From syria and iraq, to the Central African republic and 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 its going to get better. War aside, millions of children die every year from preventible causes. Those kids dying every day are an abomination. Even 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 the inequalities in that society are growing. Lake has served in a variety of roles for the u. S. Government, including as National Security advisor in the clinton administration. His advice for president obama now about the wars in syria and iraq. Join with other nations and do everything you can through 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. Its a massive problem. It is. Its a huge problem. And over 5 million of them are inside syria, then another 2 million living in refugee camps, or in Host Communities outside syria. Another and 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 these numbers are growing very rapidly. Just across the board the biggest problem, at least numerically, is with the kids who have remained inside syria many of whom are displaced many of whom are facing war constantly. As you said, 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 no, thats true. And so we work with the government to try to get them to be as helpful as they can. And of course its not u. N. I. C. E. F. Kids or young u. N. I. C. E. F. People in tshirts going out and doing this but we work through partners to do this. Local n. G. O. S, the Red Crescent Society in syria, et cetera. So its an immensely complex operation also. And as you said 2 million who have become refugees in nearby countries some of them in just tents tent camps with all sorts of challenges, especially just a very harsh winter this year. Yes, or during the rainy periods flooding. In some of the valley areas. I want to emphasise something we have just used numbers 2 million, 5. 5 million. Et cetera, et cetera. Every one of those numbers is an individual 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. Its affecting their future, and if its affecting the kids futures, its affecting their countrys futures, and that means all of us too. Because we have such interests 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 such an enormous displacement and refugee problem . Well lets talk about it in terms of the kids themselves. Imagine that you are a 5yearold kid in syria, in a hard to reach area or living in a tent, literally just a tent, and the winters get very cold in the beqaa valley, jordan and elsewhere. That kid, that fiveyearold kid has never known anything except for conflict 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 their brain is developing rapidly. What happens to that kids brain during those months and years will determine the rest of the kids future. If the kid is not getting the nourishment, 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 childs brain from developing also. So literally their 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. This generation is in danger of being lost to a cycle of violence, replicating in the next generation what they have suffered in their own. How do you stop that cycle . You work and do everything you can. We are focusing on two things for a campaign that we and a number of governments and ngos have started called no lost generation 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, because this is all they know, then they are going to grow up with hatred in their hearts, believing that it is right to shoot sunnis or shias, theyre going to grow up believing that barrel bombs are somehow 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. But so many of them are starting not to be. I was in a tent school that we are 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 that marwan, and they all pointed to this little boy whos 12yearsold, writes poetry that we love. And so i thought great show me poetry. Just one short poem translated death dont 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 violence, helicopters, people killed, canons, blood or a girl. Everything black. Just 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 now 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 cant get them all into the schools that are hugely overburdened. So a lot of informal education as well. And you have also put out a massive effort to help with medical needs which are tremendous. One out of five hospitals in syria are not open are really not functional. We are carrying out massive vaccination campaigns in every way we can. Again, its very hard. Because its not only in 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 held areas. Its dangerous work. And the abuse these children suffer from is on so many different levels. Just absolute horrors. We see it in iraq with the tales of what i. S. I. L. Has done to the yazidi children, forced into suicide bombings. Its on every imaginable level. It is, 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 as well which we work very hard on. I was in homs a year ago, in syria, and met with some families who had just 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 does that tell them about what adults are like. What does it tell them about what the rest of their lives will be like. The adolescents, the 12yearolds, 13yearolds 14yearolds, just at the age when kids are saying and you hear it, and its both heartening and heartbreaking 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 its heartbreaking because you know few of them, unless we stop this war now, are going to have those hopes very very diminished. We have been talking with anthony lake about syria. Coming up well talk about africa and other hot spots around the world. The stream. Your digital community. You pick the hot topics and express your thoughts. The stream, its your chance to join the conversation. Tuesday to friday, 3 30 eastern. Only on al jazeera america. Im antonio mora, this is talk to al jazeera. Today im speaking to anthony lake, executive director of u. N. I. C. E. F. U. N. I. C. E. F. Needs almost 280 Million Dollars for what its trying do in syria. And you have only 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 was a. Why . Was a terrible year for the children as the emergencies broke out. Is the situation worse than any time since 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 dont we look at some of those countries. Central african republic. It was horribly neglected during the colonial period. Low education rates, et cetera, and it has completely fallen apart now between muslims and christians. And children are suffering terribly there. Lack of education again, healthcare etc. Not that far away 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. Its appalling. Moving west. No end in sight. You have what is going on in nigeria, spilling over. Chad and 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 . Theres a very 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 we have to raise every year, even though we are a u. N. Agency. We are raising more and more resource, but not nearly enough to do all the things that we need to do. Why are you so badly underfunded . Youd 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 beings. I think the problem is in a way, just a fatigue people have gotten used to seeing images of children suffering, and people are used to seeing more suffer, and the crisis. We mustnt let it happen, its 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 therell, with Climate Change, be more 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 cant do 100 of what we need to do, and that means children unnecessarily dying and futures being blighted. Theres a huge difference between doing 90 of what we need to do and 80 of what we need to do, because the 10 difference is millions of kids lives. So lets get as close to 100 as we can. And if its 90 , if we know we did our best, then. Thats 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 who 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 dont 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 these conflicts. No, of course and it would be useless and impractical to argue dont spend so much on the military. Nations act in what they perceive to be their own selfinterest. Its important to understand that if we dont 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 well 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 thats not good for any society. And, of course, while you were saying that, i was thinking to myself you dont change human nature by higher economic development. People are people. Its natural in any country therell 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. Its a recipe for political difficulties. You highlight that this is not just a rural problem, which some people might think. No, no, its 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 dont plan for it, you get these slums that are growing up with no planning at all. And once theyve moved in there, its harder to provide it than if you have some sort of planned urbanization so that you are providing the Sewage 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 its just bad planning. Urban planning and urban planning that addresses Climate Change is extremely important for the future of the next generation. 19,000 children die every day of preventible causes. Coming up well talk to anthony lake about whether the world has failed these kids. Im 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 findings, approximately 19,000 children die every single day. Every day. From causes we know how to prevent. Absolutely. Thats more than 7 million children a year. It is. That must be one the hardest things for you to. Its less than in previous years. We have made progress thanks to the miracle of vaccinations and hard work. But those kids dying every day are an abomination. Has the world failed thses 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 diplomacy to end this war. It is entering its fifth year now. If today you could take us back three years like the ghost of christmas future, in dickens and say this is what the world will look like three years from now if you dont do more to stop the war now. Lets 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 governments 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 year, lets find ways to do that. Im not presuming to express how, and u. N. I. C. E. F. Does not get involved in politics. So tempted as i am to give you more of an answer, i think ill