ICAF USA

A couple crying in front of a TV set watching the horrors of children warehoused in a Romanian orphanage--like many other couples in the 1990s--from this unremarkable beginning The International Children’s Aid Foundation (ICAF) grew.

David and Chris Forward collected clothes to send to the orphans, aided by the Marlton Rotary Club and Faith Presbyterian Church in Medford NJ, without any real idea of how to get the items to where they were needed. God’s remarkable interventions led them to the right people in the right places, and two years later, Faith sponsored the first short-term mission trip to Romania.

 It quickly became apparent that the Romanian mission project was bigger than a single church or denomination, so International Children’s Aid Foundation was formed as an independent not-for-profit foundation under Section 501(c)3 of the US Internal Revenue Service code. ICAF also has a branch of ICAF, CAF, in Romania to govern our local organizations.

ICAF strives to maintain the following standards:

First, we remain an all-volunteer led foundation. We believe service from the heart is both an obligation and a joy.

Second, we believe it is abhorrent for service organizations to spend 20-30 percent of their income on overhead. Our founding charter vowed to never under any circumstances exceed 10 percent, but in reality, ICAF’s administrative expense is almost zero. We have NO paid staff (other then those we employ in Romania), NO office rents, no phone bills. Even the printing, telephone calls, medical supplies—and this Web site—were donated by caring individuals and companies. It is a point of enormous pride that allows us to point to every dollar donors give and know that 100 cents will go to where it was intended.

Today, International Children’s Aid Foundation has a clearly-defined focus on our mission. We provide services to the poorest and neediest areas which are not served by any other humanitarian organization. We know our strengths and focus on them as follows:

· Bright Beginnings is our "flagship" program which teaches early-childhood development skills to children aged 0-6 in State orphanages in Transylvania, Romania. If you would like more information about the Bright Beginnings program, please click here.

· ICAF’s Medical Ministry has two parts. Volunteers across the USA collect surplus medicines, or medical equipment which is being replaced by more modern models, from doctors and hospitals. We then ship these to Romania where the equipment is considered state of the art, and where the medications fill a huge void in the supply chain. During our mission trips, volunteer doctors and nurses provide care to any and all Romanians who show up for our free clinic. If you would like more information about joining a medical mission team, or about donating medical supplies & equipment, please click here.

· Our support for Orphaned children extends to both those in the Bright Beginnings program in the state orphanages and to the children in our Emanuel Christian orphanage. These kids have been rescued from awful situations and now live in a family setting in a large private home. Our support, which comes primarily from people who sponsor a child for $35 per month, provides all their food, clothing, school and housing needs. Our mission teams stay at the Emanuel site and spend a lot of time playing with and caring for the children. If you would like more information about sponsoring a child, please click here.

· Construction has always been a part of what ICAF does. After one of our early translators founded Habitat for Humanity in Romania, we took the first construction team to that country. Our mission team volunteers also have helped build a four-storey free clinic, another Christian orphanage, have repaired homes for the impoverished elderly and have built an extension to the Emanuel orphanage. If you would like to help support our construction efforts, or come join a building team mission trip, please click here.

· ICAF’s Short-Term Mission Teams do all of the above. In a little over a week, volunteers aged from 11 to 83 have shared their love with the children, come home with sore muscles—and huge smiles—from the construction, preached the gospel, shared their faith, and taken their professional expertise in such areas as medicine and teaching. Some people have written a check to pay for their trip on the spot. Others raised support through friends and church members who sent in numerous tiny sponsorship gifts. No matter how they got there, everybody goes through ICAF’s training meetings and is able to make a contribution. If you are interested in joining a future mission trip, please click here.

Where does the money come from?

ICAF receives no government support. Every program is funded by caring private individuals, church mission budgets, corporate, and foundation grants. We also have occasional fund-raising events.

You can help in the following ways:

· As a monthly sponsor of a Bright Beginnings educator or Emanuel orphan.

· By making a gift of money or stock.

· By introducing ICAF’s work to your church, foundation, or corporate benevolence decision makers.

· By donating goods and services, such as printing, medical supplies, frequent flyer miles, etc.

· By participating in one of our short-term mission trips.

However you support us financially, we ask for your prayer support: that the work started almost 20 years ago by two volunteers will continue to succeed and make real differences in the lives of everyone it touches.

Our Mission Statement

International Children’s Aid Foundation is a non-denominational humanitarian organization, founded by Christians who believe in Christ’s command to take His message into the world. We fulfill this through two primary missions, directed toward children and medical needs, as described in the following objectives.

Object One: To provide for the health, education, and development of abandoned and orphaned children.

Explanatory statement: International Children’s Aid Foundation (ICAF) currently focuses its work in Romania. We fulfill this first objective by:

· Operating the Bright Beginnings early-childhood education program which was developed by our volunteer child psychologists and therapists. This unique program hires local Romanian educators whom we train in the early-childhood development skills so vital to any child, yet which are unknown in Romania. Then, at no cost to the state orphanages, we place the educators in these institutions where they teach self esteem, nurture, non-aggression, psychological and academic developmental skills to the orphans aged birth to five. We currently have just three educators in one state orphanage, and would love to expand the Bright Beginnings program to other state orphanages.

· Supporting and building our Christian-inspired family-group home for twenty orphans.

Object Two: To provide a medical ministry to developing countries.

Explanatory statement: ICAF secures surplus medications and medical equipment and gives it to qualified doctors, clinics, and hospitals which have a need for, but no access to, to such critical supplies. ICAF also encourages healthcare professionals to participate (at their own expense) in our medical mission trips where they offer free medical care at on-site clinics in remote villages with no medical resources. International Children’s Aid Foundation has built and equipped a free clinic, Polyclinica Luca, that operates when we have volunteers in the area.