Children's Hunger Relief

THE CHILDREN's HUNGER Relief Fund (CHRF) was established in 1975 by a group of American businessmen who were inspired by the tale of the Good Samaritan in the Bible to create a charity to assist needy children. This has led to the creation of overseas missions to open and operate orphanages and care centers in some of the poorest countries of the world, including Afghanistan, Rwanda, and the Darfur region of Sudan.

The three-part strategy used for rescuing vulnerable children entails keeping children alive, providing children with hope for the future, and breaking the cycle of poverty in children's lives. By working with local partners, CHRF claims to keep its administrative costs at less than three percent of total funds so that 97 percent of donations will directly reach those poverty-stricken populations in the Third World that are intended to receive them.

The 2003 Annual Report listed 97.2 percent of expenditures ($33,277,047) as being spent on aid, emergency relief, and community development. The 2004 Annual Report states that this proportion increased to more than 98 percent ($38,326,172).

Founder Colonel V. Doner was a leading member of the movement to mobilize professed Christian voters to elect President Ronald Reagan, and subsequently resigned in disappointment. After some years, he conceived of the “Samaritan strategy” as a way to spread his version of Christianity around America and the rest of the world.

The part of his beliefs relating to charity states: “Do what you can for the child in front of you, and then the next child, and then the next.” This results in “saving the world, one child at a time.” In the Executive Message in the 2004 Annual Report, Doner writes:

“Children's Hunger Relief Fund is committed to saving children's lives and sharing God's love by helping people transform their lives and their communities so they can live productively and peacefully in a ‘celebration of life.’

“To this end, we provide for people's immediate survival needs through feeding and medical programs, and also empower them for long-term transformation [Page 157]through education, business, vocational and leadership training.”

The charity provides material assistance, therefore, as well as education in a form of American Christianity. This second aspect is resented by some critics who believe that the children concerned are very vulnerable, and should only with great care be introduced to beliefs often alien to their culture, which may cut them off from other members of their own communities.

The CHRF is now joined in the Samaritan Group by a number of like-minded organizations in many different countries, from Mexico to Uganda to Italy. Each has the same strategy of helping children on a step-by-step basis. Orphaned children's homes have been opened in Nicaragua, Mexico, Rwanda, and other locations in Africa and Asia.