Cooperative for American Relief Everywhere (CARE)

Giving relief is difficult especially when the goal is to generate positive human response. The recipient readily comes to feel obligated, dependent and ill at ease about the relationship. The challenge to the donor is to fortify rather than inhibit self-reliance. Working wherever possible through local agencies in eight countries and two colonies in Asia, the COOPERATIVE FOR AMERICAN RELIEF EVERYWHERE, known as CARE, has managed this delicate assignment with sensitivity and a continuing concern for long-term results. 

Inaugurated in November 1945 as a cooperative of American private charitable and service organizations to send food parcels to the starving in war-ravaged Europe, CARE soon broadened its scope, changing the “E” to Everywhere. Discovering that an equal need was for the means to self-help, CARE aid began emphasizing plows, technical books and much else that man needs for his productive efforts. As food commodities became available from the U.S. Government, which also paid for most of the freight, CARE took responsibility for a vast international feeding program. In March 1962 MEDICO became a service of CARE, adding a new dimension to the assault on hunger, poverty and disease. 

Filipino children numbering yearly some four million in 27,000 elementary and pre-schools benefit from the free lunch program of CARE and the Bureau of Public Schools. Blending powdered milk and cornmeal, teachers are distributing a nutritious supplement to guard the younger generation against the intellectually numbing hazards that scientists have uncovered in a protein deficient diet. Sprayers for fruit and tobacco growers, 3,000 transistor radios distributed to barrios, woodworking tools for vocational schools, and vita-pops (vitamin fortified buns) for orphans in institutions are but a few of CARE’s contributions. In South Vietnam, war refugees are given soap, vitamins, textile packages and sewing kits by CARE and are helped to become self-supporting with seeds, irrigation equipment, livestock, and tools for carpenters, masons and blacksmiths. When famine threatened millions in India two years ago, CARE was among the agencies that helped with effective emergency food aid. 

Now representing 26 American agencies CARE, in the fiscal year ending June 30, 1967, distributed in 32 countries US$99,194,128 worth of food, supplies and equipment. From its founding to date its contributions have exceeded one billion dollars in value. Costs of administering this service have been kept to approximately seven per cent. Accomplishing this immense task with a modest budget and insuring integrity in use sets a standard for constructive relief. It also is heartening reassurance for the many in Asia who benefit to know that others care. 

In electing the COOPERATIVE FOR AMERICAN RELIEF EVERYWHERE to receive the 1968 Ramon Magsaysay Award for International Understanding, the Board of Trustees recognizes its constructive humanitarianism, fostering dignity among the needy in Asia and on three other continents for over 22 years.

I bring greetings from CARE’s Chairman, Mr. Ben Touster, and his sincere regrets that he is unable to be here today to accept this great honor on behalf of the organization he has served and loved for more than 20 years. 

We accept the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Peace and International Understanding in the name of the American people whose generous support has made it possible for CARE to be effective. 

Challenge abounds in the world today. I speak particularly of the challenge of disease and the challenge of poverty that degrade millions of our fellow members in the family of man. 

Of the 200 human beings that are born every minute, about half will be dead before they are a year old. Of those who survive, half will be dead before they reach 16 years of age. Many of the remainder will have a life expectancy of about 30 years. During this brief and wretched existence, they will be sick and hungry most of the time. Most of them will never learn to read and write. 

The challenge is clear — the opportunity is clear. Are we to say to them that modern man can do nothing to help them change their lot? If we do, we shame both them and ourselves. It does not have to be — and it will not be. 

Accompanying the Ramon Magsaysay Award is a wonderful grant of $10,000.00. Because the situation brought about by the civil war in Nigeria today represents the most urgent call upon relief organizations like CARE, the decision has been made to donate this grant toward the relief and rehabilitation of the hundreds of thousands of innocent victims of that conflict. 

We are often asked what CARE will do in the future — in which countries it will operate. These questions can only be answered by the need. We will help where required and requested, and within the budget provided by the individual donations of the American people. Perhaps no better answer can be given to CARE’s purpose than to quote the words of the late U.S. Senator Robert F. Kennedy who said: 

“It is from numberless diverse acts of courage and belief that human history is shaped. Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

The Ramon Magsaysay Award is without question the single most important honor that has come to CARE. We are proud and grateful for having been chosen to receive it. To the Foundation we, in turn, pledge that we will rededicate our efforts to the future service of men.