Page:Christian Science War Time Activities.djvu/72

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CHRISTIAN SCIENCE IN THE WAR

During a hard winter, the Committee was able to provide about 1200 refugee children in Amiens with warm clothing at a cost of 25,000 francs, and it also gave substantial grants to the various Foyers du Soldat in France. These Foyers correspond to our Y. M. C. A. huts and have been of immense help and comfort to the French Poilus since their establishment. A large building in the center of Amiens had been equipped to reeducate mutilated soldiers and fit them to earn their own living. It was found that it cost 800 francs per person to complete this education. Our Committee felt it right to encourage this work by taking upon itself the education of five new cases. In addition, money to supply an artificial leg was sent to a young mason, who had been wounded in the battle of the Marne. He was taken prisoner by the Germans, and after having his leg amputated was sent back to France. Here, on his own initiative, he studied and attended university classes and qualified as a public school teacher.

Hundreds of individuals whose names were submitted to our Committee through their Mayor or Prefect, or through some relief society, received aid. With touching gratitude the recipients would state in their letters of acknowledgment that the money had been used to buy shoes for children who had been forced to go barefoot; to purchase furniture for those who had been sleeping on straw; to procure a woolen blanket as a protection against the rigors of winter; to clothe destitute families; to provide comforts for a sick mother; to send a package to a father, a prisoner of war in Germany; to replace farming implements

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