On International Women’s Day (March 8) step back in time to London, England in the year 1919. At Trafalgar Square in Central London you will see a woman handing out flyers to whomever passes by.

She wants to tell everyone about children starving to death in Germany and Austria following the Armistice of World War I. These children need food desperately. Most people ignore her. But she keeps trying anyway. She knows it’s the right thing to do.

Her name is Eglantyne Jebb, who was speaking up for the starving children, trying to rescue them from a grave injustice after the Armistice. At that time in history, the British were leading an Allied blockade to punish the countries they fought during the war. This blockade was preventing food from reaching the children in Germany and Austria, before it mercifully came to an end.

As Herbert Hoover wrote of the blockade, “The delay of food supplies for four months following the Armistice promise was not only immoral and inhumane, it sowed dragon’s teeth for another war.”

Back in 1919, Jebb, a former teacher, was a member of the Fight the Famine Council. War always leads to hunger, which continues long after the fighting has stopped. The Fight the Famine Council’s mission was to rescue children and their families from the postwar food shortages. But the Allied blockades of Germany and Austria had worsened hunger.

Jebb was not afraid to speak out, even against her own government. She was arrested during a protest. That did not stop her. Eglantyne Jebb’s mission was to save the children.

And that became the name of the charity she started. The Save the Children Fund began actually with a donation from a judge paying Jebb’s fine after her arrest. Save the Children won the support of Pope Benedict XV, who wrote to Jebb praising her unifying cause of helping all children. Today, Save the Children operates around the world fighting to protect the basic rights of the youngest and most vulnerable.

Jebb believed children should not be “forgotten” and their relief should come first. The rights of children were put onto paper by Jebb, leading to the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1924. This document was presented at the League of Nations in 1924 and later adopted into a United Nations document.

Jebb wrote that “the child that is hungry must be fed, the child that is sick must be nursed, the child that is backward must be helped, the delinquent child must be reclaimed, and the orphan and the waif must be sheltered and succored.”

A heroic woman. We could each do more to follow Eglantyne Jebb’s example today with the needs of children so massive worldwide. Kids are starving to death right now in Somalia as famine looms. Children in Yemen have died from bombs and hunger during a civil war. Pledges at a recent donor conference for Yemen were extremely low. Children in earthquake-ravaged Turkey and Syria desperately need food, clothing and shelter.

Tragically today, relief programs lack funding and not all children receive aid. This should always be unacceptable.

In a world where far more money is spent on armaments than feeding starving children, we have to do better and be vocal about ending this injustice. Eglantyne Jebb knew that silence was not going to feed a starving child. She had to raise her voice when she knew child hunger was taking place.

Each of us can host events to provide relief to help these hungry children. You can write to your representatives urging them to do more to help children. Keep advocating for all children until they are fed and cared for so they can grow and be healthy. That is carrying on the spirit of Eglantyne Jebb.

William  Lambers is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.” His writings have been published by the New York Times, History News Network, Newsweek, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and many other news outlets.

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