SWITZERLAND’S GREAT WORK

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 13773, 16 October 1942, Page 8

SWITZERLAND’S GREAT WORK

HELP FOR SUFFERERS

Refugees and Homeless

People of Many Lands

Assisted

Bern. Switzerland, Sept. 17

Besides bearing the major support of the International Red Cross. Swiss citizens are continuing to develop a rather extensive private social service of their own.

It is unpublicised, often almost secret, as benefactors seek anonimity. But it is having a far-reaching effect in relieving some of the suffering which has been escaped in large measure in the republic itself. Typical is the case in Zurich. ■When that city heard of the suffering in the town of Beauvais, a French industrial town of similar proportions to Zurich, Zurich's burghers got together and ’took action. A canvass of the town was taken and 6 5,575 francs were collected. A Zurich construction firm was commissioned to build three large barracks with double floors, double walls and every possible protection against dampness and cold. These were packed into five freight cars and driven over the rails to Beauvais. Room With 30 Bods

To-day the three barracks stand in the city of Beauvais with the Swiss Federal flag and the Zurich cantonal banner flying over their roofs. The great central barrack contains a room with 30 beds in tidy rows two high, a wash, room and two other rooms. A large well-lit room serves as common room for 50 to 6 0 children and contains tables which can be folded up to grant the children enough room to stretch around. One of the other barracks contains a kitchen, an office with equipment and a canteen where 10 0 children can be fed in shifts. The third barrack serves as a nursery.

The children who sleep in the Zurich beds and eat at the Zurich tables covered with new oil cloth are sent to the barracks by the “assistance publique” of the City of Beauvais. They are chiefly children up to six years of age who have previously been quartered in the wing of a half-ruined building, which was dark and damp.

The larger children are taken care of in the playground and the common room by a teacher sent and paid by the citizens of Zurich. This is especially good for the many mothers who are compelled to work for a living and who have children still too small 10 be left alone. Instead of running wild upon the streets they eat, play and receive instruction in the Zurich barracks. Children of Many Lands

Another private Swiss social welfare organisation is the Society for Child War Victims. With its office in one of Bern’s quiet alleys this society has aided children of many lands. Along with the Union Internationale do Secours aux Enfants and the Pro Polonia it aided the Polish children affected by the war. Preparations were made to receive Finnish children in Switzerland when the Finnish-Russian'peace was made.

With the German invasion when 5,000,000 refugees were homeless in southern France ,the Society distributed powdered milk to the children of the refugees as they crowded in railway .stations and empty lots. “Flying canteens” were organised which could travel rapidly from city to city administering aid wherever it was most needed. At the height of this activity 12,50 0 children received Swiss milk, cheese, and dried fruit daily. The Swiss themselves have been struck by the general European food shortage since then and are now unable to feed more than 2.000 French children daily. Limitations had to be placed on the export of foodstuffs by the Federal Government to check the eagerness of people to give and to insure Switzerland's own economic defence. Since food could no longer be exported the Swiss developed the idea of “foster parents” each “foster parent” pledging to pay 10 francs per month toward the feeding of some foreign child. About 6,000 such pledges were sold in Switzerland—3,Boo for French children, 600 for Belgian. 700 for Finnish and 250 for Polish children. The relationship of “foster parent” is really a very personal one. Photos are exchanged as well as letters of thanks and greeting. Not only individuals but school and Sundayschool classes and private clubs or groups are “foster parents.” Six Homes Founded But many children nowadays cannot be aided by money grants—they wander homeless from place to place, sometimes staying with people who

can but poorly support them. Hence the Society for Child War Victims is founding homes in which these children can live. Six have already been founded. One chiefly for French children is near the Lake d’Annecy, and another is a castle in Department Ariege harbours 100 Jewish children from Belgium. Homes at St. Cergues and Chambon shelter .children of all nationalities, .chiefly from the resort towns of Talloires and Faverges. In Eanyuls, near Perpignan, small children from camp Riversaltes are received and cared for. In all up to now there are 320 children in these homes under Swiss direction.

Near the Spanish internment camp at Argeles most remarkable is the maternity home at Elne which has been a great aid to the mothers among the Spanish refugees of Southern France. Since its founding it has been occupied up to the last bed.

One of the most difficult social tasks of all which the Swiss are undertaking is to bring underprivileged children from war-struck lands into their peaceful mountains as guests for two or three months at a time. This involves the problem of transportation. feeding, clothing and most difficult of all the distribution of the children among families congenial to their temperament where they will feel at home.