[ ♪♪ ] this week on "talk to al jazeera" u.n.i.c.e.f. director anthony lake. >> you see children everywhere who have not given up hope. if they haven't given up hope what possible excuse can we have for giving up hope as the syrian war enters its fifth year he says critical efforts are needed to stop millions of children becoming a lost generation. >> every one of those members is an individual child.

these kids are losing their child hoods from syria, iraq south sudan - 2014 was the worst year for young people since world war ii. >> if you look at now the map of the world and imagine the countries in crisis and tell me which one looks like it will get better. >> war aside, millions of children die every year from preventible causes. >> the kids die every day - it's an abomination. some of the wealthier countries are failing to care for their own youth according to u.n.i.c.e.f. >> no society is healthy if ipp equalities are growing. anthony lake served in a number of roles, including national security advisor in the clinton administration. his advice for president obama about the the wars in syria and iraq? >> join with other nations and

do everything you can to bringing influence to bear through diplomacy to end this war. i spoke to anthony lake in new york. as i sit and speak with you your office put out a frightening report about what is going on in syria and iraq and in that region in general. you say that 14 million kids have been affected by that conflict. that is the population of new york chicago and los angeles roughly, all put together. it's a massive problem. >> it is. it's a huge problem. and over 5 million of them are inside syria, and another 2 million living in refugee camps, in communities outside syria. another - we forget about these - probably over 3.5 million kids are living in the communities in surrounding countries, that are having to try to take care of the syrian kids. that means they are suffering hardships also. and then we have over

2.5 million kids in iraq now. and the numbers are growing. >> is this across the board. the biggest problem in america is with the kids that remained inside syria, many displaced, facing war. 5.6 million. >> yes. and very hard to reach. we have to struggle to reach them when they are in the government controlled areas. >> and the government has not been that helpful at times. >> not sometimes, that's true. we work with the government to try to get them to be as helpful as they can. it's not u.n.i.c.e.f. kids or people in t-shirts going out and doing this. we work through partners to do this. local n.g.o. the red crescent society in syria, et cetera. so it's complex. >> as you said 2 million who have become refugees in nearby countries, some of them in tents - at tent camps with all

sorts of challenges essentially a harsh winter. >> yes, or during the rainy periods flooding. in some of the valley areas. i want to emphasise something - we have used numbers - 2 million, 5.5 million. et cetera, et cetera. every one of those numbers is an individual chide. -- child, and they are children like my grandchildren who play laugh, cry, misbehave. but these kids are losing their childhoods and they are facing problems that are not only affecting them now in horrible ways, and you have seen it on television. i have visited in lebanon, syria and jordan and iraq how the kids are trying to survive. it's affecting their future and if it's affecting the kids' futures, it's affecting their country's futures, and that means all of us too. because we have from in that area. >> it creates a massive

multipler effect it affects the kids from neighbouring countries because refugees are taking away resources of them. what do you see as the consequences of an enormous displacement and refugee problem? >> well let's talk about it in terms of the kids themselves. imagine that you are a 5-year-old kid in syria, in a hard to reach area or living in a tent literally a tent and the winters get cold in the beqaa valley jordan and elsewhere. that kid, that five-year-old kid has never known anything except for conflicts and violence and the stress on their families. one of the interesting aspects, and appalling aspects of this is that we are learning more and more in scientific studies of how this affects the kids' brain. for the first few years of a

kids' life the brain is developing rapidly. what happens to that kids' brain during the months and years will determine the rest of the kids headlines future. if the kid is not getting the nourishment, the stimulation so that the brain is getting ideas and is playing or learning or whatever and violence releases chemicals in the brain of toxic stress that prevents the child's brain from developing also. so literally the future is being affected by a loss of cognitive capacity for the rest of their lives. and that means their societies are losing all of that also. >> you said specifically once that for the youngest children the crisis is all they have known. the generation is in danger of being lost to a cycle of violence replicating what they suffered in their own. how do you stop the cycle? >> you work and do everything

you can. we are focussing on two things for a campaign that we and a number of governments do to try to prevent this. the reason we are doing this is precisely because not only are the children suffering now, but if they grow up believing that this kind of violence is normal this is all they know they'll grow up with hate red in their hearts believing this it is right to shoot sunnis and shias, growing up believing that barrel bombs are normal and will replicate it again later. so you address it. let me show you some pictures. and read you a poem. >> usually when i travel and meet kids during disasters, they are so hopeful. they are still in the midst of a flood or whatever. they are laughing or playing,

finding ways to be kids. here in the refugee camps that i visited in jordan and in the becca valley you see that and their hopes should inspire us to go on and work hard. so many of them are starting not to be. i was in a school that we were running in the beqaa valley in lebanon a year ago. i said to the kids "what do you do for play?" they said one of the things is marwan, and they pointed to a little boy, 12-year-old that writes poetry. and i thought great, show me poetry. just one short poem translated death don't come near me. not out of fear of my lost time but fear of my mother shedding tears. my kids are playing baseball and marwan is writing poems like this. or i see kids drawing wonderful pictures of a happiness,

remembering their homes or whatever in many situations here here - violence helicopters, people killed canons blood or a girl... ..just black. >> everything black. >> now, the affect of this is they are losing education. they will not have the skills to contribute to society in the future and in their hearts hatred. so we have for example, reached about a million kids across the region with psychological counselling, to try to get them over the trauma. and we are emphasising education, education, education within syria, where we have supplied millions of school supplies to kids across the country, or in helping the wonderfully generous in their support countries jordan lebanon, turkey iraq who are

then trying to deal with the educational needs of these kids including especially because you can't get them all into the schools that are hugely overburdened. so a lot of informal education. >> you have put out a massive effort to help with medical needs, which are tremendous. >> one out of five hospitals in syria are not opening - really not functional. we are carrying out massive vaccination campaigns in every way we can. it's very hard. it's not only in of the government controlled areas. but probably a third or more of what we are doing is across the lines - either across the lines from the government controlled areas, or across the borders now that security council resolutions have authorised it into rebel head areas. it's dangerous work and the abuse these children suffer from

is on so many different levels. just absolutely horror. we see it in iraq with the tales of what i.s.i.l. has done to the yazidi children forced into suicide bombings. it's on every imaginable level. >> and it is - among almost every group involved in this there have been atrocities by all sides. including literally selling children. i have seen on the internet a list of the prices that they get when they sell children and women. outrageous experiences. >> little girls forced into marriage and used as sexual slaves. children being taken in as child soldiers. there, and, of course in other areas of the world which we work hard on. >> i was in homs a year ago, in

syria, and met with some families that had gotten out from a besieged area. and the stories the children were telling of not being able to walk on the streets because of snipers, so they were going through underground tunnels to pop out in abandoned houses to look for canned goods left over. they were hunting cats to eat. they were barely surviving. and, again, you can imagine the trauma for these kids. we went across a line then into a rebel held area in homs. we went to a school. and in the school they were having to study down in the basements because of the snipers that might shoot them if they went upstairs. what did that tell them about what adults are like. what does it tell them about what the rest of their lives will be like. the adolescent the 12-year-olds 13-year-olds at the age when kids are saying, and you hear it and it's

heartening and heart-breaking - to hear them say that now that they are thinking seriously about their future they want to be doctors, they want to be teachers, and yet they are not getting the education, all the education they need to do it. you are heartened that they have hope, but it's heart-breaking because you know few of them unless we stop this war now, are going to have those hopes diminished. >> we have been talking with anthony lake about syria. coming up we talk about africa and other hot spots around the world.

i'm antonio mora, this is "talk to al jazeera". today i'm speaking to anthony lake, an executive director of u.n.i.c.e.f. >> u.n.i.c.e.f. needs almost 280 million for what it's trying do in syria. and you have a fraction of that. really, a fraction of that. >> yes. >> the same thing is happening in iraq and other affected regions. >> yes. central african republic south sudan, all of these crisis. last year... >> why? >>..was a terrible year for the children as the emergencies broke out is the situation worse than world war ii. >> i think so yes. if you look at the map of the world and imagine for a moment the countries that are in crisis popping up and tell me which

one looks like it will get better why don't we look at some of those countries. central african republic. >> it was horribly neglected during the goal ownial period. low education rits et cetera and is calling party between muslims and christians and children are suffering terribly - lack of education, health. not car in south sudan you have a civil war raging. >> and in the last week peace efforts have fallen apart. meanwhile hundreds of thousands of kids in need of nutrition. 25,000 children have been taken in to - as child soldiers into the various armed groups. it's appalling. >> moving west. >> no end in sight. >> you have what is going on in nigeria, spilling over.

chat niger. >> yes. >> cameroon and you have boko haram who is specifically against education. >> specifically against western education. >> yes. >> what can you - what can u.n.i.c.e.f. do? >> there's a short answer our best. of course that requires resources - human and financial. we have expanded considerably over the last couple of years. all of our resources very to raise every year even though we are a u.n. agency. we are raising more and more resource, but not nearly enough that we need to do. >> why are you badly underfunded? you'd thing the one thing everyone agrees on is you want to take care of suffering children. >> sure, we are hard wired to care for our children as human being. i think the problem is in a

way, just a fatigue people are used to seeing children suffering, and people are used to seeing more suffer and the crisis. we mustn't let it happen it's stupid strategically, because these children are the children that will decide what the future of our world will be. so we keep trying. on a personal note i wake up in the morning, read the headlines, i see no progress. you know there'll be climate change and natural disasters also. and i say to myself - we are going to go through another day of not able to do everything we can for the children. i start to get discouraged. then i remember and what we tell each other in u.n.i.c.e.f.

and to others - even if we can't do 100% of what we need to do children dying and futures being blighted. there's a difference between doing 90% of what we need to do and 80% of what we need to do because the 10% difference it millions of kids lives. let's get close to 100%. if it's 90% we know we did our best your campaign - instead of focussing on the children who have died or are dying, you try to send a hopeful message. >> well you see children everywhere that have not given up hope. if they have not given up hope what excuse can we have for giving up hope. of course translating that hope into hard work and translating that hard work into results for the children. >> some may argue that our

priorities are messed up. >> i would argue that. >> all right. >> where to begin. >> you know why don't we begin with the military. we spend enormous amounts on the military, not just the united states, but countries around the world, and not enough on protecting the kids. on the other hand is that money, at this point essential, because somehow the military has to be involved in somehow trying to end the conflicts. >> no of course and there would be - it would be useless to argue don't spend so much on the military. nations act in what they perceive to be their own self-interest. it's important to understand that if we don't take care of this generation of children, if

this generation grows up to think it is normal, and they are not only outside of nations they are within. then we'll have the same military expenditure, no rational person wants to spend money on military rather than on the future of their people. so work on raising a generation of children less likely to repeat the same mistakes as this generation and my generation and that way you can reduce military spending over time. >> conflict again has been a problem within ukraine. you have hundreds of thousands of children suffering. you found that the problem is not just in underdeveloped countries, but you have seen that the richest countries in the world, that well over 2 million kids have fallen into

poverty in the last few years since the recession, and in the united states itself in 34 out of the 50 states children are in worse shape than they were before. >> absolutely. and that is not good for any society. >> and, of course while you were saying that i was thinking to myself you don't change human nature by higher economic development. people are people. it's natural in any country there'll be problems. no society is healthy if the inequalities in that society are growing. politically it is not sustainable if some groups are getting more than others. that's a recipe for political difficulties. >> you highlight that this is not just a rural problem, which is something that people may think. >> no, no it's people in disadvantaged areas, this is a serious problem in urban areas. >> very much so.

with urbanization in africa rapid urbanization, more moving into the cities if you don't plan for it you get these slums that are growing up with no planning at all. and once they've moved in there, it's harder to provide it than if you have some sort of planned organization so that you are providing the systems, et cetera, in those areas, which in turn prevents disease and when you have more disease, you have to spend more money on the medical side and it's bad planning. urban planning - and urban planning that addresses climate change is important for the fewer, and the next generation. >> 19,000 children die every day of preventible causes. coming up we talk to anthony lake about whether the world has failed these kids. good evening, i'm michael eaves - coming up at the top of

the hour - protesters take to the streets of yemen against the houthi rebels fear their spread will lead to a civil war dozens of syrian soldiers captive has their helicopter goes down in a rebel hour. al nusra front claims responsibility. and ted cruz announceing he'll run for president. all that and more ahead.

[ ♪♪ ] i'm antonio mora and this is "talk to al jazeera". our guest today anthony lake - executive director of u.n.i.c.e.f. >> one of the most heartbreaking finding, approximately 19,000 children die every single day. >> every day. >> from causes we know how to prevent. >> absolutely. >> that's more than 7 million chin a year. >> it is. >> it -- children a year. >> it is. >> that must be a hard thing... >> it's less than in previous years. we have made progress thanks to the miracle of vaccinations and hard work. those kids dying every day is an

abomination. >> has the world failed these kids? >> if the kid dies because of a lack of a bed net against malaria, because of a lack of a vaccine against measles, which is a big killer in the world, because of a lack of clean water, whatever - yes, they certainly have been failed. >> you are one of the most influential people in foreign policy and national security over the past few decades in this country. i suspect your advice is often sought. what would you tell president obama now that the united states needs to do - first in syria and iraq? >> join with other nations and do everything you can through bringing influence to bear through dip loam has any to end the war. it is entering the fifth year

now. if today you could take us back three years like the ghost of christmas future and - in dick earnings -- dickens, and say "this is what the world will look like this three years from now if you don't do more to stop the war now." let's say here we are now, imagine what it will be like three years from now, with the increasing carnage in human lives, and all of that. i hope the world can rededicate itself, not just the united states, but all the government and parties responsible for this to figure out a way to stop it now. it is affecting an area of immense strategic importance to us. if you are in europe you see more refugees and the way to deal with that is to stop the war there.

as we enter the fifth years, let's find ways to do that. i'm not presuming to express how, and u.n.i.c.e.f. does not get involved in politics. temped tempted as i am to give an answer i'll pass. >> do you ever feel hopeless... never. >>..no matter home conflicts. >> never. >> given the roles you've had in public and private life why did you decide to take on this challenge is this. >> the children. the children. >> every sunday night, >> i lived that character. >> go one on one with america's movers and shakers.

>> we will be able to see change. >> gripping. inspiring. entertaining. talk to al jazeera. next sunday, 6:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. this is al jazeera america, i'm michael eaves in new york. here are the top stories - the u.n. special envoy for yemen warns the security council that the country is on the brink of civil war. the founding father of modern singapore lee kuan yew has died. how he helped guide the state from a british outpost to a global financial center republican senator ted cruz is set to announce tomorrow that he will run for the president say in 2016. and a possible game changer - how