World Vision MEER's latest policy brief sends a clear message: returning home does not automatically mean children are safe, supported or able to thrive.

Explore World Vision’s latest policy brief on families returning to Ukraine and Syria. Discover the complex trade-offs between safety, reunification, and child wellbeing.

New WV policy brief reveals that long after displacement ends, many children continue to face insecurity, hunger, disrupted education and psychological distress.

Returning home has not ended displacement for many Syrian families. Children continue to face poverty, disrupted education, protection risks, and psychological distress as communities struggle to recover from years of conflict. Sustained support is essential to help families rebuild their lives and futures.

4.2 million returnees are currently living in Ukraine, including 1.55 million people – 37% of all returnees – in frontline areas where active conflict is ongoing, raising urgent concerns that for millions of children, “going home” does not yet mean reaching safety, World Vision warns.

As funding declines and hunger rises, new research from World Vision, in collaboration with the World Food Programme (WFP), shows that household self‑reliance—or the ability to provide for basic needs without external assistance, protects children from hunger, child labour, early marriage, school dropout, and family separation.

In northwest Syria, displaced children face hunger, lost identity, and no education—while shrinking aid threatens a generation’s future.

“We used to get sick all the time. We kept getting diarrhea, and it disrupted our family life and our studies,” says Ernestine.

In South Sudan, girls like Shufa are forced from school into labour—hunger and displacement push millions of children’s futures to the brink.

In the Shadow of Hunger: The Power of Self-Reliance to Protect Children and Restore Hope