Figure 1.--The Algerian independence war with France resulted in many civilian casualties. Mny civilians were dipaved nd sought refuge in neighboring Tunisia and Morocco. Here are civilians that Swedish Save the Children was aiding. The Swedish press caption here for a group of images, "read, "120 000 algeriska flyktingar i Marocko väntar på den definitiva freden mellan fransmännen och algerierna,' Rädda barnen har en stor uppgift bland dessa flyktingar och här ses ett bildsvep från hjälporganisationens verksamhet. Bilderna visar en parvel i matkön, flyktingar vid Rädda barnens buss, måltid i lägret och ett besök hos den svenske läkaren dr Huns Riesenfeld och hans sköterska fru Marianne Wiberg." That means something lik, "120,000 Algerian refugees in Morocco waiting for the definitive peace between the French and the Algerians' Save the Children has a big task among these refugees, and this is seen in pictures through a sweep through the organization's archive. The pictures show a toddler in measuring cone, refugees in Save the Children's bus, meal in the camp and a visit to the Swedish doctor Dr Huns Riesenfeld and his nurse wife Marianne Wiberg." The photograph was taken June 29, 1961.

Save the Children was founded in the aftermath of World War I by British humanitarian Eglantyne Jebb as the Save the Children Fund (1919). It has become an international non-governmental organization. Save the Children began by providing relief supplies to starving people especially children in the aftermath of World war I, but has expanded to promoting children's rights and helps support children in developing countries. The group seeks to improve the lives of children bu promoting better education, health care, and economic opportunities in addition providing on going efforts in failed countries as well as emergency aid in natural disasters, war, and other conflicts. The rgnization wa fojnded in Britin, but now includes some 30 Save the Children chapters as part of the international Save the Children Alliance which operares in over 120 countries around the world. Save the Children is committed to the UN Declaration of the Rights of the Child which continues the Legcy of the League of Nations. Save the Children has general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC).

World War I

World War I was greatest crisis in European history since the Thirty Years War (17th century). It was nuch worse than even the Napoleonic Wars necause there was fishing going on without interuption along huge battle lines like the Eastern and Western Front. And because the fighting was continuous as well as involved the conscription of much of the agricultural work force. As a result, food production declined even in the countries that were major food exporters before the War like Tsarist Russia and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. This meant that during the War people began to starve and by the end of the War were starving. America was able to save the Belgians occuopied by the Germans at the onset of the War, essentially inventing massive humanitarian relief. Eastern Europe was, however, beyond the reach of American food aid and millions of people were at risk, especially the children who are especially vulnrable to food deprivation. After the War, America came to the rescue with a massive food relief effort. The need was so great that only a massive government-sponsored effort could save millions of desperate Europeans. And only America had an agriculture capacity to produce food on the enormous scale required. Britain was not capable of meetung this needed as it had to rely on Americn food shipments during the War. But the need was immense and plenty of scope for private chritabble endevors.

Eglantyne Jebb

A British woman, Eglantyne Jebb, founded Save the Children after the War to assist the children adversely affected by the war (1919). Eglantyne was born in Ellesmere, Shropshire (1876). Her family was well to do and Eglatyne and her sisters grew up in comfortable circumstances in rural England. The Jebbs had a strong social conscience and were commited to public service. Their mother, Eglantyne Louisa Jebb, founded the Home Arts and Industries Association, to promote Arts and Crafts among rural youth. Eglantyne' sister Louisa would help found the World War I Women's Land Army. Another sister, Dorothy Frances Jebb, married the Labour MP Charles Roden Buxton, and argued against the demonisation of the German people after the War.

Post World War I Effort

Russian Famine

World War I and the Russian Civil War resulted in a terrible fanine in Russia. The Russian famine threatened millions. American Relief officials offered to assist the Russians, but th Bolshevicks saw some advantage in fanine as it would eliminate anti-Bolshevik elements. Thus the assistance that flowed into Europe was denied to starving Russians. Save the Children founder, Eglantyne Jebb, saw that Save the Children could not be just a temporary post-World War I organization and must become a permanent organisation to fight for children's rights. [Nault, p. 7.] Jebb thus managed to change the organization's mission to an effort to save children whereever their lives are threatened by economic hardship and distress. Save the Children launched a press campaign, propaganda movies and feeding centers in Russia and in Turkey to feed thousands of refugees (1922-23). They also claim to have worked in education. We do not have details on this and suspect there wre real problems given Bolshevik and Islamic attitudes toward religion. Save the Children began to coordinate efforts with other organisations such as the Russian Famine Relief Fund and Nansen. The League of Nations recognized te effort. The major problem with coming to the aid of starving Russian children, pribarily because the Blosheviks wre using food as aeapon and did not want to admit that a famine could occur unfer their enlightened, soentific rule. Save the Children managed to persuade Bolshevik authorities to let them in to set up a ground presence. [Yates] Save the Children could only do so much. Britain had to import food and as essentially bankrupt after World War. Feeding the millions of starving Russians was beyond the capability of Save the Children or ven Britain. But the brak through with Bolshevik authorities helped to break the Bloshevik resistance to allowing the American Relief Administration access to Russia. Lenin and other Bolsheviks were so shamed by the Save the Children publicity campaign that they finally aggeed to an ARA ground presence. As with aid to the ustrians and Germans after the War, aid to Bolshevik Russiansas also criticized. The important Daily Express newspaper also criticised the Save the Children effort in Russia. They denied that the situation was as bad as portrayed and argued that Save the Children should be focused on needy children in Britain.

League of Nations

Eglantyne Jebb was a head of her time. Helping the victims of war was not entirely new. Charitable relief efforts had begun in the late 19th century, but reached unprecedenged levels with the effortv= to assist the Belgians who had been invaded by Germany (1914). What made Jebb unique was the odeas she formulated about not only child welfare, but child rights. Jebb wrote, "I believe we should claim certain rights for the children and labour for their universal recognition, so that everybody - not merely the small number of people who are in a position to contribute to relief funds, but everybody who in any way comes into contact with children, that is to say the vast majority of mankind - may be in a position to help forward the movement." Jebb's 'Declaration of the Rights of the Child' was adopted by the The League of Nations (1924). The League was a forerunner of the United Nations whose Convention on the Rights of the Child ensshrines Jebb's pioneering thought.

World War II

Save the Children throughot World War II worked in Britain to aid the children in British cities devastated by the Luftwaffe Blitz and the disruptions in family life as a result of the conflict. The Germams caused a humanitarian crisis at the onset of World War I by seizing the Belgian civilian food supply. This and similat stions as well as impact of 4 years of war created a humanitarian crisis. The Germans in World War I can be condemed for calloisness and mismamagement, but their goal was not to kill millions of immocents. This would have been the result had America not stepped in and fed a starving continent, but it was not their objective. World War II was very different, a NAZI war goal was to kill tens of millions of civilians, men women and children. And a priority was placed on killing children Children were not only non-workers, but they were the future of people the Germns were determined to wipe out. The Germsans had various killing programs such as the Hollocaust, the Hunger Plan, Generalplan Ost and other actions. There was no way of preventing these killing operations without defeating the German Wehrmacht and liberating the occupied countries. A After the fall of France (1940) with the NAZIs dominating the Continent, however, there was little STC could do except in Britain during much of the War. After the War, images of malnourished and sick children shocked the public. STC worked to gain public sympathy in order to generate donations. STC staff were among the first into the liberated areas after World War II. This began in Italy and then after D-DAy France abnd the Low countries. They worked with refugee children and displaced persons, including survivors of NAZI concentration camps. STC also worked in Britain to assist children growing up in cities devastated by bombing and facing huge disruptions in family life. And again America would have to provide most of the food needed to save a starving Europe, including Germany and the other Axis powers. The major mechanism for this was the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitaion Administration (UNRRA). Eglantyne Jebb had passed away but she and her suister left an already existing organization, Save the Children, to participate in the relief effort as the Allies first landed in Sicily and Italy (1943) and then France (1944). Save the Children again launched a campaign to collect funds releasing images of starving and sick children throughout Europe. Jebb and her sister had created an organization capable of gaining public sympathy in order to elicit needed support. [Hyder, p. 2.] Save the Children workers were among the first relief personnel into the liberated areas.

Post War-Efforts

With the NAZI surrender (May 1945), STC were able to aid refugee children and displaced persons in UNRAA camps. Among those assisted were the Jewish Holocaust survivors and other survivors of NAZI concentration camps--tragically very few child survivors. Europe was awash with refugees and displaced persons including many children. Europe began to recover in the 1950s. We notice Swedish STC helping to find homes for German and Austrian orphans in Sweden into the early-1950s. We are not enirely sure why the orphans could not be found German adoptive parents, The German Economic Mracle was underway by the early-50s. We assume that conditions were still not sufficently recovered in Germany to deal with all the orphan children. The children we see in the 1950s were not war orphans, given their age they woukld have been born after the War. And as this occured, Save the Children began to take on its modern role and operations. Crisis-driven work continued with efforts to help refugees resulting from the Arab attempt to destroy Israel (1948-49). Here most of Save the Children's work was with Palestinian refugees rather than Jewish refugees. This was because Israel assigned a priority to integrateg Jewish refugees. The Arab states which invaded Israel on the other hand refused to integrate the Palestinian refugees and forced them to live in desolate tent camps, in part to create a propaganda tool. Other crises were the Communist North Korean invasion of South Korea (1950) and the Soviet supression of the Hungarian Revolution (1956).

Modern Era

The post-War European revovery helped STC provided increased chritable donations in Europe and America to aid children in conflict-affected regions. This inclused both Cold War cinflicts as well as regional conflicts and natural disasters. STC chapters were founded in other countries, including countries that had received STC assistance during the two world wars. A whole new area of activities began with the decolonization process following World War II. The first step in this process was Britain granting independence to India (1947). India chose a democratic, albeit socialist furure. Many od the subsequent new nations appearing in the Thirs World not only chose socialist, statist economies, but rejectd a democratic furure. Most thought that throwing off European colonial bonds and socialism would guarantee a prosperous, utopian future. It did not. De-colonization proved to be a maasive ecomomic failure with the living standard in many of the newly independent nations actually declined. This created a massive need for charitable efforts throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Oceania. Save the Children continued crisis work in the 1960s with the advent of the Vietnam War and other tragedies like the Nigerian Biafra secession. Shocking images of child starvation appared in America and Europe. Disasters occurred in Ethiopia, Sudan, and other countries also resulted in Save the Children appeal. STC formed an alliance to coordinate campaigning work to improve outcomes for the world’s children. The result was Save the Children Internatiinal (STCI) (1977). Disasters in Ethiopia, Sudan, and many other world hotspots led to appeals which brought public donations on a huge scale. In addition to the crisis work, Save the Children continued its rights-based approach to helping children which Jebb first conceptualized after World War I. The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1989). Nearly 200 countries have committed to this legally binding convention. In addition to the parent British organisation, there are now 29 other national Save the Children chapters who are members of the Save the Children Alliance, a global network of nonprofit organisations supporting local partners in some 120 countries around the world. Save the Children launched a major campaign against the use of child soldiers in Africa (1990s). Nearly 200 countries have committed to this legally binding convention. In addition to the parent British organisation, there are now 29 other national Save the Children chapters who are members of the Save the Children Alliance, a global network of nonprofit organisations supporting local partners in some 120 countries around the world. STCI was the largest humanitarian operation, in response to the Indian Ocean tsunami (2004-09). The response effort was possible because of over $270 million in donatiomns. STCI launched a new effort, EVERY ONE, their largest ever global campaign, to prevent millions of mothers and young children from dying (2009). STCI reports touching the lives of over 125 million children worldwide and directly reached 45 million children (2012). One of Save the Children's major recent efforts is to confrontathe Ebola crisis (2014). Save the Children UK worked with the U.K. government's Department for International Development and Ministry of Defence to build and run a 100 bed treatment center in Sierra Leone. It is also supporting an Interim Care Center in Kailahun for children who have lost their families to Ebola. [Uenuma]

Sources

Breen, Rodney. "Saving enemy children: Save the Children's Russian Relief Organisation, 1921-1923". Disasters Vol. 18, No. 3. (1994), pp.221-237.

Hyder. (2005).

Nault, Jennifer. Save the Children (Weigl Publishers: 2003).

Uenuma, Francine. "Desperate Demand for Ebola Treatment in Sierra Leone; Five People Infected Every Hour".

Yates. (2011).

Created: 6:21 AM 1/14/2017
Last updated: 6:13 PM 12/22/2018