During World War I, the American Women’s Hospitals Service in conjunction with the Red Cross helped to establish a clinic in France for a social services home that helped children and orphans called La Residence Sociale. The daily life of La Residence Social (House of the Good Neighbor) was documented in Esther Pohl Lovejoy’s first book, The House of the Good Neighbor.
As Lovejoy describes, “The House of the Good Neighbor was a clearing house for people in distress, giving immediate help in emergencies, and cooperating with other agencies and organizations for the relief of human suffering. It was in touch with hospitals, dispensaries, maternities, pre-natal and post-natal homes, crèches, canteens, milk and supply depots of different kinds1.”
When the armistice was signed in 1918, plans to expand other types of hospital care throughout France were no longer needed and hospitals began closing. However, AWHS continued to support La Residence Sociale and its work into the late 1960s.
Please join AWHS in our nearly 100 years of service by helping to maintain our support for care to those in need. You can donate online at //www.amwa-doc.org/donate or donate by mail by sending a check (payable to the AMWA-AWHS) to: 12100 Sunset Hills Road Suite 130 Reston, Virginia 20190.
Source:
1. Lovejoy, Esther P, Hoover, Herbert. The House of the Good Neighbor, Macmillan Company, 1919; 12
