Save the Children
Our Mission
Save the Children fights for children’s rights. We deliver immediate and lasting improvements to children’s lives worldwide.
Our Vision
Save the Children works for:
– a world which respects and values each child
– a world which listens to children and learns
– a world where all children have hope and opportunity
What Sets Us Apart
Save the Children is the world’s largest independent organisation for children, making a difference to children’s lives in over 120 countries.
From emergency relief to long-term development, Save the Children helps children to achieve a happy, healthy and secure childhood. Save the Children listens to children, involves children and ensures their views are taken into account. Save the Children secures and protects children’s rights – to food, shelter, health care, education and freedom from violence, abuse and exploitation.
Our Approach
A Long-Term View
In all areas of our work, we look for sustainable solutions that will benefit children and their communities for years to come. We support and strengthen schools, healthcare systems and other infrastructures in the long term by giving people appropriate skills and resources such as specialist training and quality equipment.
Speaking Out For Children
Save the Children works with and on behalf of children to make sure their rights are respected internationally, nationally and locally. We help children to communicate their needs to community leaders, parents, teachers and government officials, and persuade adults to take children seriously. We make every effort to convince those with power and influence to create a better world for children.
Involving Children
Save the Children uses many different approaches to improve the lives of girls and boys. In all our programmes, we encourage children and their families to participate in research, planning and decision-making, and we find solutions together. These contributions are invaluable in ensuring our activities meet children’s needs.We firmly believe that children should be active members of society and have a right to be involved in matters concerning their well-being.
Independence and Collaboration
Save the Children is an independent organisation with no religious or political affiliations. This gives us a strong, impartial voice. However, we cannot act alone. We work with governments and with local, national and international organisations to improve children’s lives directly and to influence the policies and practices of others. Our commitment to building the capacity of local organisations is core to our beliefs and way of operating.
Campaigns
Many of the problems faced by children will only be eradicated with political support or new legislation.
Save the Children campaigns for long-term change in addition to providing shorter-term support to improve children’s lives.
As an independent and global organisation, Save the Children has a powerful voice in campaigning for change, and a track record of success.
Save the Children encourages its supporters to put pressure on decision makers and opinion formers to change policies and practices, locally and globally, to ensure children’s rights become reality.
REWRITE THE FUTURE
Rewrite the Future is the first global campaign involving all 27 members of the Save the Children Alliance. Save the Children is calling on governments and international agencies to put policies and resources in place to provide quality education for all children. More than 37 million children around the world can’t go to school because they live in countries affected by conflict. This is over half the number of children out of school worldwide. Millions more are receiving a substandard education.
Through this campaign we intend to bring education and hope to those millions of children affected by conflict.
SAVE THE CHILDREN’S FOUNDER
Eglantyne Jebb and her sister Dorothy Buxton founded the first Save the Children organisation in May 1919, in London, United Kingdom.
Shocked by the aftermath of World War 1 and the Russian Revolution, they were determined to secure improvements to children’s lives. Their goal was to create a powerful international organisation, which would extend its ramifications to the remotest corner of the globe. This was soon achieved – and Save the Children continues to build on this success.
Eglantyne Jebb was the first to press for worldwide safeguards for children. The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the United Nations in 1989 and now ratified by nearly all countries worldwide, has its roots in her pioneering work.
HISTORY – TIMELINE
– 2008 Twenty-seven Save the Children organisations work to secure children’s rights and improve children’s lives in over 120 countries worldwide.
– 1997 June: agreement on creating the International Save the Children Alliance, with a more formalised structure. Secretariat created in London soon afterwards.
– 1989 November: the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child [PDF, 32k] adopted by the UN. This underpins all Save the Children’s work.
– 1977 A number of Save the Children organisations formed the Save the Children Alliance, to coordinate international advocacy work from Geneva.
– 1946 International Save the Children conference with representatives from 34 countries, to push for international recognition of the Declaration of Geneva.
– 1939-1945 During World War II, Save the Children organisations in neutral countries continued to work – often on behalf of sister organisations – in countries directly affected by the war.
– 1932 American Save the Children Fund set up to help children during the Great Depression.
– 1924 September: Declaration of Geneva adopted by the League of Nations, predecessor to the UN. There are now twenty member organisations in the Save the Children Union.
– 1923 February: the ‘Declaration of Geneva’, precursor to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, developed by the International Save the Children Union.
– 1920 January: International Save the Children Union officially founded.
– 1919 May: the first Save the Children organisation is launched in London, UK – the first organisation to press for worldwide safeguards for children.
– source : http://www.savethechildren.net/
