The Beginning

In the Mid Nineteen-Seventies, several dozen independent churches formed an association (formerly known as International Church Relief Fund) to enable them to combine their modest resources to "help the poor, the orphaned, and the widowed" as scripture commands. They shared their vision with a few thousand members, raising the funds to send their first team of volunteers (including our current Chairman Colonel Doner) to South East Asia to help thousands of refugee families fleeing tyranny and terror as South Vietnam collapsed into chaos.

The Present

Today we share our vision with millions of Americans who in turn help us provide millions of meals, tens of millions of dollars worth of medicine, homes, clean, disease-free water, education and much, much more each and every year. CHRF has continued our work as an association of churches focused on humanitarian needs and dedicated to helping disadvantaged children and families to transform their lives through the power of practical compassion, honor, and reciprocity. We help to save children’s lives through feeding programs, health care, and children’s homes. We aspire to help bring children up with a Christian education and surrounded by God’s unconditional love.

The Future

Our vision for the future is to break the self-reinforcing cycle of poverty that keeps half the world living on less than a dollar a day. A lack of education means no jobs with no paycheck to bring home. In turn no paycheck means no food, no clean water, no medical care for children. Just poverty, disease, and death.

So we must start by increasing vital fields of education such as academic, agricultural, horticultural and many more. Then, communities can increase their hard-won economic self-sustainability through micro-enterprises, job training, and the use of new agricultural techniques. With the addition of clean water and medical care, new self-sustaining communities of hope can slowly turn the tide of poverty into one of profitability – and well fed children.