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PERTH,WEDNESDAY,JUNE 6, 1946.
SEVENTYSECOND YEAR.
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Colossal Task Confronts U. N. R. R.A. Noted Social Worker Describes Need of Co-Ordinating World Economy 44 Countries & 80 0/,, of People of the World Aim to Eliminate Want . . . Superhuman Effort to Help Nations Help Themselves By EILEEN DAVIDSON, M.A., DipEd. Following the announcement of the appointment of Miss Eileen Davidson, M . A., Dip. Ed., to an important assignment in Germany,under the U.N.R,R. A., the following article from her pen will be of interest to our readers. It describes the enormous problems facing the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration and the means employed to overcome them :— A social worker has the task of help• ing people out of trouble. I would be a very brave social worker—and avery unwise one—to stand up and pretend I knew the solution, or even the best methods, of dealing with the numerous problems of Europe to-day. Never• theless, there are certain casework practices which have been evolved. If th peoples of devastated countries are to be helped adequately, efficiently and at all speed, these practices must be adhered to. I speak from the social worker's point of view. By this, Ido not mean charity. You can walk down the street and put a shilling in a blind man's hat; that is just helping the blind man—you relieve your pressure of feeling, and he gets a shilling. But if it were your duty in life to aid that ' man and help him employ his time profitably instead of sitting on a street corner, you have done a very bad piece of social work. You would not he helping him. A social worker must have a constructive view, in mind all the time. She is required to help people out of trouble, not in their trouble, r\ second point—a social worker must • l',• aware of the community sresources o; help. io trying to overcome the problems of devastated areas and t• find their logical solution, she must naturally make herself familiar with the machinery being organised at this time by the hest brains of the world. Social workers must know how to get the right thing from the right agency at the right moment. Let us have a look at some of the things being done, the organisation being set up. There has been a con. siderable amount of effort put into the
setting up of community resources, and necessarily so. The late President Roosevelt said it was hard for us to grasp the magnitude of the needs of the peoples of Europe. However, we must try and,face them, and knowing what they are, try and cope with them. Governor Lehman. Director of United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, said: " If we have learned anything from the decades just behind us it is this: we cannot even if we would, make ourselves secure in a world in which millions of men, women and children are dying of want or epi• demic. Let its frankly recognise that freedom from want iS a basic component of any enduring peace, and that if the United Nations are to have any hope of lasting peace and a stable world economy they must help to see to it that the liberated peoples of the world are restorer( as rapidly as possiblue to a self-sti ,taining hnsis. That is merely enlightener) self-interest," So ive have the problem— to restore Europe to a self-sustaining hacis. Public utilities ,essential services, world trade will have to be restored—a gigantir t:t k.. It has taken a world upheaval to upset this—it will take the coirhined resource: of the whole wide iv,,rld to restore them. Transport, supplies, and services will have to he restored on a colossal scale to bring hack order from chaos. But what of the human element? it, has been estimated that 1A0.0M.000 Europeans have brcn affected one w•av or another, some in it major capacity, everyone in some way. 20 to 30000,000 refugees, who reoice in the name of " Displaced Persons" in our official documents, are a problem in themselves. Some of these people have fled from one disaster into another, only to have to turn and flee
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from that.. Terrfied, hopeless, lost, bewildered people! In Prance to-day, as in Belgium after the'last war, the agony columns—if you know what they are—of the newspapers are full of all kinds of notices, such as this: " Iwould welcome news of so-and-so, last seen at such-and-such a place—signed ' Despairing Mother.'" Test think of the broken homes and broken hearts! All these people have to be helped. And the first thing is thev have to be fed. Is there enough food in the world to feed them? Experts say Yes, with perhaps the exception of proteins. There are— hips (still being used for war aims at the moment). There is untold goodwill. These, however, are not enough. There must be organisation and planning. So. cial workers in order to help people, want to know what lies ahead, for they mmt plan ahead.. And for this, organisation is necessary, One of the lessons of the last war is that very fact. There must be some means of co-ordinating the various agencies which want to take part in the relief work. In regard to food, as far back as Nor, 1913, the representatives of the United Nations met at Hot Springs, Virginia, U.S.A., at the invitation of the United States Government, to discuss the problem of world feeding. Here is their declaration at the conclusion of the copference: "This Conference has considered the world problems of food and agriculture, and declares its belief that the goal of freedom from want of food, suitable and adequate for the health and strength of all peoples can be achieved. "The first task is to complete the , winning of the war and to deliver mil-
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liuns of people from tyranny and from hunger. During the period of critical shortage in the aftermath of war. freedom from hunger can be achieved only by urgent and concerted efforts to economise consumption ,to increase supplies and distribute them to the best advantage. Thereafter we must equally concert our effprts to win and main. tain freedom from fear anti freedom from want. The one cannot be achieved without the other. "There has never been enough food for the health of all people. This is justified neither by ignorance nor by the harshness of nature. Production of food must be greatly expanded; we now have knowledge of the means by which this can be done, , It requires imagination and firm will'on the part of each Government and people to make use of that knowledge. The first ause of hunger and malnutrition is poverty. It is useless to produce more food unless men and nations provide the markets to absorb it. There must be an expansion of the. whole world economy to provide the purchasing power sufficient to maintain an adequate diet for all.... The primary responsibility lies with each nation for seeing that its own people have the food needed for life and health; steps to this end are for national determination. 'But each nation can fully achieve its goal only if all work together." They made certain recommendations: "That the Governments and authorities here represented recognise and embody in a formal declaration or agreement the obligation to their respective peoples and to one another, herceeforth to collaborate in raising levels of nutrition and standards of living of their peoples, and to report to one another on the progress achieved. "That the governments and authorities here represented establish a permanent organisation in the field of food and r.griculture." In 191, :" cse recommendations were mule, and Ithink we can take it that when the Military control releases its hold and other agencies are able to move in and take over, there will be sufficient food, The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration has undertaken to provide 2,000 calories a day. It takes 4,000 day to keep a man going who is doing hard nvnrk: 3,0V0 for a man moderately employed; 2,000 for an active woman. UNRRA is aiming at 2,600 a clay a step in the right direction, but not overabundant. Something more will have to be done when the people settle down to the more stable period after the emergency period has been passed, (Continued on Page 17.)
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