More About CFC

Read about our mission, navigating a pandemic, and whats next for CFC.

Our Story

In 1977 five Northeast Ohio families gathered together to form an organization to assist families with the adoption of a child internationally.  They worked together to build its structure, purpose, and philosophy and named the organization Concern for Children.  Based on the spirit of volunteerism families supported each other as they worked their way through the lengthy, time consuming, and sometimes frustrating procedure to build or expand their families by international adoption.  The majority of the adoptions took place in El Salvador and then adoption programs in Honduras and Colombia were added.  As the number of adopting families grew program expansion was necessary.  The need to provide assistance to orphanages and child care centers in those three countries became a priority, as did support for the adoptive families in the U.S.  An annual Heritage Day became a week long culture camp, Mi Pueblo.  A Homeland Tour and Service Project for adoptees to El Salvador became four Medical Missions to evaluate and treat children in orphanages.  Numerous projects continued to be added as Teen Week-ends were held, adoption fairs and conferences attended, and speakers provided at monthly meetings.  Fundraisers such as auctions, casino nights, and dinner-dances were held.  Concern for Children continues to grow as the adoptees become adults and assume leadership of the organization.

A 40 Year History and finding our way through a pandemic.

For over 40 years, CFC has helped place over 550 children from Colombia, El Salvador, Honduras and other Latin American countries with families in the United States through independent adoptions.

Today, we provide clothing, school supplies, medical supplies and gifts for the children living in or being supported by orphanages in El Salvador and Colombia.  We also help to provide support and encouragement to adoptees of all ages and their families here in the United States.

In addition, for 29 years, CFC has drawn families from all over the US to Cleveland in June for a unique week-long Latin American Culture Camp for children of Latino heritage and their families. Mi Pueblo Camp provides an educational and fun experience for children, teens and parents of Latin heritage and their friends and families.

CFC is an all-volunteer group, with no paid employees or overhead, so that all donations go directly to our programs and services. 

Over the past year, despite the pandemic, CFC has been able to accomplish all of the following: 

  • Mi Pueblo Camp celebrated its 29th annual culture camp in 2021, with 40 Campers and 12 teens, along with many volunteers participating in-person. 
  • Donations through CFC directly helped 8 desperate families in Colombia buy food during the pandemic shut-down.
  • CFC provided funds for Los Pisingos Foundation in Bogota, and for several of the orphanages in El Salvador in need of major repairs.
  • CFC provided several scholarships to adoptees here in the U.S. to help them seek higher education, and a $1,500 scholarship for our new birth country travel program. 
  • CFC continues to support our Opening Doors program, which allows young ladies to stay at their orphanage in El Salvador after they reach the age when normally they would be forced to leave and go out into the world on their own. Instead, with our help, they stay safe and obtain vocational training to enable them to support themselves when they finally do go out into the world on their own. We have added cosmetology to the vocational training programs. 
  • CFC has established an ongoing program to provide medical supplies, wheelchairs and other items for handicapped children in an orphanage in Santa Tecla, El Salvador.

More memories to come…

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