Raising the World

Fieldston, Sara

doi:10.4159/9780674425507

Cited by 12 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…87 The American branch of the PLAN increasingly began to impose its own demands after July 1939, when the organization moved its headquarters to New York. 88 As the number of financial foster parents began to increase, Odgers became aware of the delicate political issues that could arise when foster parents received letters and drawings from the children they had supported financially. This was very welcome to the parents, who apparently were thrilled to receive such materials from their "adopted" children.…”

Section: Humanitarian Work and Affectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humanitarianism and Child Refugee Sponsorship: The Spanish Civil War and the Global Campaign of Esme Odgers

Damousi¹

2020

Journal of Women's History

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This article explores the humanitarian work of the Australian Communist Esme Odgers during the Spanish Civil War. Odgers's story highlights the child sponsorship program as a humanitarian technique, which has yet to be fully discussed within the history of Spanish humanitarian aid. Odgers's detailed letters written during the war offer unique insights into the material, social, and psychological conditions under which humanitarian workers labored, suggesting that such an activity was a multifaceted and unpredictable experience. An examination of this dimension allows for an exploration of emotions that are expected to be repressed by humanitarian workers, where the expression of individual emotions in the context of life and death is perceived as an indulgence. Further, a study of Odgers's humanitarian efforts during the civil war sheds light on the impact of these endeavors beyond Europe, extending our understanding of the global impact of the Spanish Civil War.Journal of Women's History 112 Spring roundings, educating them, giving them a chance to face life with courage and understanding . . . Apart from giving them food, a bed, and educating them, they need affection. How badly they need affection can be felt when their little arms twine round our necks to give us kisses. Even boys of 14 and 15 come up for their kiss. It is not a custom. It is a need they feel." 4 Odgers understood the emotional support she provided was central to her humanitarian task and to the aims of PLAN. This theme-the emotional impact of the war on children-became vital to the child sponsor program initiated by PLAN where it was hoped a close relationship would develop between the "foster parents" and the sponsored child they would support financially. This became a global program that attracted financial sponsors of Spanish refugee children from outside of Europe, including Odgers's birthplace, Australia. As in many Western nations, children were at the center of how the civil war was reported, discussed, and understood in Australia. In October 1938, the "Children's Appeal," launched by the Spanish Relief Committee (SRC), documented details of the distress and cruelty endured by families and children suffering under Franco's rule. 5 Odgers wrote in highly emotional language, directly appealing to the urgency of "saving" vulnerable children: "Many have seen their mothers, brothers, sisters, or fathers killed before their eyes. They have witnessed sights that would unnerve the average adult. There are thousands of little children whose parents cannot be traced; it is not known if they are alive or dead." 6 The child sponsorship and "foster parent" program that Odgers herself successfully promoted from Spain drew together supporters for Spanish children from across the political spectrum in Australia. Odgers's story as an active humanitarian is largely invisible beyond brief references in specialist histories of PLAN and child sponsorship programs. 7 This gap reflects a broader methodological issue, as her absence from historical acco...

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Section: Humanitarian Work and Affectmentioning

confidence: 99%

Humanitarianism and Child Refugee Sponsorship: The Spanish Civil War and the Global Campaign of Esme Odgers

Damousi¹

2020

Journal of Women's History

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“…Sara Fieldston's Raising the World: Child Welfare in the American Century explores child sponsorship programs, which enrolled Americans as "foster parents" responsible for monthly donations to support needy children overseas. These programs, Fieldston demonstrates, were at once humanitarian gestures and political projects aimed at curbing the spread of communism and facilitating American-style economic development across the globe (Fieldston, 2015). Similar trends were at play in the United States' neighbor to the North.…”

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The nursery'sIronCurtain: Children, childhood, and the globalColdWar

Fieldston

2019

History Compass

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This essay surveys recent literature on children, childhood, and the Cold War. Over the past decade or so, numerous studies have explored the complex ways in which children and young people both bolstered and challenged the Cold War order. In doing so, they have shed new light on the social and cultural dynamics of the Cold War, encouraged historians to recover formerly marginalized voices, and expanded our definition of politics to include arenas far removed from the formal halls of power. Moreover, looking at youth has revealed striking similarities between the two superpowers whose rivalry defined the latter half of the 20th century.

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Methoden und Ergebnisse der historischen Kindheits- und Jugendforschung

Kössler

2022

Handbuch Kindheits- Und Jugendforschung

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Raising the World

Cited by 12 publications

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Humanitarianism and Child Refugee Sponsorship: The Spanish Civil War and the Global Campaign of Esme Odgers

Humanitarianism and Child Refugee Sponsorship: The Spanish Civil War and the Global Campaign of Esme Odgers

The nursery'sIronCurtain: Children, childhood, and the globalColdWar

Methoden und Ergebnisse der historischen Kindheits- und Jugendforschung

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