Figure 1.-- Here an ARC worker with some local friends pose outside an ARC dispenjsary in Paris. The goal was to increasec access to medical care for the poor and working class. These dispensaries were not hjust drug stores. Women would come in without perscriptions written by doctors.

The American Red Cross (ARC) pened many dispensaries in France. The focus was on the needs of mothers and children on the home front. Doctors and nurses operating under the direction of the ARC helped to lessen the strain of war upon the mothers and children of France. ARC opened 12 dispensaries in Paris and its suburbs. They were all similar to a photograph of one in Paris for which we have a photgraph (figure 1). There was a huge need. One report based on the 14th arrondisement of the city. There were 125,000 inhabitants and with about 2,000 births annully about 400 deaths of babies per thousand, a terrible level of infant mortality. We have not yet found much information on these dispensaries. It should be recalled that the War was fought before France and other countries established national health systems and the health care needs of the working class were not yet been fully addressed. And the War increased the needs for health care with food shotages abd inadequate diets. With fathers atv the front,millions of French families lost their majopr bread winner and thus mohers had less money to buy food at the same time food prices were increasing.

Created: 12:21 PM 11/10/2022
Last updated: 12:21 PM 11/10/2022