Save the Children US history

International action for refugees did not start until the 1920s.

In 1921 Fridtjof Nansen of Norway was appointed by the League of Nations as high commissioner for refugees and devised a so-called League of Nations Passport (“Nansen Passport”), a travel document that gave the owner the right to move more freely across national boundaries.

And in 1923, she helped change the world's attitude towards children by writing the first Declaration of the Rights of the Child.

1924 • An outspoken champion for children, Jebb drafts the historic Declaration of the Rights of the Child, adopted by the League of Nations in 1924.

1932 • In the wake of the Great Depression, a group of forward-thinking Americans inspired by Jebb’s vision establishes Save the Children in the United States

After the defeat of Germany in World War II, for example, the Potsdam Conference of 1945 authorized the transfer of German minorities from a number of European countries, and 12 million Germans were dumped on the truncated territory of Germany, which was split into east and west regions.

The partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947 resulted in the exchange of 18 million Hindus from Pakistan and Muslims from India—the greatest population transfer in history.

Palestine’s partition in 1948 triggered an almost wholesale exodus of Palestinian Arabs in the wake of a military confrontation between the new state of Israel and neighbouring Arab countries.

When the People’s Republic of China was established in 1949, more than 2 million Chinese fled to Taiwan and to the British crown colony of Hong Kong.

1950 • Our work expands to include education and farming programs in France, Holland, Italy, West Germany, Austria, Finland, Greece, Lebanon and South Korea.

1954 • Sponsorship programs are launched for children in ravaged post-war Europe, providing them with shelter, food, health care and schooling. • Sponsorships for United States children are expanded to include scholarships for Native American children.

1959 • Save the Children expands to Asia and the Middle East with education and farming programs.

1963 • Save the Children opens its first Latin American field office in Colombia, with a focus on community-development programs.

1966 • Save the Children expands to Vietnam with a community-development program.

1968 • The Appalachian Fireside Craft Project (AFC) launches.

1969 • Save the Children opens its first African field office in Tanzania.

Some 8–10 million persons were also temporarily made refugees by the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.

1972 • High-impact sponsorship begins in Dominican Republic, combining child-focused community development programs.

1979 • Save the Children expands to El Salvador with a community development program.

Present in the Philippines since 1981, Save the Children has been working with Filipino children and their families for nearly 40 years.

Save the Children started its first program in 1982 on Guimaras Island in western Visayas, reaching out to impoverished children and families with health, education, and livelihood projects that benefited over 3,000 children.

1989 • The Convention on the Rights of the Child, based on Eglantyne Jebb's vision for children, becomes the most universally accepted human rights treaty in history, and is adopted by United Nations General Assembly.

2002 • The America's Forgotten Children report spotlights 2.5 million children living in rural poverty in the United States.

Although the numbers varied from year to year, each of the two regions accounted for more than three million refugees in 2005.