CARE

CARE IS AN INTERNATIONAL humanitarian organization with headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. There are 11 separate CARE organizations serving millions of poor people in the poorest nations in the world. CARE, USA is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. CARE is governed by a board of directors, elected by its members at an annual meeting. All of the board members are uncompensated volunteers. The acronym CARE today stands for Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere.

World War II witnessed enormous dislocations of millions of people who were suffering hunger, sickness, and starvation. Part of the suffering was due to the events of war, but much of it was the result of policies by the combatant nations that were designed to starve the enemy. By the end of World War II millions of people had fled their homes, factories were destroyed, and farms were often abandoned. The need for relief in postwar Europe was great. To provide relief, a consortium of 22 American charities united to create the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe (CARE). The consortium, CARE, has been providing relief ever since.

CARE's relief operations in 1946 saw the first CARE packages arrive at Le Havre, France. During the Soviet blockade of occupied Berlin in 1948, CARE packages arrived on the airlift to supply the city. CARE's relief work during the Korean War (1950–53) encouraged Congress in 1954 to pass Public Law 480, which authorized the distribution of surplus American food to reduce hunger in foreign countries. Contributions were encouraged by celebrities like Ingrid Bergman who made CARE package household words. CARE has been involved in providing civilian relief in numerous conflicts. Eventually over 100 million CARE packages went to people in need.

In 1949 CARE began aiding the poor in the developing world with resources for development. Its first program was opened in the Philippines. When President John F. Kennedy signed the law establishing the Peace Corps, he sought help from CARE in training the first volunteers in Latin America. After 1966 CARE expanded its mission from relief work to self-help projects in developing countries, often with financing from indigenous governments. In 1974 CARE provided relief supplies for drought victims in Niger and Chad. Famine relief was greatly expanded in 1985 in Africa following drought in the Sahel. Expanded famine relief was undertaken in the politically unstable situation in Somalia in 1992.

In 1993, famine relief for people in Haiti was undertaken. In 1994 CARE was again on the front line providing relief as the civil war and ethnic massacres in Rwanda sent great numbers of refugees into Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) and into Tanzania. A shift in developmental mission was initiated in 1986 [Page 124]with CARE's program for small-business development. A new family planning program to reduce poverty was begun in 1990. Family planning was expanded in 1997 into a holistic program embracing all aspects of family life in order to fight poverty systemically.

CARE's importance in humanitarian work in the last half of the 20th century was recognized in 1996 when the Smithsonian Institute included a CARE package in its permanent collection. In 2002 CARE reorganized and refocused its mission toward achieving lasting victories over poverty in the years ahead. Today CARE is one of the world's leading international humanitarian organizations dedicated to fighting global disease and poverty. Each year, its programs directly improve the lives of tens of millions of people in some 70 countries around the world as CARE helps poor communities create lasting solutions to their most threatening problems.

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