Save the Children Australia is an aid and development agency dedicated to helping children in Australia and overseas. It is an independent, not-for-profit and secular organisation. Save the Children Australia is a member of the Save the Children International, a group of 30 organisations sharing a global vision and strategy for improving the lives of children worldwide. Save the Children Australia, and the other members of the Save the Children Association, focus on responding to humanitarian emergencies, reducing infant and child mortality, protecting children from violence, and ensuring all children have access to a quality basic education. In 2014, Save the Children Australia responded to 18 humanitarian emergencies, and ran 149 projects that reached 12 million people in 29 countries. History Save the Children was founded in England by Eglantyne Jebb, a teacher and sociologist, in 1919. Known then as the International Save the Children Fund, the organisation's first goal was to supply food to starving children in Austria, what was then Austria-Hungary, immediately after World War I. Jebb had a strong vision and dedication to children's rights and developed five directives that she believed were the fundamental rights of every child. She lobbied the League of Nations until they adopted these rights in 1924. They have since formed the basis of the United Nations Declaration of the Rights of the Child (1959) and inspired the current Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990). These rights remain the foundation of Save the Children's vision and values. In the same year, Save the Children began in England, its first Australian branch was opened by Cecilia John in Melbourne, Australia, to assist refugees affected by war in Europe. This was soon followed by branches opening in Queensland in 1920 and South Australia in 1922. Over the next 50 years, more branches were established in every state across Australia to assist children in Europe and the Middle East. In 1951, the health and education of children in Australia became a priority for Save the Children branches across the country. Welfare centres and pre-schools for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Victoria were among the first of its Australian programs. In 2004, the branches started a process of consolidation to create a single, national organisation called Save the Children Australia. On 20 May 2015, Save the Children Australia and Good Beginnings Australia announced their plans to merge. Good Beginnings Australia specialises in