I wrote to Save the Children as to how the decision to give that award to Tony Blair came about and the reply I received back certainly went a long way to restoring my faith in the UK Branch. Copied below. Dear James, Thank you for contacting us and sharing your views regarding Save the Children’s award to Tony Blair, we are very sorry to hear how upset you are. We know that you are not alone in the way that you feel as we’ve heard back from a number of other supporters expressing similar feeling. Your feedback is very important to us, and is passed on immediately to the relevant people at Save the Children. We always consider feedback from supporters like you when planning our future actions. Whilst I understand you have a strong objection to Mr Blair being given this award, we would like to clarify exactly how it came about. The award was made by Save the Children US - not Save UK, and Save UK had no direct input into the decision or the award. I also want to make it clear that this is not a decision Save UK would have taken. He received the award specifically for his work on poverty whilst he was Prime Minister. During his time in this role he led the G8 nations at Gleneagles to agree a doubling of aid to Africa, debt cancellation and universal access to Aids treatment. These commitments enabled poor countries to accelerate progress towards the United Nations Millennium Development Goals and further efforts toward reducing the numbers of mothers and children worldwide who die each year from treatable causes such as pneumonia, malaria and new born complications. Mr Blair remains a very controversial and divisive figure, but perhaps less so in the US than in the UK, where opinions on his political decisions differ. Whilst we are a single organisation, different parts of Save the Children are free to make their own choices and Save the Children US chose, with this award, to acknowledge some of the good they see Mr Blair as having done. That said, whilst acknowledging him for this specific work, Save the Children US does not in any way wish to be seen as endorsing Tony Blair in all areas of his work. We are very sorry that you have been angered by this decision, and hope you wont lose faith in the good that Save the Children as a whole still does in the world every day. Please believe that we take what you have to say seriously, and we will communicate the response of our supporters to Save US. In the meantime, please contact us with any further comments about the actions of Save the Children. With best wishes, Caroline Supporter Care Team, Save the Children
Posted on: Wed, 03 Dec 2014 13:58:08 +0000
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