Save the Children is an international non-profit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian aid. It was founded 1919 by Eglantyne Jebb and her sister Dorothy Buxton in the United Kingdom in the aftermath of the First World War.

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.

Basing its operations on the United Nations' Convention on the Rights of the Child, Save the Children works worldwide to provide emergency relief as well as long-term development and prevention work to help children, their families and communities to be self-sufficient.

27 Save the Children organisations make up the International Save the Children Alliance, the world’s largest independent movement for children, making improvements for children in over 111 countries (see where Save the Children works worldwide [1])

The Australian and U.S. divisions as well as other divisions have been involved in the Humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake through the Save The Children Alliance.

External links

• The International Save The Children Alliance
• American Save the Children website
• British Save the Children website