Our year in pictures

From responding to a number of emergencies across the globe to planting thousands of shoes in Trafalgar Square to the continued support of our amazing fundraisers and campaigners - 2022 has been a whirlwind! So let's take a step back and look at exactly what we've all been up to this year.

On February 24 2022, the lives of millions of Ukrainians changed forever. Over the following months, more than 15 million people fled their homes. On March 3, the Disasters Emergency Committee launched an appeal for the crisis, with an incredible £400 million donated to date.

On March 15, we began a 12-month response helping Ukrainians who remained in the country with rent, food, hygiene and psychosocial support. We have delivered non-food item kits, including bed linens, pillows, blankets and kitchenware; hygiene kits including soap, washing powder and hand sanitiser; and baby hygiene kits including nappies, soap bars and baby wipes. We have also supported thousands of people through cash assistance distributions as well as providing cash to Civil Society Organisations to support conflict-affected individuals in their communities. 

Additionally, while many Ukrainians had places to go as they fled either their home or their country, many of the displaced did not have these connections. Part of this intervention included collective centres – a communal centre to offer accommodation and WASH facilities to IDPs (internally displaced persons), information centres, the provision of hot meals and providing psycho-social support.

During the summer of 2022, monsoon rains and flooding in Pakistan killed more than 1,000 people - including 207 women and 348 children. The country was experiencing three times its national 30-year average rainfall and the Pakistan Government declared a national emergency.

Approximately one million houses, 3,451km of roads and 149 bridges were damaged significantly by the floods and the population's access to essential goods and services was severely impeded. 

We responded to the situation in Balochistan, Sindh and Punjab, offering cash assistance to enable extremely vulnerable families to buy critical items for daily use. Those affected used the cash to buy food, dry rations, tarpaulins and makeshift tents, as well as for essential medications and transportation where possible.

Throughout the year, East Africa has been experiencing one of its most severe droughts in recent history. The situation remains dire, with over 23 million people facing dangerous levels of hunger in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia, and 7 million people in South Sudan.

Most people in the region are reliant on the land and their animals to survive. This drought is destroying their livelihoods. Millions of people are leaving their homes and villages to find food, water and pasture. In the most desperate situations, families are selling their livestock to afford food for their children.

It is estimated that one person is dying every 36 seconds from hunger in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia and millions more are at risk of starvation. Famine is imminent in Somalia.

We are providing:

• Emergency life-saving therapeutic food to severely malnourished children.
• Cash transfers to families who have nothing left so they can buy the food they desperately need.
• Medical support through our specialist teams in the 870 Health Centres across East Africa.

Moreover, the resilience of the communities we work with is astounding. 

On November 15 2022, Trafalgar Square was filled with thousands of shoes by a coalition of UK charities, including Concern, to stress the urgency of famine sweeping across East Africa.

Concern and other charity members used shoes to symbolize recent, stark figures which estimate that 2,400 people are dying of hunger every day in East Africa of Hunger. The aim was to urge Rishi Sunak and Chancellor Jeremy Hunt to immediately fund humanitarian response in East Africa, to invest in anticipatory action to prevent further humanitarian catastrophe, and to protect overseas aid by ensuring adequate funding is reserved to be spent abroad. 

It was suggested that more than 55,000 people are likely to have died in East Africa in the 23 days between Rishi Sunak becoming PM and the Chancellor delivering his Autumn statement. (2). UK funding for the East African food crisis this year (£142million) is 82% less than in the last crisis in 2018 when the UK provided £861million.

The stunt was also attended by Conservative MP for Haltemprice and Howden David Davis.

Ahead of COP27 we took the liberty of imagining the conversations that go on behind the closed doors of potential change-makers. Each COP brings with it more promises from world leaders, including our own from the UK. But we wondered whether these promises were actually going to be delivered, or if they were just lip service.

When COP27 came about, we warmly welcomed the landmark decision by global leaders to establish a loss and damage fund to support the world’s poorest countries who are experiencing the worst impact of climate change. However, this welcome has to be balanced against the fact that less progress was made at COP on other core issues such as climate adaptation funding and emissions reductions.

Just three in ten people were confident that the UK government would meet their pledge to tackle climate change and limit its impacts in lower-income countries.

Women of Concern were delighted to speak with Diane Chilangwa Farmer PhD, a trustee of Concern Worldwide UK. Dr Farmer holds a PhD in Gender and Work and is an expert on the impact of gender, race, and ethnicity on inclusion in the workforce.

We spoke to her about the importance of livelihood opportunities as one of the most effective ways for women to sustainably move out of extreme poverty and build a better life for themselves. 

We continued to push the UK government to keep its promise to ‘spare no effort’ in the east Africa hunger crisis. This year, we have:

• Handed in a sector-wide petition with 35,000 signatures form the public, calling for action
• Sent Prime Minister Liz Truss a letter signed by the CEOs of over twenty humanitarian organisations with recommendations on how to prevent catastrophic loss of life
• Stood outside Westminster raising our voices even louder to ensure that the UK know we’re #HungryForAction

Our supporters have played a huge part in calling for the government to prioritise the most pressing crises both here and in the UK. Hunger and starvation is preventable and we we’ll be keeping up the pressure until we see real action.

A group of local musicians from Derry called the Magnificent Seven organised this wonderful concert in partnership with the Derry Group to support our Ukraine appeal. Overall they raised an incredible £10,000!

The Armagh Community Choir organised another fantastic concert in support of the Ukraine DEC appeal, raising a brilliant £1,520!

And the Derry Group completed their annual Scalp Mountain walk, raising £2,016 in support of Concern.

In 2022, more than 2,600 of you signed up to take the Challenge!