Save the Children International

Save the Children International, formerly known as the International Save The Children Alliance, is a worldwide non-profit organisation which aims to improve the living of children. There are 30 Save the Children member organisations around the world.^[1]

History

The Save the Children Alliance was founded in Geneva in 1977 by a number of Save the Children organisations, to co-ordinate their work.

In 1997 a more formal structure was set up and the organisation was renamed the International Save the Children Alliance. Soon afterwards, a permanent secretariat was set up in London. This was later moved to Geneva, but currently is based once more in London. Since 2010 it has been known as Save the Children International.

Save the Children International continues the worldwide aims of the original Save the Children organisation, which was founded in 1919 in London and became part of the International Save the Children Union founded in Geneva in 1920.

Save the Children was founded in 1919 after the First World War. It was founded in the United Kingdom by Eglantyne Jebb, a British social reformer, in order to improve the lives of children through better education, economic help, emergency aid, and health care in the United Kingdom. In 1924, the League of Nations adopted Jebb’s charter on children’s rights. In 1977 in Geneva, Save the Children International was founded to improve outcomes for the world’s children. Save the Children International was originally known as International Save the Children Alliance. They work in 120 different countries and have 30 member organizations. Save the Children International has begun a new program called EVERY ONE, which is their largest ever global campaign. They are campaigning to end the injustice of babies dying at birth and mothers dying during birth. The campaign makes stopping children and mothers dying a political priority. Millions of mothers and babies die each year during birth, which could oftentimes be prevented by addressing underlying causes, such as poverty, discrimination, conflict, the denial of rights, and barriers to equitable access to high quality health systems. Even after almost one hundred years of existence, the message behind Save the Children International and their mission has stayed the same. They continue to work hard to help improve the lives of children from all throughout the world through better education, economic help, emergency aid, and health care.^[2]

Programs

Save the Children International helps to provide medical aid, shelter, food and water to children that are in need because of different crisis situations they are in such as, floods, famines, earthquakes and armed conflict. In addition to these services, the organization provides a safe environment for children who need it as well as emotional support to those who may need to overcome a crisis. Another example of aid they provide is training and informing communities on what to do when a crisis due to weather happens. The idea here is that by training the communities they will be able to soften the impact of crisis to their communities if one were to occur.^[3]

One example of the aid they provide is in East and West Africa. There, children are suffering because of food shortages and this is also causing food prices to rise. They are providing children there with aid and helping communities become more prepared for future crises. This kind of aid is set to help around 250,000 children from dying due to malnutrition every year.^[3]

EVERY ONE is a global campaign that was started in 2009 by Save the Children to try to end children who are born from dying and prevent mothers from dying when giving birth. The campaign believes that no child under the age of 5 should die from a cause that could and should be prevented. The campaign is striving to achieve a two thirds drop in child mortality rates by the year 2015. The campaign believes that the inexpensive and low technology solutions that are available to help these children from dying need to be used at a greater scale to help attack this problem. As stated on their website, “What we need is the will – from politicians, the public, aid agencies, companies, EVERY ONE – to make it happen on a global scale.” ^[4]

The funds that are collected for this organization are received from different foundations, companies, governments and even individuals. The organization is able to raise an estimated $1.6 billion a year. The money raised is used to go towards programs that aid children and their specific needs in the poorest countries around the world.^[5]

Governance

Save the Children is governed and led by “world-class people”, who are all committed to achieving breakthroughs in the way the world treats the children. Save the Children International is by an Assembly and an International Board. The Assembly is made up of representatives for each member of the organization. The board oversees global strategy and programs. Because they are all leaders in their field, they are able to provide global insights and expertise. Current chair Charles Perrin is the former chairman and CEO of two Fortune 500 companies. Other members of the board have been former government ministers, leaders from within the United Nations, and experts in international children’s rights, healthcare, strategy, law, business, banking, and finance. The current board members along with Charles Perrin are Adele Anderson, Inger Ashing, Vivien Bridgwater, Mimi Jakobsen, Irene Khan, Charles MacCormack, Nills Overaas, Bradley C. Palmer, Alan Parker, Jonathan Powell, Marie-Andree Romisch Diouf, Harpal Singh, and Pernille Spiers-Lopez. The International Board is made up of fourteen members, where nine seats are divvied up on the basis of budget size, three seats are chosen from the Assembly, and two seats are for external, independent Board members. Save the Children International’s executive team, led by CEO Jasmine Whitbread, leads their programs to deliver on their ambitious objectives. CEO Jasmine Whitbread has global experience as the Chief Executive of Save the Children UK, Managing Director of a Thomson Financial business in the United States, Regional Director of Oxfam in West Africa, and as International Director responsible for Oxfam’s programs worldwide. She became the CEO of Save the Children International in 2010.^[6] The organization’s strategy and programs are headed by leaders that are on the Save the Children International Board. Those who serve on the board are all experts in their fields. Some of the fields they come from are law, finance, healthcare, government positions and are well informed on children’s rights.^[7]

References