- American Friends Service Committee
Infobox Non-profit
Non-profit_name = American Friends Service Committee
Non-profit_
founded_date = 1917
founder = 17 members of theReligious Society of Friends
location =Philadelphia, Pennsylvania , USA
origins =Haverford, Pennsylvania , USA
key_people =Mary Ellen McNish , General Secretary
area_served = Worldwide with U.S. emphasis
product =
focus =
method =
revenue = US$42,000,000
endowment =
num_volunteers =
num_employees = 450
num_members =
subsib =
owner =
Non-profit_slogan = Quaker values in action.
homepage = http://www.afsc.org
footnotes =The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) is a
Religious Society of Friends ("Quaker ") affiliated organization which provideshumanitarian relief and works forsocial justice ,peace and reconciliation,human rights , and abolition of thedeath penalty . The group was founded in 1917 as a combined effort by American members of the Religious Society of Friends and assistedcivilian victims ofwar .Because Quakers traditionally oppose
violence in all of its forms and therefore refuse to serve in themilitary , the AFSC's original mission was to provideconscientious objector s (COs) to war with a constructive alternative to military service. In 1947 AFSC received theNobel Peace Prize along with the British Friends Service Council, now calledQuaker Peace and Social Witness , on behalf of all Quakers worldwide.History
In April 1917 -- days after the
United States joinedWorld War I and declared war onGermany and its allies -- a group of Quakers met inPhiladelphia to discuss the pendingmilitary draft -- and how it would affect members ofpeace churches such as Quakers,Mennonites , Brethren, and theAmish . They developed ideas foralternative service that could be done directly in the battle zones of northernFrance .They also developed plans for dealing with the
United States Army , since it was very inconsistent in its dealing with religious objectors to previous wars. Although legally members of pacifist churches were exempt from the draft, individual state draft boards interpreted the law in a variety of ways. Many Quakers and other COs were ordered to report to army camps for military service. Some COs, unaware of the significance of reporting for duty, found that this was interpreted by the military as willingness to fight. One of the AFSC's first tasks was to identify CO's, find the camps where they were located, and then visit them to provide spiritual guidance and moral support. (Howard Brinton , for example, visited a prison holding COs in North Carolina; this journey led to his going on an AFSC trip into the war zone itself.) In areas where the pacifist churches were more well known (such asPennsylvania ), a number of draft boards were willing to assign COs to the AFSC for alternative service.In addition to conducting alternative service programs for COs, the AFSC collected relief in the form of food, clothing, and other supplies for
displaced person s in France. Quakers were asked to collect old and make new clothing; to grow fruits and vegetables, can them, and send them to the AFSC headquarters in Philadelphia, AFSC then shipped them to France. The AFSC also sent young women and men to work in France, where they worked with British Quakers to provide relief and medical care to refugees, repair and rebuild homes, and they jointly founded a maternityhospital .After the end of the war in 1918, the AFSCs began working in
Russia ,Serbia , andPoland with orphans and with the victims of famine and disease, and inGermany andAustria , where they set up kitchens to feed hungry children. Eventually AFSC was chartered by PresidentHerbert Hoover to provide the United States sponsored relief to Germans.During the 1930s and 1940s, the AFSC helped refugees escape from
Nazi Germany , provided relief for children on both sides of theSpanish Civil War , and provided relief to refugees inVichy France . AfterWorld War II ended, they did relief and reconstruction work inEurope ,Japan ,India , andChina . In 1947 they worked to resettle refugees from thepartition of India , and in theGaza Strip .As the
Cold War escalated, the AFSC was involved in relief and service efforts around the world in conflicts including theKorean War , theHungarian Revolution of 1956 , and theAlgerian War . Beginning in 1966, the AFSC developed programs to help children and provided medical supplies andartificial limb s to civilians in bothNorth Vietnam andSouth Vietnam . During theNigerian -Biafran War, the AFSC provided relief to civilians on both the Nigerian and Biafran sides of the conflict.In 1955, the Committee published "Speak Truth to Power: A Quaker Search for an Alternative to Violence". Focused on the Cold War, the 71-page pamphlet asserted that it sought "to give practical demonstration to the effectiveness of love in human relations." It was widely commented on in the press, both secular and religious.
In the United States, the AFSC continued the Quaker tradition of support for the American Civil Rights Movement, and the rights of
African-American s, Native Americans,Mexican American s, andAsian American s, including providing support forJapanese-American s during their internment during World War II. The AFSC also has worked extensively as part of thepeace movement , especially work to stop the production and deployment ofnuclear weapon s.Programs and projects
Today the AFSC has more than two hundred staff working in dozens of programs throughout the
United States and works in twenty-two other nations. In the United States AFSC has divided the country into nine regions, each of which runs programs related to peace, immigrant rights,restorative justice , civil rights, and other causes. AFSC's international programs often work in conjunction with theCanadian Friends Service Committee ,Quaker Peace and Social Witness (formerly the British Friends Service Council), andQuaker Service Australia .The AFSC is still based in Philadelphia in Friends Center, a building attached to the
Cherry Street Meetinghouse , one of the oldest churches in the United States.Among the many ongoing programs of AFSC, in the aftermath of the
2003 Iraq War , AFSC launched the Eyes Wide Open Exhibit [http://www.afsc.org/eyes/] . This exhibit travels around the United States displaying in public spaces one pair of combat boots for each American killed in the ongoing fighting in Iraq. Additionally, more than one thousand pairs of donated civilian shoes are displayed as a reminder of the Iraqis killed in the conflict. The exhibit is intended as a reminder of the human costs of war.AFSC also provides administrative support to the
Quaker United Nations Office (QUNO) inNew York City . This office is the official voice of Quakerism in theUnited Nations headquarters. There is a second QUNO office inGeneva, Switzerland ; support for that office is provided by European Friends. QUNO is overseen by theFriends World Committee for Consultation .Criticism
For its anti-war and anti-capital punishment stance, the AFSC receives criticism from many socially conservative groups alleging that the AFSC has supported Communist activities and because of its assistance to
illegal aliens wishing to stay in the United States. Since the 1970s, criticism has also come from liberals within the Society of Friends, who charge that AFSC has drifted from its Quaker roots and has become indistinguishable from otherpolitical pressure groups . Quakers expressed concern with AFSC's abolition of their youth work camps during the 1960s and what some saw as a decline of Quaker participation in the organization. The criticisms became most prominent after a gathering ofFriends General Conference in Richmond, Indiana, in the summer of 1979 when rank and file Friends joined more prominent ones, such asKenneth Boulding , to call for a firmer Quaker orientation toward public issues. Some Jews have taken aim at AFSC for what they charge is an anti-Jewish bias because AFSC has a long history of listening sympathetically to, even sometimes siding with, Palestinians. Also, throughout much of the group's history the USFederal Bureau of Investigation has monitored the work of the organization.Documents released under the freedom of information act are hosted on the [http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/committe.htm FBI's website] ] AFSC is currently working with the ACLU on several efforts to end spying by [http://www.aclu.org/privacy/spying/15186prs20021121.html local police] , the [http://www.progressive.org/mag_mcafsc FBI] , the [http://www.afsc.org/news/2005/government-spying.htm Pentagon] and the [http://new.aclu-wa.org/detail.cfm?id=419 NSA] targeted at AFSC and other organizations.]ee also
*
Friends Committee on National Legislation
*Quaker Peace TestimonyExternal links
* [http://www.afsc.org/default.htm American Friends Service Committee]
* [http://www.quno.org/ Quaker United Nations Offices]
* [http://www.nobel.se/peace/laureates/1947/index.html Nobel Committee information on the 1947 Peace Prize]
* [http://eyes.afsc.org Eyes Wide Open Exhibit Home Page]
* [http://www.afsc.net Northeast Ohio AFSC]
* [http://www.thestreetspirit.org AFSC's Street Spirit newspaper]References
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