“Save Serbian Orphans”

Americans and the care of Serbian war orphans

The fate of Serbia during the war and the suffering of the population during the First World War
attracted the attention of numerous American humanitarian organizations and individuals. The beginning
of the humanitarian activity of the Americans in Serbia began in 1910, during the great floods that hit
Šumadija. It continued during the Balkan wars, to reach its peak during the Great War. The activity of
American humanitarian organizations and individuals was manifested in the equipping and sending of
medical and sanitary missions and in the collection of material aid and medical supplies. Individuals from
Serbia who lived and worked in America, such as Mihajlo Pupin and Jelena Lozanić, as well as American
benefactors such as John Frothingham and Mabel Dunlop Grujić, were particularly prominent in collecting
financial resources, lobbying and organizing aid for Serbia and the Serbian people. According to research
by Ubavka Ostojić Fejić, the total number of American philanthropic associations that took part in helping
the Serbian people during the war amounted to 37.
The humanitarian activity of the Americans, massively organized during the First World War,
continued in the first post-war years under different circumstances and in a way that was conditioned by
different factors. Firstly, we should take into account the fact that Serbia emerged from the Great War
destroyed, devastated and with incalculable demographic consequences (it lost a quarter of its population).
Destroyed infrastructure, enormous material damage, hunger, epidemics of infectious diseases, and other
misfortunes awaited the Serbian state at the end of the war. However, what was of particular concern was
the fate of more than two hundred thousand children, who were left without parents (guardians) during and
after the end of the war, as well as without the basic conditions for life. Their survival and care became the
main motto used by humanitarian organizations from America, primarily the American Red Cross, the
Serbian Hospital Fund (renamed the Serbian Aid Fund in October 1917) and the Serbian Support Fund.
Taking care of Serbian war orphans was a logical continuation of the humanitarian activities carried
out during the war operations. The initiators of this type of assistance to the Serbian people were people
who stood out for their efforts during the war (John Frothingham, Jelena Lozanić, Mihajlo Pupin, Mabel
Dunlop Grujić). Newly founded American humanitarian organizations such as Serbian Emergency Aid in
Philadelphia, Serbian Distress Fund in Boston, British-American War Relief in Baltimore and others
worked for the same noble goal. These and numerous other organizations sent financial and material
resources to the Circle of Serbian Sisters, which distributed aid on the ground.
It is known that at the beginning of the war (in 1915), the great philanthropist John Frothingham,
among other things, financed the opening of a temporary home for neglected children in Skopje, which was
run by Darinka Grujić, a woman who saved and cared for hundreds of abandoned children, and because of
her works nicknamed "Mama Grujić". Due to war operations and the proximity to the front, the route of
"John Frothingham's Home" led to the south, first to Bitola, and then to Thessaloniki and Athens. From
there, Darinka Grujić moved the children to Nice, where until the end of the war they had adequate living
and schooling conditions. After the end of the war, in 1919, the Serbian-American Home was moved from
Nice to Belgrade (Košutnjak), and then it worked for a long time in Sremska Kamenica in the castle of
Count Karačonji (until 1933, when the Housekeeping School was opened there). Belgrade became the final
residence for neglected children, when in 1933 the home was moved to the "Charles Dickens" children's
playground. In the history of the Serbian-American Home published in 1923, it is stated that since 1915,
more than 1,500 children have passed through that institution. Frottingham's activity in this regard
continued in the first months after the end of the hostilities. He financed the opening of the Home for War
Orphans and Abandoned Children in Vranje in 1919, through which over 600 children passed by 1923.
On the other hand, the Serbian support fund led by the tireless Jelena Lozanić, thanks to large
donations from American philanthropists, opened a home for war orphans in Čačak in the barracks of the
X regiment in 1920. This institution was actually a school called "Home of the Americans" which operated
until 1924. At the same time, members of the Serbian Support Fund built smaller shelters for neglected
children in Lazarevac and Topcider. Also, they secured significant shipments of clothing, food, medicine,
and hospital supplies provided by American benefactors.
The activities of the American Red Cross, as an institution that has been continuously helping the
Serbian people since the beginning of the World War, gained even more mass in the first post-war months
and years. Large medical missions (surgical and epidemiological) that worked in war-ravaged Serbia,
treated and cared for the Serbian population and wounded soldiers, were replaced by missions that had
different tasks in peacetime circumstances. According to the data from the annual reports, the American
Red Cross, like the humanitarian organizations mentioned above, saw the issue of war orphans as a priority
in the first post-war years in Serbia.
In order to take care of war orphans, at the end of 1918 and the beginning of 1919, an organization
called the Serbian Child Welfare Association of America was created, which financed the activities carried
out by the American Red Cross and the Serbian government. Under the auspices of this program, homes
for neglected children were opened, children's dispensaries where medical and dental examinations were
performed, food and clothing were provided. However, creating basic conditions for children's living and
education was not the only item of this program. Americans from the Red Cross also worked to improve
the quality of life of Serbian (Yugoslav) children. Adoption of neglected children in foster families was
carried out, various children's festivals and performances were organized, playgrounds and schools were
built and renovated. According to the annual report for 1920, the American Red Cross cared for 40,000
children. Some children were sent to foster families who received 50 dinars per month in money or clothes
for their support, with the obligation to send them to school regularly. Children's dispensaries were opened
in every place that had over 300 children.
When talking about American humanitarian activity in Serbia during and after the end of the Great
War, the name of Mabel Dunlop Grujić, the wife of diplomat Slavko Grujić, is unavoidable. The famous
American woman is the most deserving of the fact that over one million and one hundred thousand dinars
were sent to Serbia through various funds (Serbian Support Fund, Serbian Hospital Fund) in the period
from September 1919 to September 1920. Those funds were used by the Kolo srpskih sestara, which
distributed pensions to war orphans, military invalids, single mothers and provided food and clothing.
Thanks to Mabel Grujić, who was extremely active and respected in American elite circles, but also to her
frequent articles in the American press, the fate of Serbia during the war received a strong echo in the
American public. Texts with appeals for help to Serbian children were a daily occurrence in newspapers
across America. Together with her husband, Mabel Grujić, she founded the American Home for Yugoslav
Children in Belgrade in 1922, which operated until 1938. In the same year, they founded the American
Home in Selco near Crikvenica on the Adriatic coast, which served as a resort and hospital for sick children.
The terrifying consequences of the Great War in Serbia could have become even worse. The people
in charge recognized that, in addition to losing a huge percentage of the working-age population, Serbia
will also lose its future if something is not done urgently. Rescuing and caring for war orphans became a
priority in post-war reconstruction. For this purpose, the help that came from America and the education of
the Serbian Child Welfare Association of America had a decisive influence on saving the most important
thing that was left to Serbia after the war - its children, its future.