The Junior Red Cross

The Lebanese Junior Red Cross is a branch of the Lebanese Red Cross. Its motto is service and mutual friendship, and its aim is to spread the spirit of cooperation, to work for the prevention of disease, and to relieve suffering among the young. It has no religious, partisan, or political coloring, and its field is the school — that fertile ground, the ground of innocent youth, pure learning, and lofty morals. Every girl or boy between the ages of six and sixteen is entitled to be a member. There are in the world fifty-six junior branches comprising forty million young members who honor their motto and work to raise the standing of their branch. They relieve the pain of the suffering, help the needy, observe the rules of health, and strive to establish mutual friendship between themselves and their comrades in the different countries — that friendship which the world, drowning in greed and hatred, so badly needs, and which, if it develops among the young, may in the future lead to the spread of peace and the abolition of war.

In every school that adopts a branch of the Junior Red Cross, a troop is formed whose members number about fifty. They work under the supervision of one of the teachers and train, with his help, to carry out on their own everything that is asked of them; thus they feel a measure of independence, which develops the personality, and they are trained in leadership, in order, and in respect for the law, and they work for others, not for themselves alone. If we think of our own country, we find that its young people are in the utmost need of all this, so that there may not grow up another generation like the present one, steeped in the spirit of selfishness, whose members live each for himself, mocking order, despising the law, and boasting of it.

The program of the junior branch is divided into three parts:
1 – Applying the rules of health and caring for health.
2 – Practicing mutual cooperation.
3 – Striving to create mutual friendship among the young of the different countries.

It is a program that completes what the young are taught in the schools, for they hear preaching, guidance, and lectures daily on these subjects, and the Junior Red Cross troop puts all that into practice. That is why the ministries of national education and of health throughout the world look kindly on these branches, support them, and work to strengthen them. In Lebanon, His Excellency Dr. Raif Abillama encouraged the ladies who undertook the founding of the junior branch and gave them useful advice. His Excellency Dr. Elias Khoury, the Minister of Health, also helped them, looked kindly on the project, and backed it, for it is a project concerned with the rules of health in the home, the school, and the street.

The Lebanese Junior Red Cross is the branch of the schoolgirls and schoolboys of Lebanon. We therefore ask them for their support, and we count on it, for it alone can guarantee the branch's progress and prosperity.

Ellen Rahmeh
(Secretary of the Lebanese Junior Red Cross)