A combination of civil war, economic collapse and drought have pushed parts of the South Sudan into deadly famine and displaced millions of people. Since 2011, the people of Syria have also been living in a state of conflict, forcing them to seek refuge in neighboring countries. The ongoing violence in both South Sudan and Syria separated children from their families and destroyed communities, leaving children and mothers acutely malnourished and at the risk of death.

Over the past five years, Plan International has undertaken several environmental sanitation initiatives to help enable refugees to take disease-prevention measures. One of these centered around the importance of latrines. Access to sanitation and the use of hygienic toilets (instead of defecating outdoors) reduces the number of disease-carrying pests such as flies and prevents contamination of drinking water. This reduces the incidents of diarrhea and malnutrition, which is critical to the survival of children. (According to Tropical Medicine and Health, diarrhea is the second leading cause of child morbidity and mortality worldwide and is responsible for more than 90% of deaths in children under 5 in low and middle income-countries).