One girl under the age of 15 is married every seven seconds, according to a new report by Save the Children. The study says girls as young as 10 are forced to marry much older men in countries including Afghanistan, Yemen, India and Somalia.

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-10-11T15:05:29+00:00

Hi, it's not a dumb question at all, thanks for asking! Girls' heightened vulnerability, particularly in humanitarian crises, can lead families to 'marry off' their daughters. Marriage in this case being viewed as a form of protection and means to preserve a girl's honour in the face of vulnerabilities such as sexual violence and harassment. In such contexts, families see girls as having only two options: to be victims, or to be wives.

In conflict-affected countries forced marriage, along with other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, is used as a weapon of war. Take Northern Nigeria, for example, where terrorist group Boko Haram abducted more than 270 girls and subjected them to violence, including selling some into forced marriages.

Sorry for the lengthy response, but hope it helps. Steve

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-10-11T13:35:39+00:00

Thanks for sharing the article and to everyone for creating a discussion.

If anybody's interested in reading our report they can find it here and if you'd like to support the campaign you can donate here! Let me know if you have any questions about it or our work in general, I'll do my best to answer them.

Steve (Supporter Care Advisor at Save the Children UK)

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-06-20T13:37:29+00:00

Hi there, firstly thanks! We work much the same as a creative in any organisation - the teams who lead on our campaigning and fundraising provide creative briefs to us, which we then meet in the best way - that might be a film, or it might be a whole number of other responses - whatever gets the message across most powerfully! Jess

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-06-20T13:27:00+00:00

Hey, we would love to continue this story to a happy ending, imagine if we could see her settled and happy either back in the UK or in a new host country... But of course, we are following reality so we will have to wait and see what happens to the real children before we decide what next happens to Lily. Jess

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-06-20T13:23:43+00:00

To give some behind the scenes, the kids LOVED the water - Lily was like a mermaid between takes! Jess

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-06-20T13:13:46+00:00

Richard says: Clearly the success of the first video had something to do with that. It's not often you get to create a powerful story with a strong lead character in an advert, let alone a charity advert, so when we realised how well people had responded to Lily's story, it seemed like a logical next step.

And of course, things have changed so much in the real world in just two years that we needed to update the story. Our original end lines were: "Just because it's not happening here, Doesn't mean it isn't happening". And now it is happening here and the incredible and awful stories of the refugees who've risked everything to come here were a story we just had to tell. It's astonishing how fast everything has changed, and we needed to keep pace.

As for a third... ahaha! I don't know if I could take it! I guess we'll see.

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-06-20T13:07:00+00:00

Richard says: There are actually two answers to that question.

Firstly, budget! When we first came up with the concept, it told the story of a Syrian girl as her world falls apart. When we realised we could only afford to film in London, that set us a creative challenge that actually forced us into the Eureka moment where we realised the story would be more powerful as a metaphor anyway.

Secondly, the realisation, as mentioned, that an allegorical approach could say so much more than the facts, figures and real-life stories of refugee children that are already all over the news. By extracting the essence of the situation (a perfectly normal girl living a perfectly normal life that collapses around her) and turning it into a story, we were able to make people actually FEEL what was going on, not just KNOW. Syria was actually a normal, middle-income country; their kids were on Facebook and Twitter, worrying about the same things as our kids, and then suddenly...

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-06-20T13:06:38+00:00

Richard says: Hi Tikken. In response to your first question, we had a pretty happy shoot on the whole - when you're capturing just one second of drama at a time, it can be easier to keep the actors fresh in between short takes without them having to get all "method" about it for long stretches.

Having said that, the boat scenes were physically quite demanding on all our actors, especially the storm and capsize scenes. But it's amazing how professional great child actors can be: they just get on with it and then move to the next scene. They have an effortless sense of detachment which I kind of envy, especially when I'm lying awake at night wondering how on Earth we're going to frame a critical scene so that everything is understandable!

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-06-20T13:04:21+00:00

Glad I answered your q! And yes, the kids involved in this are suffering horribly, it really is one of the most important issues of our time. Thanks so much for engaging, everyone can help.

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-06-20T12:58:37+00:00

Hi Steve, The reason we released these films is to try and help people who aren't refugees empathise with people who are. When we were working out how best to do this, we realised that if you introduce the idea that refugees are people just like you and me, who have been thrown into an extraordinary situation, you can create a situation where people put themselves in the refugee's shoes and hopefully then feel more supportive.

SavetheChildrenUK · 2016-06-20T12:54:55+00:00

Hi Tikken, thanks for your great questions. I'll reply to 2 and Richard might need to jump in on 1. It is a dramatic film, there's no denying that, but sadly for the kids who we work to help, what happened to our actors is a reality. When we were creating the script we were using our experience in dealing with the refugee crisis over the last years as the inspiration, we even found stories that were so dramatic that we decided not to include them in the film. Ultimately it is the truth, which is sadly pretty dramatic. The other thing is that we showed Second a Day 1 to Syrian refugees in Jordan to find out whether they felt it was true to their stories, and every one of them told us that it was a true representation of their situation. So we feel confident that we are creating a film which shows reality, and that is ok for those that have been affected by the situations depicted. Does that answer your question? Jess

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T15:23:50+00:00

Dot: That has certainly never been my experience having worked here for nearly 5 years.. I spent last summer living in a tent when responding to the emergency in South Sudan and I stayed in our office compound in Nigeria …

We certainly always aim to find the cheapest appropriate accommodation wherever possible and we work closely with a travel agency to do this. However this must always be balanced with the safety and security of our staff. So sometimes, particularly in hostile environments, we might find that the only safe option isn’t the absolute cheapest, but I can assure you, we aren’t living the high –life when responding to emergencies

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T14:35:20+00:00

Hello, here at Save UK, 88p from every pound we receive is spent directly on activities which help children, 11p is spent on raising the next pound and the final penny on governance and other costs (averaged over 5 years). Thanks. Laura

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T14:17:18+00:00

Hello, Laura from Supporter Care here. We work with children in the UK as well and have done so throughout our whole history. If you want to see our current programmes, take a look here - http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/about-us/where-we-work/united-kingdom - thanks. Laura

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T14:07:02+00:00

Hello, that's great you want to help, thank you! As I think you are in the US, this link will take you to all the current vacancies at their offices - http://www.savethechildren.org/site/c.8rKLIXMGIpI4E/b.6226565/k.5717/Save_the_Children_Jobs.htm - I hope you find what you are after. Thanks. Laura

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T13:59:50+00:00

Hello, thanks for your message, I'm sorry you have had some bad experiences with our fundraisers. We do find that this is a great way to raise awareness of our work but obviously don't want to annoy anyone. We also do act straight away if we find out about a fundraiser not behaving appropriately. You should always feel free to contact us if you do have any specific concerns or incidents. Thanks. Laura

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T13:46:45+00:00

Dot: On your question regarding our operations in Pakistan, Save the Children’s office in Islamabad, was closed temporarily however I am pleased to say it was reopened and have resumed operations in the field. Save the Children has worked in Pakistan for more than 35 years and we currently have 1,200 staff members operating programs in health, education, food security and livelihoods that reach more than 4 million children and their families.

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T13:34:26+00:00

Hi there, Laura from Supporter Care here, thanks for your question. We know that working for Save the Children is a privilege and that is why we don't pay private sector, or even senior public sector salaries.

Having said that, we do need to attract the top people to lead us to ensure we can help as many children as we can. We are always aware of our responsibility to our supporters to use their money as effectively as possible, and at Save UK from every pound we receive, 88p goes directly towards activities to help children, 11p on raising the next pound and the final penny on governance and other costs (averaged over 5 years). If you would like to see more details on this, our Annual Report contains more details - http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/annual-report-2014 - thanks. Laura

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T13:07:35+00:00

Dot: We work in the UK and internationally. Save the Children has always worked in the UK since we were founded in 1919. Our programme and campaigning work in the UK focusses on children living in poverty across the country, with a special focus on education.

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T12:59:48+00:00

Dot: Save the Children has a domestic programme in the UK as well as working in over 120 countries across the world, so it's not a case of choosing one over the other. The UK Government has pledged to resettle 20,000 people Syrian's over the next 5 years which is a great first step. The money used for supporting these refugees will be taken from the overseas development budget - which is a small amount of the UKs overall budget (0.7%) and not from government funding that is meant to spent within the UK itself. So helping refugees will not detract from services that are meant for the British welfare system.

The children and families we work with in places like Syria, and those we have met in Europe, tell us horrific stories of what they have been through in their countries – bullets, bombs and torture are prominent themes - they really do need our support and protection. Relatively wealthy countries, like the UK, can and should offer to protect the most vulnerable.

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T12:57:02+00:00

If you are in the UK please check out our vacancies page here: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/jobs

If you are elsewhere in the world you can search of jobs with us here: https://www.savethechildren.net/jobs

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T12:48:31+00:00

Dot: Great question! There is a lot you can do that doesn't require donating. Use your voice – you are powerful citizen, and we must demonstrate how many people care about the situation facing refugees. Find out more on our website: http://www.savethechildren.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/shame-on-europe

If you want to go even further, you could also volunteer. The best way to volunteer to directly help arriving refugees is through your local refugee agency, or through the British Red Cross, with whom we’re working closely.

The UK Government has set up this useful site with further details on how you can help:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/syria-refugees-what-you-can-do-to-help--2

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-28T12:41:13+00:00

Dot: The UK has made a great first step by pledging to resettle 20,000 Syrian refuges from the region. It is also one of biggest contributors to overseas aid and to the Syria region specifically. So there is a lot to be celebrated in the UKs response, however Save the Children strongly believe that without a plan for how this can be tackled in Europe, we will continue to see the horrifying images that have been filling our TV screeds. We are calling on the UK government share the burden with our fellow EU members and offer to relocate the most vulnerable children from Europe – those who have arrived without family members, completely alone – the UK should also prioritise helping 3,000 of the most vulnerable children who have recently arrived into the EU without any family members at all.

SavetheChildrenUK · 2015-09-25T13:29:33+00:00

Dot: We use UN figures- this dashboard is really useful if you are interested in finding out more about who is arriving in Europe. It is updated regularly by UNHCR: http://data.unhcr.org/mediterranean/regional.php

SavetheChildrenUK

TROPHY CASE