Caring for youth to save humanity: Margherita Zoebeli’s educational intervention on the international network of the Swiss Worker’s Relief Organisation

The aim of this contribution is to reconstruct the network of relationships that underpinned the birth and development of the activities of the Swiss Workers’ Relief (Soccorso Operaio Svizzero), within which the educational work of Margherita Zoebeli took place. Framed as a project-intervention in support of the most disadvantaged children, a number of figures stand out—mostly women—driven by pacifist ideals and a commitment to human emancipation, who brought their initiatives together in the pursuit of building a better world. The article highlights how, in the climate of a Europe torn apart by wars and totalitarian regimes, the network of assistance created for refugee children suffering from severe psychological trauma found sound operational guidance in the pioneering studies of contemporary child psychiatry.