CARE History: Timeline

1948 -- CARE airlifts food to Berlin when Soviet troops blockade the city. A CARE food truck is the first vehicle to enter Berlin after the blockade is lifted.

1949 -- CARE begins work in the Philippines, launching our first programs in the developing world. At home, celebrities like Ingrid Bergman help make the CARE package® a household word.

1951 -- CARE starts a major relief operation in Korea as the war there expands.

1954 -- Congress passes Public Law 480, allowing CARE to use America's vast stocks of surplus food in the fight against hunger overseas.

1956 -- CARE ships food to thousands of Hungarian refugees after the failed revolt.

1961 -- President John F. Kennedy establishes the Peace Corps and asks CARE to help train its first volunteers to Latin America.

1964-- CARE expands relief work in Vietnam as the war creates more civilian survivors and refugees.

1966 -- CARE begins phasing out the CARE Package as self-help projects gain importance; governments start sharing project costs in their own countries.

1972 -- CARE brings food and emergency supplies to survivors of the Bangladesh War of Independence and helps them resume farming and re-establish schools, homes and health centers.

1974 -- CARE provides food, relief kits and medical supplies to drought victims in Niger and Chad and launches agroforestry efforts to help prevent drought and increase food production.

1979 -- CARE sends relief to refugees fleeing Cambodia's killing fields.

1985 -- The century's worst famine grips Africa and more than a million die. CARE delivers food to 6.3 million Africans.

1986 -- CARE begins our small-business development program.

1988 -- CARE becomes the first private development organization to work in the People's Republic of China and, as the Cold War wanes, begins operations in the former Soviet Union and the former Yugoslavia.

1990 -- CARE starts its family planning program.

1992 -- CARE delivers food to 2 million people during the famine in Somalia, despite widespread violence and instability.

1993 -- CARE helps the Haitian people survive food shortages and economic collapse, with programs helping 620,000 Haitians -- 10 percent of the population.

1994 -- Civil war and ethnic massacres in Rwanda send an unprecedented flood of refugees into Zaire (now Democratic Republic of Congo) and Tanzania. CARE delivers food, water and sanitation to hundreds of thousands.

1995 -- CARE Packages sent to Bosnian schoolchildren.

1996 -- Smithsonian Institute inducts the CARE Package into its permanent collection.

1997 -- CARE adopts the household livelihood security framework -- a big-picture approach to fighting poverty that embraces all aspects of a family's life.

1998 -- CARE responds to emergencies: Hurricane Mitch in Central America, strife in Kosovo and cyclones in Orissa, India. In each of these locations, CARE stayed on working alongside communities as they rebuilt.

2002 -- CARE unveils a bold new look, reflecting our commitment to helping families around the world achieve lasting victories over poverty.

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