The CARE Package

In 1946, the first CARE Packages arrive at Le Havre, and shortly afterwards CARE airlifted food to Berlin when Soviet troops blockaded the city. A CARE food truck was the first vehicle to enter Berlin after the blockade was lifted. The first CARE Packages were US Army surplus ‘10in-1’ food parcels originally intended to provide one meal for ten soldiers during the planned invasion of Japan. CARE obtained them at the end of World War Two and began a service that enabled Americans to send the parcels to friends and families in Europe, where food shortages were severe and millions were in danger of starvation. Ten dollars bought the Package and guaranteed that its addressee would receive it within four months. When the ‘10in-1’ parcels ran out, CARE began assembling its own food packages, greatly assisted by donations from American companies.

In 1949, CARE began work in the Philippines, launching its first programmes in the developing world. In the 1950s, CARE undertook a major relief operation in Korea as the war expanded; and shipped food to thousands of Hungarian refugees after the failed revolt. The US Congress also gave recognition to the work of CARE by passing Public Law 480, allowing CARE to use America’s vast stocks of surplus food in the fight against hunger overseas.

In the 1960s, CARE expanded its relief work in Vietnam as the war created more civilian victims and refugees, and began phasing out the CARE Package as self-help projects gained importance. In this period governments started sharing project costs in their own countries.

In the 1970s, CARE brought food and emergency supplies to survivors of the Bangladesh war of independence and helped them to resume farming and re-establish schools, homes and health centres; provided food, relief kits and medical supplies to drought victims in Niger and Chad and launched agro-forestry efforts to help prevent drought and increase food production; and sent relief to refugees fleeing Cambodia’s killing fields.

In the 1980s, the century’s worst famine gripped Africa and more than a million people died. CARE delivered food to 6.3 million starving Africans. And in 1988, CARE became the first private development organization to work in the People’s Republic of China and, as the Cold War waned, began operations in the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia. In 1986 CARE began its small-business support programme.

In the 1990s, CARE continued its relief operations by delivering food to two million people during the Somali famine, despite widespread violence and instability; helped the Haitian people survive food shortages and economic collapse, with programmes giving aid to 10 per cent of the population;

delivered food, water and sanitation to hundreds of thousands of Rwandan refugees; sent CARE Packages to Bosnian schoolchildren; and responded to emergencies such as Hurricane Mitch in Central America, cyclones in Orissa, India, and strife in Kosovo.

By 2000, CARE employed over 10,000 staff, most of whom are citizens of the countries in which CARE works, delivering a ‘CARE Package’ that encompasses programmes in emergency relief and rehabilitation, education, health and population (including maternal and child health, reproductive health and water and sanitation) and income development (which includes small economic activity development, agriculture and community development and the environment).

However, it also became clear that the organization faced a number of challenges (Henry 1999; Lindenberg 2001):

• A number of other organizations had become equally recognized for their relief activities, and CARE wasn’t necessarily the agency of first choice.
• A number of other specialist agencies had grown up providing high quality specialized services in developing countries.
• Donors were increasingly questioning CARE’s cost structure and were looking for evidence of programme impact in the face of persistent poverty and inequality.
• CARE’s direct delivery approach was increasingly being questioned, as other agencies began to work more in partnership with indigenous organizations.
• CARE staff were struggling to deliver an ever-expanding programme with antiquated systems and procedures.
• CARE’s confederation partners in other Western countries demand increased autonomy.
• There is a need to create a more functional international confederation, when 70 per cent of the programme is currently in the hands of one member (CARE USA).
• There is a need to become a global organization including southern member organizations.
• There is a need to create and project a common, shared vision and identity for the organization.
• There is a need to overcome funding vulnerabilities, particularly in light of changing priorities of institutional donors.
• There is a need for CARE to overcome its insularity and become a genuine learning organization that promotes innovation.

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