Introduction

This is a picture-story about some of the kinds of work

being done by the United Nations family of world organ¬
izations. The story it tells, in human terms, is based on
information contained in various books, reports and
other material issued by the United Nations and the
Agencies related to it which have been made available
through the United Nations Office of Public Information.
The publisher, Gilberton Company, Inc., which is
responsible for the selection of material and the way
it is presented, is well-known in many lands for its
“Classics Illustrated” series, published in a variety of
languages.
We welcome this special issue in the series, and hope
it will be of value to its readers in learning something
about the many ways by which nations working together
affect the lives of individual human beings. We hope,
too, that it will stimulate a desire in readers to learn
more about the work and aims of the world peace
organization and its related agencies.

Hernane Tavares de Sa
United Nations Under-Secretary for Public Information

GILBERTON COMPANY, INC.,

THE CLINIC AT SOLO
UNITED FOR PEACE
refugees. What must
help them?

rgates wear earphones to hear

language of their choice.
The Assembly takes many vital actions. The agency obtained funds and equipment
It set up an agency that helped South to rebuild dams and industry, and bring

||
Korea recover after the Korean War. in livestock.

L a-
fifteen n

Mil
THE TROUBLED CONGO
PEACE - THROUGH EDUCATION, SCIENCE, CULTURE

o
 FREEDOM FROM HUNGER
The world has three billion people. Almost one-half face permanent hunger; and the
number of people on earth will double to six billion in less than forty years. The hunger-
gap must, and can, be closed.
 SPECIAL AGENCIES
Many agencies make up the family of
the United Nations. The International
Telecommunication Union sets up
radio frequencies for different coun-
The United Nations Educational, Scien¬
tific and Cultural Organization helps
countries with school problems. It also
spreads scientific knowledge and urges
nations to understand each other.

The Universal Postal Union makes it

easier to send a letter from one country
to another. It also encourages faster
mail service.

The Food and Agriculture Organization

helps nations increase their farm, fish¬
ing and forestry products. 1
 23
THE HEALTH ARMY
 25
Jn Iran, spraying parties had a difficult task.
They had to find the wandering tribes of the
Kurdistan district.

J'he tribes migrate with the seasons between

frontiers of Iran, Iraq, Turkey and Syria.

gometimes the spraying parties had

U
travel hundreds of miles before they
found them. >-

The Key
“What is it you would most
like to have in life?” a refugee
was asked.
“A key,” answered the refu¬
gee, “a key to a door behind
which I could have some privacy
for myself and my family —a
place I could really make my
home.”
When World War II ended in
1945, there were millions of dis¬
placed persons who had no coun¬
try they could call their own.
They had nowhere to live. Un¬
told numbers of homes had been
destroyed during the war. The
houses left standing were already
overcrowded with citizens of
the countries the refugees had
come to.
The refugees moved into any
dwellings they could find. Empty
army barracks, former concen¬
27
tration camps, bombed-out build¬
ings and unused packing cases
were all made to serve as shelters
for millions of families.
The refugees had no privacy.
Sometimes, two or three large
families lived in a single room
at one time. The members took
turns sleeping, for there were
never enough beds.
The United Nations organized
several programs after the war
to reach the refugees and help
them. Then, to continue aid to
these refugees and to help new
ones, the General Assembly of the
United Nations set up the Office
of the High Commissioner for
Refugees in 1951. The High Com¬
missioner’s Office, with the aid
of many governments, helps the
refugees to find the key to a more
decent life.
A NEW LIFE

Mears passed. Thousands of refugees
M remained in the camps waiting for the
chance to prove that they could still
be useful.
29
Many found work, but even for them
lrilife was difficult.

l\ations all over the

11world contributed
money and goods to help
pay for refugee resettle¬
ment. The people of
Aitutaki in the Cook
Islands of the South
30
 The Technical Expert
At this moment throughout
the world, experts recruited by
the United Nations are serving
many lands. Perhaps in the South
American jungle, an expert is
traveling by Indian canoe to find
better ways to transport timber
to the coast. In the South Pa¬
cific, an expert may be studying
the soil of a tiny island and tell¬
ing the people who live there how
they can always have good crops
so they will never go hungry.
How does the expert come to
serve the United Nations?
In 1949, the United Nations
General Assembly launched what
was called the Expanded Pro¬
gram of Technical Assistance.
Each year, governments, usually
those of less developed countries,
send requests to the United Na¬
tions for experts in many differ¬
ent areas. One year, Ceylon
asked for a person who could
teach mechanized woodworking,
and Peru requested a meteorolo¬
gist to help set up a weather
forecasting station. Israel want¬
ed an expert in office manage¬
ment.
From where do these experts
come?
The United Nations recruits
them through universities, gov¬
ernment departments, industry
and professional associations in
many lands.
Once they are chosen, experts
have to pass medical examina¬
tions, for many have to eat
unfamiliar foods, risk health
hazards, and even face physical
dangers when they travel to
remote places.
But despite the hazards and
hardships, the experts take their
knowledge into foreign lands,
and share it. As a result, a
greater part of the human race
is beginning to benefit from the
progress that well-developed na¬
tions take for granted.
34
A LIGHT IS SET
35
36
"fp^e set up a model boys' school at "rpoday, the center has a printing
press that is busy turning out
have a chance to grow up as educated books and magazines in Braille.

H"Just before I left Egypt, a group

* of blind persons invited me to one
of their weekly gatherings. Their
teacher provided cakes and tea.
"Qne man played his violin. Thus,
these people meet to pass
several agreeable hours together.
Their blindness no longer leaves
them lonely and afraid. For in
their darkness, a light has been
 37
A HOME FOR PREMADASA
A United Nations expert from Australia
** once brought hope to a young man in
Ceylon whose name was Premadasa. The
expert's field was low cost housing. This h
 Shoes For Francois
Francois looked at his
bare feet, and at the ragged
clothes he wore.
“Father,” he said, “I am
ashamed to go to school. I
am the only boy in my class
who does not own shoes.”
Frangois’ father patted
him on his thin shoulders.
“I know, my son,” he said,
“it is very difficult. But there
is nothing I can do. Our land
is poor. Perhaps someday
you, your sister and mother
and I will have shoes. We
must be patient.”
Frangois bit his lower lip.
He walked to the one win¬
dow in his house and stared
out. His home was a
thatched hut built on the
sloping side of a mountain
in a district of Haiti called
Fermathe. His brown eyes
followed the road that
trailed down the mountain
into Port-au-Prince, Haiti’s
capital.
Francois knew his district
was poor. Around his house
and into the distance he saw
where trees had been cut
down. The wind and rain
had blown and washed away
42
the soil so in many places
bare rocks broke through.
The small almost barren
field that huddled close to
his house yielded only peas
and bananas. Francois could
not remember ever eating
any other kind of food. And
each day he and his father
had to walk two miles along
narrow mountain paths to
find water.
Francois turned to tell his
father he was sorry he had
complained about having no
shoes. But his father was
gone. Then Francois heard
the sound of a hoe scraping
in the rocky garden. He
hurried outdoors to help his
father until the sun dipped
into the Caribbean Sea, and
it was night.
One day when he came
 43
home from school, Francois
found several strange men
talking to his father. They
were men not of his country.
“I believe we can do some¬
thing,” he overheard one of
the men say, “but it will
take time, and it will take
cooperation from all the
farmers of Fermathe.”
“I do not know,” his
father said. “It seems the
land has always been
against us.”
He turned and saw Fran¬
cois.
“Come here, son,” he said.
“These men are from a dis¬
tant land called Belgium.
They were sent here by the
United Nations.”
Francois knew about the
United Nations. Often in
school he and his classmates
had talked about the United
Nations with their teacher.
“They will help us,” Fran¬ potato seeds and planted
cois said. them near the house. He
In the months that fol¬ tended the plants with great
lowed, the men, who were care. He also joined a group
agricultural experts, set up with other farmers. It was
a demonstration center in called a cooperative.
Fermathe. There, they Then his father asked
showed his father and the Francois to help him build a
other farmers how to grow new roof for their house.
many new varieties of vege¬ The roof was made of metal
tables. One day Francois’ given his father by the gov¬
father brought home some ernment. A gutter led from
it to a concrete tank. Now
when the rain fell, the water
was saved and stored in the
tank.
The week after the first
potato harvest, Frangois’
father went with other
members of the cooperative
to Port-au-Prince. They
took many large sacks of
potatoes with them. Fran¬
cois and his mother and
sister stood at the window
and watched them wind
down the narrow mountain
road until they were out of
sight.
Slowly, the sun slipped
into the Carribbean, and it
was dark. At last, Frangois
went to sleep. He did not
hear his father come home.
The bright sun awakened
him the following morning.
Frangois could hear the
voices of his father and
mother in another room.
They were laughing. It had
been a long time since Fran¬
gois had heard his parents’
voices so happy.
He sat up in bed and
stretched, and then he put
his bare feet on the floor.
Suddenly Frangois trem¬
bled. For on the chair in his
room he saw a new pair of
trousers and a shirt, bought
in Port-au-Prince by his
father. And beneath the
chair were a pair of fine and
wonderful and shiny shoes.
47
J
 THE ELDERS OF SHEWAKI
Afghanistan is a country surrounded
by mountains. Only in the tost few
years have its people had any contact
with the outside world.
L
53
56
63
 The story of the United
Nations does not end here.
It goes on. Each moment
somewhere one of the many
agencies of the United Na¬
tions is helping some person
or some country.
Through technical assist¬
ance, less-developed nations
are learning ways to mod¬
ernize themselves, and
develop their farms and in¬
dustries.
Teams of doctors and
nurses are bringing good
health to people who, only a
Nations are exchanging
their arts, and scientists are
crossing borders to ex¬
change information.
Through the United Na¬
tions’ General Assembly,
countries meet on a com¬
mon ground where they can
discuss world issues.
few years ago, never heard
The United Nations’ Se¬
of vaccines or hospitals.
curity Council works to
Teachers are being
maintain peace. It keeps
trained and schools are
watch on every part of the
being built so children
earth. Where friction devel¬
everywhere can be educated
ops between peoples, the Se¬
— for tomorrow depends
curity Council seeks to
upon the boys and girls of
change angry actions into
today.
wise and peaceful negotia¬
tions.
The story of the United
Nations does not end. For
the need to help people and
to keep peace is constant.
People must be helped, and
the peace must be kept.
READ MORE ABOUT THE UNITED NATIONS

A basic history of the world organization, describing in detail the structure, fimctions
and activities of the United Nations and its related agencies. 7th edition. (United
Nations). Cloth $5.00. Paper $1.95.
YOUR UNMtu nsnuns .... . ...
The story of the United Nations through an illustrated tour of the Headquarters build¬
ings, with a text concerning the organization’s many diversified activities. 12th edition.
(United Nations). Cloth $3.50. Paper $1.50.
BASIC FACTS ABOUT THE UNITED NATIONS
A booklet with concise information on the membership, functions and activities of the
United Nations and its related agencies. (United Nations). Paper $0.35.
THE UNITED NATIONS AND WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT IT
A clear and visual description of how the United Nations began, what it is, what it does,
and how it works. Illustrated with explanatory drawings. (United Nations). Paper $0.40.

FUN AROUND THE WORLD

by Frances W. Keene ...
Brief stories about the boys and girls of the United Nations countries, the way they live
and the games they play. Many drawings. (McGraw-Hill). Paper $1.00.
THE UNITED NATIONS AND HOW IT WORKS
by David Cushman Coyle .
The work, problems, aims and achievements of the United Nations, told from the
“ground level” approach. Revised edition. (The New American Library). Paper $0.60.

THE GOOD WAR

by Marian Maury
The United Nations’ world-wide fight against poverty, disease and ignorance, and its
accomplishments and future plans. (Macfadden-Bartell). Paper $0.75.

THE FIRST BOOK OF THE UNITED NATIONS

by Edna Epstein ,
All aspects of the functions of the United Nations and its related agencies, portrayed
in words and pictures. (Franklin Watts). Cloth $2.50. Paper $1.00.
THE STORY OF INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION
by J. Avery Joyce
The story of man co-operating with man for world betterment, told m historical episodes.
Many drawings. (Franklin Watts). Cloth $4.95. Paper $2.45.
FOLLETT VEST-POCKET HANDBOOK OF THE UNITED NATIONS
by Bradford Chambers
A quick and convenient source of reference on fhe main aspects of the United Nations
and its related agencies. (Follett). Bound $1.95.
ARROW BOOK OF THE UNITED NATIONS
by Lavinia Dobler
A basic book about the United Nations and its related agencies, done in the manner of
questions and answers. Many photographs and drawings. (Scholastic Book Services).
Cloth $2.95. Paper $0.50.
Publics-
Read the most thril
ever written, now in
colorful, fascinating
Classics

ENDORSED AND HONORED THE WORLD OVER