To fly? To be invisible? To read minds? There is one superpower without which no other makes sense. The superpower of survival.
When we think of superpowers, we immediately picture people who can fly, read minds or become invisible. But there’s one crucial superpower which, if it didn’t exist, would render all the others meaningless – a superpower that, even today, more than 4.8 million children under the age of five worldwide can’t enjoy: the superpower of survival.
This superpower is built on a series of basic capabilities that guarantee life, such as immunisation, good nutrition, access to clean water and a safe shelter. At a time when millions of children are affected by humanitarian crises, conflict and extreme poverty, ensuring child survival is more crucial than ever.
At ”la Caixa” Foundation we firmly believe that real change is possible and that every single child can enjoy their own superpower: the right to survive and to have a future.
What do we do?
Through its International Area, and with the help of strategic partners and alliances, ”la Caixa” Foundation works to combat the root causes of child malnutrition, preventable diseases and lack of access to essential resources, responding to emergency situations and promoting preventive measures by training healthcare professionals.
All the initiatives carried out in this area share the aim of Sustainable Development Goal 3, one of whose targets is to end preventable deaths of children under five worldwide by 2030.
Key Initiatives
Vaccines4Children project
More than 14.5 million children lack access to vital vaccines that protect them from preventable diseases such as pneumonia and malaria. Through this Alliance, and together with the Gates Foundation and ISGlobal as a scientific partner, financial donations are made to GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, so that it can continue to make vaccination possible for millions of children throughout the world.
Since 2008, the Alliance has raised over €100 million, which has been used to vaccinate more than 11 million children.
MOM Project
There are currently 120 million displaced persons and refugees in the world and many children in this situation are deprived of basic healthcare services. In 2024, Ethiopia received over 1 million refugees and displaced persons, making it the third largest host country in Africa.
It’s precisely in this country where the MOM programme, which we run together with UNHCR, works to provide shelter, medical and food assistance to pregnant women and children under five who are refugees. It also carries out awareness-raising campaigns and training with the aim of reducing malnutrition and mortality among mothers, newborns and children.
Since 2017, 1,782,666 people have benefitted from this programme, including 1,091,574 children under five and 214,670 mothers and pregnant and breastfeeding women.
Child Survival programme
The goal of the Child Survival programme is to help improve the life expectancy of millions of people living in extreme poverty, with a particular focus on women and children in sub-Saharan Africa, the region that accounts for the majority of deaths of children under five (56.7 %).
In 2024, the Child Survival call was launched with the aim of supporting projects by social organisations that contribute towards increasing child survival in this region on the African continent.
With four projects selected in Tanzania, Uganda, Mali and Sierra Leone, it’s expected to reach 62,633 beneficiaries.
Accelerating child survival rates in Sierra Leone
In 2022 alone, 72 children under the age of five died every day in Sierra Leone from preventable causes such as pneumonia, diarrhoea, malaria and malnutrition; a total of 26,300 child deaths per year.
Together with UNICEF, we’re working in Sierra Leone’s Kenema district to help reduce child mortality by providing essential child healthcare resources plus training and support for healthcare centres and professionals, among other actions.
The main aim of this alliance is to guarantee decent, good quality access to healthcare services for more than 80,000 children under the age of five (60 % of the under-5 population) in the district of Kenema.