Save the Children was born out of the need to address the plight of Children in Europe after the First World War in 1919. The founders were two sisters, Eglantyne Jebb and Dorothy Buxton.
The two sisters felt that action was needed to deal with the dire health and nutrition problems that children in Berlin and Vienna, among other European cities, were facing. Their initial activities led to the arrest of Jebb. Nonetheless, they went on to establish the human rights organization currently known as Save the Children.
The Role that Save the Children Plays
Save the Children focuses on the plight of children in various countries and seeks to address their concerns. The range of issues that the organization deals with varies from country to country.
The main areas the organization deals with include the following. Save the Children advocates for children’s rights, the education of children, and the protection of children. The organization also addresses the impact of climate change on children, poverty, and hunger. The organization also runs programs dealing with child health, and HIV.
The role that Save the Children plays in children’s rights is three fold. First, the organization empowers children to participate in demanding for their rights by providing avenues for communication with policy makers.
Secondly, the organization supports other organizations that work towards the achievement of children’s rights. Thirdly, Save the Children runs programs that target policy makers directly by advocating for the inclusion of children’s issues at the policy level.
Many children in the world need protection. In places where children have no protection, they fall into the hands of people who abuse them. Unprotected children may end up as child soldiers, sex workers, or domestic workers. Save the Children run programs in several countries that aim at protecting children from abuse.
In the area of education, Save the Children is working with other organizations in programs that support the UN millennium development goals that state that all children should be in school by 2015.
Secondly, the organization is running the FAST program in Britain to give support to children from poor families to enable them to compete better with children from rich families. Save the Children is also behind the efforts to make education a part of the emergency response to natural disasters and conflict, alongside the provision of food, shelter, and clothing.
Save the Children recognizes that climate change is one of the most significant challenges of the twenty first century. More importantly, children will endure the most of the impacts of climate change. For instance, climate change will affect food security and nutrition in many parts of the world.
Children usually suffer the most from nutritional deficiency because they need proper nutrition to mature. For this reason, Save the Children runs programs that prioritize climate change interventions because it is a threat the future of children.
Save the Children also tries to address poverty. A child born into a poor family has reduced chances of success in life compared to a child born into a wealthy family. Save the Children believes that there is need to address this disparity to ensure that all children have a fair chance to succeed in life. The organization runs programs that seek to level the playing field for all children.
The organization also runs programs that address hunger. Save the Children believes that malnutrition is the root cause of one third of all deaths of children aged five and below. Malnutrition leads to weakened bodies that cannot fight off illnesses.
In addition, children suffering from malnutrition have stunted growth, which affects their earning potential later in life. This is the basis of the involvement of Save the Children in poverty eradication.
Save the Children is involved in the provision of healthcare as a response to the challenge of child mortality associated with poor healthcare. Health problems cause the death of children because of malnutrition, lack of medicine, or lack of medical facilities. One of the ways that Save the Children intervenes in healthcare is by supporting clinics that provide health services to needy children.
Methodology
Save the Children uses multiple methods to address issues. The main methods the organization uses are advocacy, provision of practical support, and networking with like-minded organizations. Advocacy refers to the ability to lobby for the development of policies and laws that protect the rights of children. Often, lack of legal protection aggravates child abuse in any jurisdiction.
For instance, passing laws that criminalize child marriage and underage sex leads to reduced prevalence of these forms of child abuse. The abolishment of slave trade commenced with the passing of relevant laws in the British parliament. This demonstrates the power of advocacy in delivering change especially in the long term.
The second method the organization employs to meet its goals is the provision of practical support. Save the Children supports clinics in order to provide healthcare for needy children. It also gives mothers vouchers to get food to meet their nutritional needs. In this sense, the organization intervenes directly in the issues it seeks to address.
The third method it uses in its operations is that it supports organizations that deal with the specific interests of Save the Children. This support includes sponsoring programs in organizations involved in the protection of children’s rights. The human rights movement in the entire world understands the power of speaking with a common voice where there is a common interest.
The Place of Save the Children
Save the Children occupies a unique place in the human rights movement across the world. While human rights movements tended to deal with the issues of marginalized communities such as the blacks in South Africa and America, Children did not always stand out as a human rights constituency.
The uniqueness of Save the Children in the global human rights movement is that it has no clear geographical or political markers. Every country in the world has children whose rights needs protection.
The second unique element about Save the Children is that its constituency outgrows its efforts. After eighteen years, children seize to be children. The transition to adulthood removes them from the jurisdiction of Save the Children.
In many human rights situations, the primary beneficiaries of an organization tend to remain static. For instance, the beneficiaries of the civil rights movement in South Africa still posses their defining characteristics. Their needs evolved after the collapse of apartheid but they remain a clear constituency. This is not the same situation when it comes to Save the Children.
The third unique feature that marks the place of Save the Children in the global human rights movement is that the organization uses a holistic approach in its activities. It deals with advocacy, practical support, and cooperation with like-minded organizations. Human rights organizations tend to specialize in one area rather than pursue several approaches simultaneously.