GalleryPromotion of welfare
It must not be thought a hive of activity exists only in the workshops. The medical men, doctors and dentists extend the blessings of their knowledge to the sick in the hospital. UNRRA Police in blue helmets look after order and neatness in the houses and in the streets. In the food distribution centre fat, marmalade and peanut butter are being weighed as precisely as at the pharmacist's. Peanut butter in particular is a food stuff formerly quite unknown in Latvia.
Dispensaries have done good work by inoculating the whole population of the Centre against small pox and by making injections against typhus and typhoid fever.
Some work for the common good is done in turn by every inhabitant. This is checked on a card index which is precisely controlled in order to remind forgetful persons of their obligations. The distribution of clothes by the Welfare Section is a subject of close supervision which demands the attention of a number of women clerks.
Sports are sponsored by YMCA and by YWCA and the activities of the scouts and girl-guides are attended by 500 young people.
Such is daily life in the Latvian Centre in Esslingen.
In a short synopsis it is impossible to survey all the various activities carried on by the Latvians in Esslingen. This would require a new chapter to be added to guide book "Baedeker".
Assisted by UNRRA members, the Latvians consider it their duty to preserve the noblest and the most valuable qualities of the Latvian nation, in order not to loose spirit despite the depressing circumstances prevailing in exile.
We are familiar with the smiles of the sceptics and the doubts of those people who lack the enterprising spirit. Such people are to be encountered in Esslingen. However, any impartial observer would say that on the whole the Latvian Centre is busy. By evading difficulties, by becoming apathetic and sleepy, no work may be fostered. On the contrary, a firm belief that without work there is no sense in life is the shortest and best way to progress and success.
