Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Tube strike 2014: Save the Children's sobering tweet to first world problems

Charity offers stark reminder of just how minor our Tube trike woes are

Tom Payne
Wednesday 30 April 2014 06:47 EDT
Comments

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Twitter may be awash with tales of commuter chaos today, but Save the Children has used the social media frenzy to counter our distinctly first-world problem.

The charity group hijacked the #tubestrike hashtag to raise awareness of the fact that, while the strike will end next week, there is no telling when the crisis in Syria will end.

It was a sobering reminder of our relatively minor travel problems, as Save the Children produced a mock-TFL poster explaining the devastating humanitarian crisis in Syria.

Food, medicine and doctors are all facing ‘severe delays’, other services including electricity and water are ‘part suspended’ or ‘under siege’, and schools and checkpoints are ‘closed’ all together.

“Syria’s children need life-saving aid now,” the poster says. “The UN and humanitarian agencies must be able to reach Syria’s children urgently – wherever they are.”

The war-torn country is home to an estimated 4.4 million children who urgently need help.

More than 1 million children have already fled the country, and are now living in crowded refugee camps or villages.

The charity has already helped 230,000 children and their family members by providing them with food and medicine.

www.savethechildren.org.uk

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in