Posts Tagged ‘Armed Forces’

Clara Barton and a circle of acquaintances founded the American Red Cross in Washington, D.C. on May 21, 1881. Barton first heard of the Swiss-inspired International Red Cross Movement while visiting Europe following the Civil War. Returning home, she campaigned for an American Red Cross society and for ratification of the Geneva Convention protecting the war-injured, which the United States ratified in 1882.

Barton headed the Red Cross for 23 years, during which time it conducted its first domestic and overseas disaster relief efforts, aided the United States military during the Spanish-American War, and campaigned successfully for the inclusion of peacetime relief work as part of the International Red Cross Movement-the so-called “American Amendment” that initially met with some resistance in Europe.

The Red Cross received its first congressional charter in 1900 and a second in 1905, the year after Barton resigned from the organization. This charter-which remains in effect today-sets forth the purposes of the organization that include giving relief to and serving as a medium of communication between members of the American armed forces and their families and providing national and international disaster relief and mitigation.

The Salvation Army began in London, England in 1865. William Booth was a minister who decided to give up his parsonage and take his message to the poor and homeless. His original plan was to send converts to established churches, but that proved unsuccessful. What he found was that the poor, often disheveled and unwashed, were made to feel unwelcome in a traditional church setting. (more…)