Tower and Town, December 2019 (view the full edition)Eglantyne JebbSave the Children's inspirational founder, Eglantyne Jebb, taught at St Peter's School (now the Library) in the 1890s. There you can see a blue plaque in her name. In 1919, horrified by the desperate plight of starving children in the Balkans post WW1, this amazing woman protested in public and campaigned for the post war blockade to be lifted. She founded the charity, travelled to set up soup kitchens in war torn Europe and influenced governments to save the lives of vulnerable children. She went on to write The Rights of the Child; to care and protection, an education, and support to realise their potential and contribute to society. This document was the foundation for the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child. She said 'nothing is impossible unless we say it to be so!' When she died, at just 52 , she had worked tirelessly to make the world a better place for children. The work that began in England has spread across the world with Save the Children organisations raising funds and employing staff to support children in their own country. The charity acts immediately in time of disaster staying on in country to improve long term life chances for children. In the U.K., Save the Children successfully lobbied government in 1930s to introduce school milk, in 1950s they started the first playgroups and later family centres in prisons. The FAST programme has improved relations between parents/ teachers/children, mentors help primary age literacy, advisors work on nursery school curriculum development and the charity makes emergency payments for essentials to families in time of crisis with staff and volunteers working, as our founder taught us, to improve life chances for children. On Sunday, 15th December at 3pm in St Mary's Church, Marlborough there will be an all age Service of Thanksgiving & Celebration for Save the Children's Centenary with Rt. Revd. Andrew Rumsey, Bishop of Ramsbury. Please join us! Jennifer Brisker |