Message from the President of WFCF

There is an unimaginable degree of joy in seeing a smile on the face of a child, and working to ensure that all children of the world are happy and healthy is something that we as a global community should aspire to achieve.

Regrettably, due to economic limitations, there are millions of children living in conditions that most would find inconceivable, particularly in communities and orphanages in developing countries. Sadly, this situation is much worse when children suffer from physical and/or cognitive disabilities. Today, there are millions of children facing these odds around the world that are in desperate need of help.

In many underdeveloped countries around the world, children with physical and/or cognitive disabilities are viewed by many families as a financial liability due to their lack of means to support the needs of these children. As a result, many of these families abandon these children to orphanage facilities that are by no means equipped to handle their basic nutritional and medical needs, and due to resource limitations are unable to provide them with decent and humane care. Many children facing these unfortunate circumstances die at a very young age, and those who survive will never be able to benefit from a very full or quality life.

To address the needs of these children, one must realize that because of the direct link between poverty and orphaned children, equal attention must be paid to efforts that will guide these communities out of poverty and toward a more sustainable future. None of the parents in these situations want to abandon their child, but when there are no means of supporting them, families assume that perhaps an orphanage can provide them the needed support. However, sadly, these orphanages are also dealing with economic limitations and limited resources. To be able to address these issues, in 2003, the World Forgotten Children Foundation (WFCF) was founded as a private non-profit foundation to offer any assistance humanly possible to support these children and their communities. We also identified that by supporting sustainability initiatives targeted to end the cycle of poverty in impoverished communities we can improve the overall health of the community benefiting these children Therefore, the primary objective of WFCF is to support and fund projects that will not only benefit these children in need, but also the underprivileged communities in which they are living.

As a human and a parent, I cannot look at my own children's faces and not think of those other children living with physical and/or cognitive disabilities in underprivileged communities and reference a poem by a famous Persian poet, Saadi Shirazi of the 13th Century, called “Human” which should constantly remind us that, “...If you do not have sympathy for the pains of others, you are unworthy to be called a Human.” Although the mission of WFCF is immensely vast, WFCF can make a difference in assisting one child at a time anywhere around the globe.

I personally would like to invite you to join us in carrying out WFCF's mission and vision by becoming a supporter of this foundation and its wonderful cause. Help WFCF in its commitment to provide humanistic support to these children and their underprivileged communities. Your donation and support, no matter how great or small, can provide comfort to a child in need.

Thank you for your generous support. I hope that you will assist us in providing helping hands to these less fortunate children and their communities.

Dr. Mehdi Khosrow-Pour
Executive Director and President
World Forgotten Children Foundation (WFCF)