Geneva, Switzerland · Established 1945
CARE International
Empowering women and girls to fight poverty.
(About)
Saving lives, defeating poverty, achieving social justice.
CARE was founded in the United States in 1945, initially as the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe, to allow Americans to send 'CARE Packages' of surplus military rations to relatives and strangers in a war-shattered Europe. More than 100 million packages were delivered in the organisation's first two decades.
As European reconstruction ended, CARE turned to long-term development work in Asia, Africa and Latin America and progressively broadened its mission from food relief to poverty alleviation, women's empowerment, sexual and reproductive health, and humanitarian response. It is now a confederation of 21 national CARE members and candidates coordinated by CARE International, whose secretariat is in Geneva.
The organisation is best known for pioneering the Village Savings and Loan Association (VSLA) model — small self-managed groups, overwhelmingly of women, that save together and lend to their own members — which has since been adopted and adapted by many other agencies and now reaches tens of millions of women worldwide.
(Verified profile)
What the record actually says.
Sourced from official reports & independent registers
Structure & mandate
Confederation of 21 national CARE members and candidates, coordinated by CARE International. Founded 1945 as the Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe.
Key public programmes
- ▸Women's economic empowerment (Village Savings and Loan Associations)
- ▸Sexual, reproductive and maternal health
- ▸Humanitarian response in food, WASH and gender-based violence
Founded
1945
HQ
Geneva
Switzerland
Countries of work
10+
Primary sources
Independent registers
(Public perception & reviews)
What people actually say.
AI-synthesized from watchdogs, press & donor reviews
The Reach Out Score is generated by our AI based on public-domain signals (watchdog ratings, transparency, program-vs-overhead, controversies). It's a starting point — always verify against the primary sources above.
(Work in the field)
Photos of their work.
Sourced from Wikimedia Commons
(Where we operate)
Active in 10 countries.
- Bangladesh
- Ethiopia
- Yemen
- Somalia
- Peru
- Vietnam
- Ghana
- Guatemala
- Jordan
- Sudan
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