For today’s podcast, we’re talking with Carolyn Miles, CEO and president of Save the Children USA. The organization, as its name indicates, is focused on helping children Save the Children is nearly 100 years old – having been launched in 1919 by two British sisters, Eglantyne Jebb and Dorothy Buxton, who were concerned about children starving in Germany due to the Allied Forces’ blockade. This mission expanded to deal with famine in Russia and Turkey in the 1920s and led, in 1925, to the international U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child that states: Children must be first priority in any disaster relief operation; a child that is in need of food, health care or shelter must be provided for; all children must be protected from exploitation; and given the means to full development and livelihood. I could go on.
Save the Children has grown beyond its U.K. founding to nearly 30 independent organizations in other countries, working on children’s issues in 120 countries – directly serving something like 165 million children. As a journalist running a news operation that is focused on the fight against global poverty and inequity, we frequently turn to Save the Children for perspective and commentary.
Today, we hope to learn a bit more from Carolyn Miles how we’re doing at making the world a better place for children and what makes Save the Children distinctive.
But before the chat, Humanosphere correspondent Tom Murphy and myself, podcast producer Imana Gunawan, talk about some of the big stories of the past two weeks, including a story on fighting gender-based violence in Asia and the Pacific using better data, and another story on the repercussions of longtime Cuban leader Fidel Castro’s death.
We also discuss a meta-study about how poor people, when given money in the form of cash transfers, won’t just spend it on frivolous stuff. A bit wacky to need so many studies to prove this point, but a useful point to make regardless.
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