Save the Children Report

Save The Children

A report on Save The Children and

the role they play in the human rights movement

Prepared for: HR1138

By: K1049745 Madalena Castro

Date: 26 May, 2011

Table of Contents

Background                                                                        2

Human Rights Movement                                                        2

Type of Organisation                                                                3

Role of Organisation                                                                4

Outcomes                                                                        5

Bibliography                                                                        6

Background:

Save the Children was founded in England in 1919 by Eglantyne Jebb, sociologist and teacher. She thought it was necessary to defend the children that were left orphan and devastated after the First World War. She stated ‘’We cannot leave defenceless children anywhere exposed to ruin — moral or physical,” and “We cannot run the risk that they should weep, starve, despair and die, with never a hand stretched out to help them.” (savethechildren.org). The Save the Children non-governmental organisation expanded over time, centring its aims on aiding children after both World Wars. In Austria, the Swedish Save the Children helped to fight starvation by making lunch available to over 26,000 children and milk to another 37,000 in Vienna. After the wars, Save the Children is dedicated to guarantee ‘’health care, education and legal, civil and social services to children as they believe children and adults’ rights should be equal’’ in various countries (unicef.org). Today, Save the Children is more concentrated on development; moreover it tries to provide the children’s families with whatever is necessary to avoid the progression of poverty. Furthermore, this organisation focuses on other issues, for example, children’s exploitation. Their principles are the ones defended by the Convention on the Rights of the Child: ‘’non-discrimination, devotion to the best interests of the child, the right to life, survival and development and respect for the views of the child’’ (unicef.org). Save the Children states: “Our Vision is a world in which every child attains the right to survival, protection, development and participation” and “Our Mission is to inspire breakthroughs in the way the world treats children, and to achieve immediate and lasting change in their lives” (savethechildren.org).