Save the Children facts for kids
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| Founded | 15 April 1919 |
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| Founders | Eglantyne Jebb Dorothy Buxton |
| Type | International NGO |
| Registration no. | England & Wales 213890 SC039570 EIN: 06-0726487 |
| Legal status | Registered company limited by guarantee |
| Location | |
| Origins | London, England, U.K. |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
The Save the Children Fund, commonly known as Save the Children, is an international non-governmental organization. It was founded in the UK in 1919, with the goal of helping improve the lives of children worldwide.
The organization helps to raise money to improve children's lives by creating better educational opportunities, better health care, and improved economic opportunities.
The organization has general consultative status in the United Nations Economic and Social Council.
Contents
Origins
The Save the Children Fund was founded in London, England, on 15 April 1919 by Eglantyne Jebb and her sister Dorothy Buxton as an effort to alleviate starvation of children in Germany and Austria-Hungary during the Allied blockade of Germany of World War I which continued after the Armistice.
At the end of World War I, images of malnourished and sick children ran throughout Europe. The Fight the Famine Council was initially started earlier in 1919 to put political pressure on the British government to end the blockade, the first meeting having been held at the home of Catherine Courtney, at 15 Cheyne Walk. On 15 April 1919, the sisters separated from the council and created the "Save the Children Fund".
In May 1919, the Fund was publicly established at a meeting in London's Royal Albert Hall to "provide relief to children suffering the effects of war" and raise money for emergency aid to children suffering from wartime shortages of food and supplies.
Jebb and her sister, Buxton, worked to gain exposure to elicit aid. In December 1919, Pope Benedict XV publicly announced his support for Save the Children and declared 28 December 'Innocents Day' to collect donations.
The first branch was opened in Fife, Scotland in 1919. A counterpart, Rädda Barnen (which means "Save the Children"), was founded later that year (on 19 November 1919) in Sweden with Anna Kleman on the board. Along with a number of other organizations, they founded the International Save the Children Union in Geneva on 6 January 1920. Jebb built relationships with other Geneva-based organizations, including the Red Cross, who supported Save's International Foundation.
Jebb used fund-raising techniques to gain exposure, for example, making Save the Children the first charity in the United Kingdom to use page-length advertisements in newspapers. Jebb contracted doctors, lawyers, and other professionals to devise mass advertisement campaigns. In 1920, Save the Children started individual child sponsorship as a way to engage more donors. By the end of the year, Save the Children raised the equivalent of about £8,000,000 in today's money.
Russian famine
By August 1921, the UK Save the Children had raised over £1,000,000, and conditions for children in Central Europe were improving due to their efforts. However, the Russian famine of 1921 made Jebb realize that Save the Children must be a permanent organization and that children's rights constantly need to be protected. Their mission was thus changed to "an international effort to preserve child life wherever it is menaced by conditions of economic hardship and distress".
From 1921 to 1923, Save the Children created press campaigns, propaganda movies, and feeding centers in Russia and in Turkey to accommodate and educate thousands of refugees. They began to work with several other organizations such as the Russian Famine Relief Fund and Nansen which resulted in recognition by the League of Nations. Although Russia was largely closed off to international relief and aid, Save the Children persuaded Soviet authorities to let them have a ground presence.
At home, the Daily Express criticized the Fund's work, denying the severity of the situation and arguing they should be helping their own people before helping Russia. The charity responded with increased publicity about the famine, showing images of starving children and mass graves. The campaign gained national appeal, eventually allowing the organization to charter the SS Torcello to Russia with 600 tons of relief supplies. Over 157 million rations were given out, saving nearly 300,000 children. Improved conditions meant Save the Children's Russian feeding program was able to be closed in the summer of 1923, after having won international acclaim.
Second World War
Save the Children staff were among the first into the liberated areas after World War II, working with refugee children and displaced persons in former occupied Europe, including Nazi concentration camps survivors. During this same time, work in the United Kingdom focused on improving conditions for children growing up in cities devastated by bombing and facing huge disruptions in family life.
Continuing crises
The 1950s saw a continuation of this type of crisis-driven work, with additional demands for help following the Korean War and the 1956 Hungarian Revolution, and the opening of new work in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East in response to the decline of the British empire.
Like other aid agencies, Save the Children was active in the major disasters of the era—especially the Vietnam War and the Biafra secession in Nigeria. The latter brought shocking images of child starvation onto the television screens of the West for the first time in a major way. The sort of mass-marketing campaigns first used by Save the Children in the 1920s was repeated, with great success in fundraising.
Disasters in Ethiopia, Sudan, and many other world hotspots led to appeals that brought public donations on a huge scale, and a consequent expansion of the organization's work. However, the children's rights-based approach to development originated by Jebb continues to be an important factor. It was used in a major campaign in the late 1990s against the use of child soldiers in Africa.
During the 2014 Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, new cases outnumbered the available hospital beds in the country. Save the Children worked with the UK government's Department for International Development and Ministry of Defence to build and run a 100-bed treatment center in Sierra Leone, as well as support an Interim Care Center in Kailahun for children who had lost their families to Ebola.
Structure and accountability
Save the Children is an international umbrella organization, with 30 national member organizations serving over 120 countries. Members lead on activities within their home territory and work with donors to develop programs abroad, which are coordinated and delivered by a central body – Save the Children International – via teams on the ground in each country. Save the Children International also oversees humanitarian responses.
All members of the association are bound by the International to Save the Children Alliance Bylaws which include The Child Protection Protocol and Code of Conduct. These set a standard for common values, principles, and beliefs.
Archives
Archives of Save the Children are held at the Cadbury Research Library, University of Birmingham.
Sponsors
Save the Children is the main sponsor of Juventus FC in Italy.
See also
In Spanish: Save the Children para niños
- Think of the children
- Child Development Index
- Save the Children International
- Save the Children Australia
- Save the Children USA
- Save the Children State of the World's Mothers report
- Street Kids International
- International Save the Children Union
- UNICEF
- NetHope
- Christmas Jumper Day
- Odisha State Child Protection Society
- Children in emergencies and conflicts
- Gopali Youth Welfare Society
- Refugee children
