War Child works towards a world in which children are never involved in armed conflict. War Child believes that all children and young people should be protected from armed conflict and should be enabled to meaningfully participate in issues concerning them.
Ultimately, children should be supported to enjoy their right to healthy psychosocial development and live a dignified life.

The psychosocial well-being of a child is determined by the continuous interplay between psychological and social factors and consists of healthy emotional, cognitive, social, and spiritual development.
It includes social integration, a sense of economic and physical security and a sense of identity. It is crucial that children and young people are professionally supported in overcoming the effects of armed conflict on their psychosocial development, although the majority of them show remarkable resilience.
War Child assists children and young people in this process.

To realize our mandate, we implement, either directly or together with our partners, programmes that protect and empower children and young people. Creative community based interventions and conflict transformation programmes have become our core business over the years.
More recently, we have successfully included programmes focusing on activities such as informal education and livelihoods.

War Child is a rights-based organization committed to the fulfilment of children’s rights, in particular their right to healthy psychosocial development. Our work is based on principles enshrined in international human rights instruments such as the Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) – and on child development theories from disciplines such as social anthropology and psychology.

Although we deal with essentially all the rights of the UNCRC, we focus our work on Articles 38 (protection and care of children affected by armed conflict) and Article 39 (psychological recovery and social reintegration of child victims).