Aim

Educate and inspire action for a more just and peaceful world.

History

Our story began in the late 1940s, when a progressive child psychologist named Dr Doris Allen developed the concept of an organization that would foster inter-cultural understanding and friendship as an essential step toward world peace. Doris Allen believed that by creating opportunities for children of different cultures to come together to learn and make friends, they would grow up to become ambassadors for a more just and peaceful world. In just a few years, but with much hard work on the part of volunteers and supporters, Dr. Allen’s idea had become a reality. Children’s International Summer Villages (now known as CISV) was registered as a non-profit corporation in Ohio in 1950. The first Village programme was held in Cincinnati in 1951, bringing together young people from Austria, Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Norway, Sweden and USA.