based violence (GBV), a comprehensive cross-sectional study was conducted. The study was conducted using data from 1,569 adults, 456 (235 boys and 221 girls) children aged between 12 to 17 years, in combination with 24 Key Informant Interviewees randomly selected from 17 regions (comprising 41 districts) out of the 19 regions in Somalia.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected children’s lives and their rights in countries around the world. Sweeping measures such as school closures, home isolation, and social distancing have been implemented as a response to the pandemic, causing disruptions to children’s lives and impacting their right to survive, learn, and be protected.  Save the Children launched a global research study to generate evidence on how the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent mitigation measures are affecting children’s health, nutrition, education and learning, protection and wellbeing, family incomes and jobs, and poverty. The research was implemented in 46 countries, making it the largest and most comprehensive survey of children and families during the COVID-19 pandemic to date. This report presents findings from the survey undertaken in Cambodia, between June and July 2020, with data from a sample of 730 caregivers and 730 children from the provinces of Pursat (Veal Veng district), Kampong Chhnang (Kampong Tralach) and Tboung Khmum (Ou Reang Ov district).

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the delivery of care for chronic neurological diseases globally. As requirements for physical distancing have led to restrictions on the availability of health care services, many countries have adapted methods of telemedicine to sustain care access for patients, while making difficult decisions surrounding which aspects of direct clinical care can be deferred and the time span acceptable for delaying chronic medical care. For people with epilepsy, issues such as determining criteria for what constitutes urgent management, managing the risk of increased seizures in the setting of illness, as well as ensuring a stable medication supply, have all been raised as critical concerns during this pandemic.

In response to the SARS-COV-2 threat Malawi has closed schools and universities. As a result, pupils risk losing their only good meal a day, shelter from household violence and stipends, delaying graduation and their first job in life. Moreover, Malawi blood transfusion service depends on schools, colleges, places of worship, and workplaces. Decreased blood stocks will increase preventable mortality.

The COVID-19 crisis is disrupting life in every corner of the globe. But while its impacts are far-reaching, the virus and the measures implemented by governments to contain its spread are hitting the most vulnerable children and families the hardest. Even before the pandemic struck, children with disabilities were among the most disadvantaged, facing increased exposure to abuse and discrimination as well as reduced access to services in many parts of the world. This publication uses existing data to illustrate the vulnerabilities that place children with disabilities at higher risk during the COVID-19 pandemic. It documents what has happened to services for children and adults with disabilities across the world and includes examples of what has been done to address disruptions in services. It also discusses the challenges in generating disability-inclusive data during the pandemic.

The purpose of this study was to enable Save the Children to understand and identify the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the Ebola epidemic on children. This study, its results and recommendations will be shared with different stakeholders to adapt our responses and interventions to save thousands of children's lives.

In many North American jurisdictions, socioeconomically vulnerable families are more likely to be involved with child protection systems and experience ongoing challenges. The current public health response to the COVID-19 pandemic is having a disproportionate impact on these families via unemployment, “essential” work, isolation, and closures of childcare and schools, with negative implications for children’s developmental wellbeing. Experts warn that while child protection referrals have gone down, children who are at risk of maltreatment are less exposed to typical reporters (e.g., school professionals). At the same time, physical distancing measures are prompting many human service settings to shift toward virtual intervention with children and families. This commentary suggests that a focus on short-term risk in the response to COVID-19 may obscure support for children’s long-term outcomes.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the lives of children and adolescents in resource-limited countries have been significantly impacted in complex ways, while largely having their interests overlooked. The purpose of this colloquium is to examine these impacts across seven resource-limited nations and apply an ethical lens to examine the ways in which children and adolescents have been treated impermissibly.

The COVID-19 pandemic imposed dramatic changes to everyone’s daily routines, but especially to children with developmental disabilities. The Robert Hollman Foundation decided not to interrupt its service to all the visually impaired children and initiated a Distance Support Project. It was an online process covering all aspects of support for the children and involving audio-video calls, videos and tailored-made multisensory material created specifically for each child.

The COVID-19 pandemic is impacting communities worldwide, with direct effects of illness and mortality, and indirect effects on economies, workplaces, schools/daycares, and social life. However, the effect of this pandemic on families of young children is still poorly understood. This study used a risk and resilience model to evaluate the effects of the pandemic on mental health in diverse caregivers (N = 286) with children ages birth to 5.

This report explores children and young people’s views and experiences related to COVID-19 and its indirect impacts. Firstly, it looks at children and young people’s perceptions of how COVID-19 has had an impact on their lives and countries. Secondly, it seeks to highlight the ways in which they are working to help to stop the spread of the virus and lessen its impacts. This research included individual and group interviews with 160 children and young people (80 girls and 80 boys) between the ages of of nine and 18 from eight countries across West Africa: Central African Republic (CAR), Chad, Ghana, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal and Sierra Leone. The interviews took place in-person with physical distancing and over the phone.

Over 20 million children under 5 years old in the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region have stunted growth, as a result of chronic malnutrition, with damaging long-term consequences for individuals and societies. This review extracted and analyzed data from the UNICEF, WHO and the World Bank malnutrition estimates to present an overall picture of childhood stunting in the region. The number of children under 5 in the region who are affected by stunting has dropped from 24.5 million (40%) in 1990 to 20.6 million (24.2%) in 2019. The reduction rate since the 2012 baseline is only about two fifths of that required and much more rapid progress will be needed to reach the internationally agreed targets by 2025 and 2030. Prevalence is highest in low-income countries and those with a lower Human Development Index. The COVID-19 pandemic threatens to undermine efforts to reduce stunting, through its impact on access and affordability of safe and nutritious foods and access to important health services.

The children of Afghanistan, especially those already suffering from poverty and inequity, are among the most vulnerable to the harsh socio-economic impact of COVID-19. Child mortality, malnutrition, forced marriages, sexual abuse, child labour and other forms of violence and exploitation and are all common challenges for the average child. With the addition of COVID-19 and its immediate and secondary impacts, children are now more anxious and worried than ever before and at greater risk of facing physical, sexual and emotional violence, especially as the economic impacts of the crisis set in with poverty rates and hunger in the country rising.

Although children are less at risk of COVID-19 infection, millions of children – including migrant children – are nevertheless at heightened risk from the pandemic because of their precarious status. Authored by Jacqueline Bhabha, this paper uses available data sources, including crowd-sourced mobility data, media reports and anecdotal accounts, to conduct an initial assessment of the pandemic’s impact on vulnerable migrant children and outline a number of policies that have been enacted to attenuate this vulnerability.