Organisations Working for Child Rights
War Child
Sixty million people have been killed in wars during the
20th Century. As you read this, over 30 wars and conflicts rage
around the world. Some fill our TV screens with appalling images
of distress, emphasising war’s brutalising effect on man.
Many of these wars go unreported, often due to political expediency
or lack of interest.
In the last decade alone 1.5 million children have died in wars.
Four million have been disabled and a further 10 million traumatized.
The severe psychological wounds that war inflicts on children
can scar them for life, crippling the very generations that must
one day re-build their devastated countries. For the future peace
of the world we must do everything in our power to help these
war children.
War Child stands on the twin beliefs: that we’re not
free to ignore an innocent victim’s plea for help and that
children are the seed-corn of society, its future hope.
War Child is a network of independent organisations working
across the world to help children affected by war.
Two filmmakers, Bill Leeson and David Wilson, founded war Child
UK in February 1993 after they had returned from the former Yugoslavia
having made a film for the BBC Arena programme about the role
of artists in war. Shocked by the plight of children - this war
like so many in the world at the end of the 20th century, is a
war against civilians - they decided to use their film and entertainment
background to raise money for aid agencies operating in former
Yugoslavia.
|
