08/19/2026
Humanitarian work has never been more dangerous.
In 2025, 350 aid workers were killed, the second-deadliest year on record.
Another 1,187 were injured, kidnapped, arrested, or detained.
Almost all of them were local.
Roughly 90 percent of humanitarian workers serve their own communities, before a crisis, during it, and long after the world's attention moves on.
They know the families. They know the terrain. They stay.
This , we're recognizing the people who are first to arrive and last to leave. At Children in Conflict, that means the 72 local partner organizations we support through the War Child Alliance, and the hundreds of frontline staff who show up for children affected by conflict every single day.
They deserve more than recognition. Local organizations deliver the majority of frontline aid but receive a fraction of the funding and far too little of the decision-making power.
That imbalance has to change. Investing directly in local leadership is one of the most effective ways to make sure communities can respond to crises now and in the years ahead.
The quotes here are from our partners, in their own words.
