Our History

Save the Children is an international NGO that promotes children's rights, provides relief and helps support children across the world.

Save the Children has been working in Lebanon since 1953 and transitioned to Save the Children International in 2012. For more than six decades, Save the Children has used rights-based approaches to increase access for children, adolescents and youths to quality education, and to strengthen child participation and protection at the family, school and community levels.

Save the Children empowers civil society in Lebanon in times of peace and in times of conflict to respond to the needs of all children.

Since 2013, the Lebanon Country Programme has undergone a massive scale up of its response to the Syria crisis. With almost 1.1 million Syrian refugees registered, plus an additional estimated 400,000 unregistered, our country programme has grown exponentially to meet the needs of the most vulnerable refugees.

In 2016, Save the Children reached nearly 400,000 people directly, including more than 225,000 children through Shelter, Education, Child Protection, Food Security and Livelihood, and Child Rights Governance programmes. Save the Children also implements multiple social cohesion and community support initiatives to strengthen intercommunity relations.

Together with UN agencies and other INGOs, we work with government departments, including education and social affairs to help support Lebanon’s infrastructure and enable it to better assist the refugee populations and host communities alike.

We work in areas most affected by the crisis, including Bekaa valley (eastern Lebanon) and Northern regions. We advocate nationally and internationally for support for refugee and host communities alike. We also ensure that children's voices are being heard so that we can address the immediate problems they are facing, as well as provide long-lasting support to help them fulfil their potentional.