Saving the children

shropshirestar

Shirley Tart looks at the legacy of Eglantyne Jebb.

Goodness knows how many children’s lives have been saved these past 90 years thanks to the compassion and determination of a Shropshire woman.

Eglantyne Jebb, whose family still live at Ellesmere, not only saw a need but addressed it, would not rest while there was work to be done, and so changed the world.

• See also: Ellesmere’s party in the park

The Oxford student was the epitome of the old adage that success is often 10 per cent inspiration and 90 per cent perspiration. That you have to get out there and get moving!

Dreams alone rarely move mountains, dreams with action will.

And so all those years ago this one woman started what was to become a worldwide movement – Save the Children – driven by the belief that all children, whoever and wherever, have the right to a healthy, happy, fulfilling life.

Eglantyne Jebb believed then that change was within reach given courage, determination, imagination and good organisation. To be fair, although hers is the name with which the charity is so inextricably linked, Eglantyne’s sister Dorothy was also in at the beginning as those seeds were sown back in 1919.

Then, post-war, need was severe and paramount.

And out of such disasters and difficulty, the charity she founded has proved time and again that change is possible. Now in the 21st century, Save the Children can point to amazing success stories. Though what drives today’s supporters on is the sad knowledge of how much more there always is to do.

But it is the optimism drawn from the past which keeps them powering ever onwards in the work which is constantly there for all to see.

Save the Children believes: “It is always the changing of children’s lives for the better during these past decades which becomes the foundation for what we do today and tomorrow to build a better future for children.”

And the organisation has a great modern-day advocate in our hardest working member of the royal family. The Princess Royal is its international president and her massive support has undoubtedly made a difference to the work started by another woman nearly a century ago.

Last year, the Princess carried out 530 engagements at home and overseas – a pattern she began 40 years ago when she left school aged 18. She first flew her personal standard back in 1969 when she opened an educational and training centre - in Shropshire.

She while she is connected with more than 200 charities, the Save the Children Fund where she has been president since 1970, was the first big one.

The Princess has often talked of the insight the work has given her into the needs of children worldwide, as well as a greater understanding of the issues affecting developing countries.

She has visited Save the Children projects in many countries, including Indonesia, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Ethiopia, Malawi, Botswana and Madagascar.

All work built on the early awareness and shock with motivated Shropshire’s Eglantyne Jebb to action.

And she was never daunted at the thought of leaping in to the deep end. A few months after the official launch of the charity, she approached the then Archbishop of Canterbury begging him to lead an appeal highlighting the shocking and distressing plight of so many children in post-war Europe.

Archbishop Randall Davidson showed no interest. Undaunted, Eglantyne took her battle across the Channel and wrote to the Pope.

Unknown to her and her small band of believers by then publicly committed to making children’s lives better, Pope Benedict XV had already heard of and been impressed by Eglantyne’s work to end the British economic blockade of Europe after Armistice had been declared.

And it was he who swept aside centuries of Catholic tradition to ask churches around the world to collect for Save the Children on Holy Innocents Day: never before had the Roman Catholic Church been asked by its leader to support a cause which was non-denominational.

Incidentally, once the Pope had acted, Archbishop Davidson had a change of direction, and supported the appeal!

Since then, the charity has been there through the days of Ghandi and the Great Depression, responding to children’s needs during and after World War ll, rebuilding young lives through Yugoslavian wars, Rwanda genocide, and was one of the first charities to go into the chaos at the end of the Vietnam war. It battled for laws to protect children’s rights and in the 2000s, has already faced its biggest disaster responses and first global campaign in the ongoing battle to rewrite the future for millions of children.

This Saturday, even the British Philharmonic Concert Orchestra steps up to the mark to perform – appropriately – in Ellesmere, honouring the charity’s founder on her home ground.

The Party In The Park, at Cremorne Gardens will be both a celebration and a commitment to the future. At the ticket-only event, two hours of light classical music featuring a series of guest soloists, will be followed by a huge firework display over the beautiful setting of the Mere. Gates open at 6.30pm and the music starts at 7.30pm.

And 90 years on, all for the sake of little children whose plight so moved Ellesmere’s Eglantyne 90 years ago.