Ömer Güven - Country Manager Street Child Suisse

"I had the honor of hosting this event and would like to share some of my opening remarks with you – in words and in a powerful visual created by Stephanie.

Exactly ten years ago, in March, I was in Geneva with my family. We were there for the sad anniversary of the war in Syria – five years after it began – to remember the children. At an exhibition, we saw photos of children in a refugee camp: tired, afraid, deprived of their childhood. My daughter Amelie was five years old then. She looked at the pictures and said, very quietly but very firmly: “We have to do something."After a pause, she added: “That could be me." In that moment, something became very clear to me: Every child in a refugee camp, every child seeking protection, could be my child, your child, any of our children ... could be me.

This simple act of empathy is a deep reason for my work – for our work here at Street Child.
We want to give many more children a future through education.
Two years ago, I volunteered at a two-week summer camp for Ukrainian children whose fathers had died, were missing, or were in prison.
At the beginning, many of them drew tanks and scenes of war. By the end of the camp, they wrote messages like:"Thank you very much for the wonderful holiday and the feeling of safety and being cared for.” – 13-year-old. "Thank you for the great lessons.” – 6-year-old.

For me, this shows what impact even a short time of safety, play and learning can have in a child’s life.
This is what we want to make possible for many more children – in a sustainable way – through Street Child."

Please check out all the social media posts about our Event on LinkedIn.

Ariea Burke - Chair of Education Systems

"Education in emergency contexts is not just about access. It’s about delivery. How fast you respond. How close you are to communities. And how efficiently you use every franc.

Today, more children than ever are struggling to access education in crisis settings. With this number rising in recent years. At the same time, funding is under pressure. So the question we are facing today is no longer just what works — but what works efficiently, at scale, and under constant change.

What the Sector Is Moving Toward - This is a challenging question, but the way forward is clear. We need to use all the tools available to us. In doing so, the sector needs to:

1. Be more agile to respond fast and adapt as contexts shift,

2. Promote more local leadership so that solutions are designed and delivered close to communities,

3. Focus on being cost-effective - by exploring innovative funding models and working together to generate impact to maximize outcomes per franc spent.

With this being said, there is still a lot of talk about how to get there. But far less action.

With traditional models remaining centralized, slower to adapt, and often struggling to reach the most remote communities.

What I like about Street Child is that it operationalizes these principles.

It prides itself on being agile, championing local actors to lead, and ensuring that cost effective programming is considered from day one. Not just as ideas — but as a delivery model.

For me, Street Child brings valuable insight into the discussions across the sector. Street Child is showing that this model works and can be done.

Reaching nearly 1.7 million children, through partnerships with over 200 local organizations with almost a third of this number reached in just the past year. And it is gaining traction. The opportunity now is to scale what works.

Because in emergency contexts, delivery is everything."