More Info →Eglantyne Dynamic and driven 27 Jan 2012

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"The only international language is a child's cry."

So said Eglantyne Jebb, a truly remarkable woman. Eccentric and eclectic, dynamic and driven, was a passionate pacifist who met the Pope and swayed a court prosecutor - and started Save the Children. Eglantyne and her sister Dorothy, appalled by the suffering of children in both World War 1 (1914-18) and the Russian Revolution (1917), twisted many famous arms to raise funds for the children. A number of today's common fundraising techniques were Eglantyne's creation — child sponsorship, "give tools and seeds", publicity, marketing, "feed a child" and "give a day's pay" — were all novel ideas. And they worked.

Disappointed in love, Eglantyne never married, never had children of her own, but devoted her life to helping the children of others. Armed with an honours degree from Oxford University, egalitarian Eglantyne set out to take her message to the world.

She was arrested in London's Trafalgar Square for publicly protesting children's needs in Austria (at that time, the enemy). At her trial, she so moved the court that the prosecutor gave her a donation. The Judge fined her £5. Eglantyne's audience with the Pope so moved him that he wrote two encyclicals in support of her work. He also declared December 28—Innocent's Day —a day for all Catholic churches to collect funds for her cause. Protestants and Jews, Muslims and Buddhists, they all gave her support, too.

According to Eglantine, "All wars, just or unjust, disastrous or victorious, are waged against the child". What would she have made of the technology, which has given us such devices as land mines or cluster bombs, which kill or maim so many children?

Eglantine Jebb's Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1923) — now the United Nation's Convention on the Rights of the Child — still features her five key points. Briefly, they are:

"The Child must be

• Given the means for normal development.

• Fed, nursed, helped, reclaimed, sheltered.

• Given relief in times of distress.

• Helped to earn a livelihood and protected against exploitation, and

• Taught that their talents must be devoted to service."

At the early age of just 52, ill and weary ("worn out', some said), Eglantyne's long battle with her thyroid turned to goitre, and three operations led to her fatal stroke on December 17, 1928.

Millions mourned. No doubt the recent closure of Levin's Save the Children shop would have saddened Eglantine, but Manawatu volunteers still carry on her cause with the Palmerston North STC shop, and the modern magic of 'on-line' shopping means we can all still do the same (www.wishlist.org) as they do in more than 130 countries.

Buy a card, make a donation, offer to help; its a worthy cause. Is there any cause more worthy than the need of a child? Recent news has shown us that the world still has much child poverty, even here in Godzone.

"We should unite to get rid of such evils as child slavery, premature marriage, child labour and the neglert and starvation of children." —Eglantine Jebb, 1928

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Date

January 27, 2012