Figure 1.--Here Mrs. Roosevelt poses with the three European refugee children she sponsored in 1942. They were part of the Foster Parents Plan for War Children. The photo was taken in Britain during Mrs. Roosevelt's visit in 1942. I know Mrs. Roosevelt adopted thre children through the program, including Paulette Le Mascam from Guernsey. I thought, however, tht Paulette was younger thn the girl here who seems to be wearing a Polish or Czech outfit.

Foster Parents Plan for War Children was founded in Britain as Foster Parents Plan for Children in Spain by British journalist John Langdon-Davies and refugee worker Eric Muggeridge (1937). Langdon-Davies conceived the idea of a personal relationship between a child and a sponsor –- a model that puts the child at the centre, and remains the core of what we do. The initial mission was to provide food, accommodation, and education to children whose lives had been turned into nightmare by the Spanish Civil War. The name was changed with the outbreak of World War II to Foster Parents Plan for War Children. The mission became to promote and protect the rights of children affected by war. They had a base in Britain from the original foundation, but became a largely American group as this was where the funding came and where many children were placed. The organization both placed children with familiesand arrnged for Americans to support children in their own countries. Nrs. Roosevelt had three foster children through the program. Plan International USA, was incorporated as "Foster Parents Plan, Inc., during 1939 in New York to help connect U.S. donors to a continuously growing number of sponsored children. The group helped displaced children from all over Europe. They did not have access to the children located in NAZI-occupied Europe. The first children they could reach were in Italy (1943). And then many more countries after D-Day (1944). Allied armies liberted one country after another. After the war, the group extended aid to children in France, Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, Greece and briefly in China, Czechoslovakia and Poland until the Communits seized power. The organization expanded to work with displaced children throughout war-torn Europe. After the War and Europe began to revover, the group shifted it efforts to needy children in developing countries. The name was changed to Plan Internationl. The american Plan was one of the first Plan International federation members. Plan International is now a global organisation that works in 51 developing countries to promote child rights and lift millions of children out of poverty.By the 1970s, Plan gradually began working with children throughout Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean. The international parent organization Foster Parents Plan shortened its name to become simply Plan International (1974). The American organization followed suit, changing its name to Childreach/Plan International to avoid the program confused with local foster care programs. And then to th cirrent name, Plan USA.

Created: 9:46 AM 11/2/2015
Last updated: 9:46 AM 11/2/2015