Family Care Foundation (FCF) in the News

Tim Peters runs the Seoul-based charity Helping Hands Korea. More than any other Westerner, Peters has become the public face of a network of activists, many motivated by their Christian faith, who have devoted their lives to helping North Koreans, including many living illegally in China, escape to freedom. He and others in the network compare it to the Underground Railroad which took African-American slaves from the South to freedom in the North.

North Korean refugees in China are fleeing a living hell. Their hope is a quiet American missionary called Tim Peters. He is the man who runs what Christians call the “Seoul Train” and it was his emissary I had met in Yanji. Peters founded Helping Hands Korea, a full-time escape organization of a web of Korean helpers extending across Asia. Peters lobbies diplomats, uses charm and moral pressure on bureaucrats and has testified with fine biblical indignation to the US Congress.

The U.S. television premiere of Seoul Train airs on PBS. Seoul Train is a film that the Wall Street Journal says is “so compelling that you can’t stop watching even though you know it will haunt your dreams”. The PBS broadcast is a watershed event for the North Korean refugee crisis. Featured in this documentary is Tim Peters of Helping Hands Korea, a Family Care Foundation Partner Project that assists North Korean refugees.

Zambia's children have never known a world without AIDS. 2004 marks the 20th year since AIDS was first diagnosed in the sub-Saharan nation. By 2010, 1.1 million Zambian children will be orphaned, largely due to AIDS. Young people featured in this exclusive ABC web documentary will soon be the country's leaders. They dream of college and becoming accountants, doctors and actors. They're already becoming parents. Where they go, so goes the nation. To help, contact these organizations working with children orphaned by AIDS:

Funded by USAID, PartNER is the newest stage in the development of Russian-American partnership projects. Partners Zashita (Perm) and Family Care Foundation (San Diego) will create an Adaptation Center for Teens (ACT) and develop educational materials and curricula to teach job skills and life
coping strategies to help street children and orphans function successfully and independently.

Like the Christians of old, a group of humanitarian activists meet regularly in the Catacombs where they exchange information on human rights abuses and try help North Korean refugees. The Catacombs is a casual weekly forum for activists led by Seoul-based FCF Project Manager Tim Peters, who has been involved in helping North Korean refugees since 1998 through the Helping Hands Korea organization.

In late 2001, Chinese border guards arrested Chun Ki-won, the South Korean Christian who helped an estimated 170 North Koreans escape to South Korea beginning in 1999. His arrest touched off a global campaign to secure his release. Americans Doug Shin, and Tim Peters of Helping Hands Korea buttonholed political leaders in Washington and around the world to pressure the Chinese to liberate Chun. In August the Chinese government finally freed the 46-year-old, who had spent eight months in jail and had paid a heavy fine.

Beginning Wednesday, June 5, 2002 Nightline broadcast extensive portions of Kim Jung-eun's award-winning documentary, "Shadows and Whispers", examining the harsh existence and abject poverty of North Korean refugee families struggling to find a better life after illegally fleeing their home land. Since 1995 close to 2 million North Koreans have starved to death; some of the lucky ones that successfully fled to China, however, cope with a no less shocking reality than the unlucky. These organizations, unaffiliated with ABCNEWS, offer further information:

Since June 1996, Tim Peters of Helping Hands Korea has been managing a non-government organization called "Ton a Month Club" to help the starving North Korean residents. The relief goods TMC sends to North Korea mainly comprise corn and flour, although they also contain clothing and medical supplies. The organization chooses these food items because they have high calories and are less liable than rice to fall into the hands of elite North Koreans, such as party executives and soldiers. "Three million North Korean residents have died of starvation during the last five years, and the number of North Korean defectors exceeds 100,000. As long as this reality prevails, I will go wherever they are," he said.

CNN coverage of street children project in Russia, operated by young Americans. CNN received such an enthusiastic response that they flew the Project Manager to Moscow to do an interview by satellite link-up. Both the interview and the original clip were then aired in North America a number of times during the last week of May.

Another earthquake rattled India's already-devastated Gujarat state Thursday night, injuring at least 25 people. A 5.3-magnitude quake and at least 10 aftershocks struck the Kutch district. The epicenter was some 13 miles northeast of Bhachau, a town that was hard-hit by the Jan. 26 temblor that killed 17,000 people. Some 300,000 people were left homeless after January's earthquake, and most are still sleeping outside under plastic sheets. They'll have to live in the open for months to come, according to reports by Action by Churches Together (ACT), a worldwide alliance of churches and related agencies. Family Care Foundation is providing medical and relief supplies as well.

The 7.6 magnitude quake has left more than 650 dead, with at least 500 more counted as missing. Tens of thousands of people are homeless and frightening aftershocks continued. Disaster response organizations from around the world are responding. "Sometimes it's easy to be hardened to see the news reports of these people but when you are face to face with their reality and see how much a little bit of love and concern can do it breaks your heart," wrote a missionary who works with the Family Care Foundation.

Charity Sets Efficiency Example
Efficiency Lets Family Care Foundation Help Even More

San Diego (July 11, 2000) - With the U.S. economy booming, it can be easy to overlook the less fortunate. An annual report released this week by the non-profit Family Care Foundation (FCF) highlights some of what they've done to make sure that doesn't happen -- and done it with efficiency that corporate America can only envy.

Based in San Diego, Family Care Foundation provides disaster relief and sustained development for the poor, disadvantaged and disabled worldwide. According to their FY1999 report FCF managed to pursue those goals with an administrative overhead of just 4.1% -- meaning that more than 95 cents on every dollar donated went straight to helping others. That efficiency is what allowed FCF to increase its projects from 120 in 1998 to over 160 projects in 49 countries by the end of 1999.

It's more than a human interest story, though. The international charity is functioning like a well-oiled machine, and that means that FCF's project managers and volunteers have found a way to take charity dollars and put them to work where it matters -- helping people.

"Our donors and friends will be glad to hear it," noted executive director Larry Corley. "They know they can trust us to apply their gifts to solving problems and touching lives."

"Family Care Foundation's record of efficiency in service to others is impressive. They should be commended for their work," commented Pamela Davis, President/CEO of Nonprofits' Insurance Alliance of California.

With the Fall 2000 Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) coming up, the report's timing couldn't be better. Family Care Foundation will participate in the campaign, an annual workplace giving event for 4 million federal employees worldwide. FCF's agency code for the campaign is 2682. Combined with the report's findings, FCF's participation in the Federal Campaign should help them improve even further on last year's fund raising revenue, when contributions nearly doubled.

The numbers that count, though, are the ones that mark the humanitarian aid marshalled by FCF for men and women in places like Mayon, Philippines, where a volcano erupted; Maputo, Mozambique, where floods drove residents up trees; or Orissa, India, where teenage volunteers helped locals recover from a cyclone. (FCF Newsletter Volume 4 - No. 2) Those numbers range from the number of people that FCF fed (1.4 million) and weight of food distributed (716 tons, plus an additional 129,000 prepared meals served), to reminders that almost 10,000 individuals were provided with medical treatment, or that 5,100 performances for emotional healing reached an amazing 2.2 million men and women.

FCF launched in 1997 as a non-profit, Christian-based, human-service agency dedicated to serving the poor and needy. What's on tap for the future? Still more expansion, based on the same strong management team. FCF intends to emphasize specific geographic and programmatic areas in 2000 -- Africa, Asia, South America, education, and family and youth services -- as well as partnerships with other non-profits in order to expand program services.

For more information, or for instructions on donating to Family Care Foundation in the Fall 2000 Combined Federal Campaign (agency code: 2682), please contact:

Family Care Foundation Utilizes Envive's Prophecy to Predict Site Performance

Mountain View, Calif., - May 23, 2000 – Envive Corporation and Family Care Foundation today announced that Family Care will utilize Envive’s subscription-based performance assurance solution, Prophecy to stress test the site’s concurrent visitor capacity and response times.

The California-based Family Care Foundation conducts over 160 charitable projects in 49 countries to provide emergency services and sustained development for communities, families, and children worldwide. Projects include Helping Hand in Africa, Voice of the Deaf in India, Healing Hearts in Bosnia and Cheer Up Missions in New Orleans.

The Family Care Web site (www.familycare.org) was designed to educate the public about Family Care’s worldwide activities and to create a new way for concerned individuals and corporations to invest in charitable projects from anywhere in the world.

“As the traffic to our site continues to grow, we had to ensure that our site could scale and support the expected visitors. Prophecy gives us this assurance.” said Larry Corley, Executive Director of Family Care. “Public education and the charitable investment of our donor-partners are what enable Family Care Foundation to meet the needs of those we serve. We keep their concerns, interests, and compassion in the equation of giving. However, if our they cannot get to our site to read, communicate with us, or donate, then we are defeating our purpose.”

Envive Corporation tested the Family Care site for user response times and to determine the maximum number of users the site could support before response time’s diminished helping them know whether or not their co-located site required additional bandwidth or an exclusively hosted server.

Envive’s Prophecy is an easy to use hosted service for testing the scalability of Internet applications. Via the myenvive.com portal, Envive enables e-Business to quickly gain insight into the performance of their Web applications and how the back-end performance affects visitors to the site. With simple point and click, companies can now learn the maximum number of users their site can support and how load affects response times.

“For profit or not for profit, a Web site must offer optimal performance to ensure a good customer experience. Verifying response times so that users don’t click away is critical to any e-Business” said Jeff Tonkel, President and CEO of Envive Corporation. “We developed a subscription-based, easy-to-use service so that any e-Business can offer optimal site performance.”

Envive’s Suite of Web Performance Services

Envive developed the three services as an integrated suite to provide a complete performance management solution for e-business application performance management. The services allow you to determine both the customers’ experience on your Web site as well as your server’s workload performance.

Philanthropy News Network, March 29, 2000 -- The Family Care Foundation (FCF), a San Diego-based organization that has helped underprivileged people and provided disaster relief in 49 countries since 1997, will launch an online newsletter to further educate the public about its efforts.

The newsletter provides photographs and first-hand accounts from FCF workers at disaster sites across the globe.

The newsletter also provides links to FCF projects in Africa, Asia, Europe, South and Central America and domestically, and individual project results.

Other projects the FCF is developing include: Christian-based radio shows in Africa; the development of rural health clinic in Nepal; and constructing primary schools in Nigeria.

In addition to the online newsletter, FCF is accepting contributions through its donor-advised fund.

San Diego - March 21, 2000 - The San Diego-based Family Care Foundation (FCF), which provides disaster relief and sustained development for the poor, disadvantaged and disabled worldwide, has launched an online newsletter aimed at educating readers about its many projects.

The Family Care Foundation is "the most active service group in the country," according to House Majority Leader Dick Armey. The foundation's Washington, D.C.-based Family Missions project, received "The Freedom Works" award for its work, which provides essential services for the homeless, battered women, and runaway teens.

In addition to its online newsletter, the Family Care Foundation has made it easier for donors to help others through its Donor-Advised Fund. This program offers individuals, families, and corporations an unique and effective way to make tax-advantaged, flexible contributions to the charitable causes of their choice.

"We view our donors as more than the sum of their contributions," says Executive Director Lawrence Corley. "We work with them to suggest grant recipients and help measure outcomes of giving. We keep their concerns, interests, and compassion in the equation of giving."

That result can be seen in the Family Care Foundation's accomplishments. It was the first service group on the scene with relief efforts in Taiwan and Turkey when disastrous earthquakes struck recently. They also feed, educate, and provide healthcare to thousands of others in long-term projects.

The FCF launched in 1997 as a non-profit, Christian-based, human-service agency dedicated to serving the poor and needy. By the end of that year, its involvement had already grown to 20 projects in 9 countries. Today, it has 152 projects in 49 countries. Personal accounts and photos of many of these diverse projects can be found on the FCF's online newsletter: click here.

The FCF offers vocational counseling to the disabled, provides services to the elderly, teaches literacy programs and drug prevention programs, and staffs orphanages and health clinics.

We target children for special care because "an investment in children is an investment in our future," says Corley. The FCF distributes and broadcasts children's edu-tainment videos, which instill positive personal, community, and spiritual values. The foundation is a member of the Coalition for Quality Children's media, and its works have been met with accolades from "Kids First," and The Dove Foundation, for promoting "wholesome" films for youth.

Reports on Family Care Foundation are featured on Guidestar, the Donor's Guide To The Charitable Universe (www.guidestar.com), and www.charitableway.com.

For more information contact:

Larry Corley
Executive Director Family Care Foundation
larryc@familycare.org

Family Care Foundation Project Honored in Washington

Washington D.C.-March 5, 1998- Washington D.C.-based Family Missions received the Freedom Works Award sponsored by House Majority Leader Dick Armey. This award is given annually to "the most active service group in the country motivated by personal commitment and desire to make the world a better place rather than personal gain or government funding."

Following are excerpts from press releases about this event:

"On Thursday, March 5, House Majority Leader Dick Armey presented his Freedom Works Award to the D.C. Center of the Family Missions for their exemplary service in assisting homeless shelters and soup kitchens in the D.C. area. Armey formally presented the award to the Family Missions at a ceremony in the U.S. Capitol. D.C. Center Director Cindy Thompson and several teen volunteers were on hand to accept it for the group."

Freedom Works Award to Family Missions

(Speech delivered on the House floor March 5th)

"Mr. Speaker, I am honored today to present the Freedom Works Award to the Family Missions of the D.C. area. I established the Freedom Works Award to celebrate freedom by recognizing individuals and groups who promote personal responsibility instead of reliance on the government.

"The Family Missions is a privately-funded charitable religious organization made up of families who believe their Christian duty is best served by assisting and operating homeless shelters, soup kitchens, and offering other human services assistance within their communities. Their activities have ranged from delivering two tons of milk weekly for the last four years to D.C. area soup kitchens, to serving as Red Cross deputies in Florida during the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew. It really warms my heart to see these young people doing all they can to help people in need. The Family Missions volunteers also help teenage runaways and shelters for battered women.

"A sincere calling to service of others and the personal reward such activity brings motivates them, not because they were drafted by AmeriCorps or even because they were trying to meet some local community or state mandated requirement for charity. These young people exemplify the kind of genuine service and sacrifice I had in mind when I conceived of the Freedom Works Award.

"This organization has taken on these difficult tasks and more, without receiving a single penny of federal assistance. The success of the Family Missions is based on a simple belief that ‘There is no greater love for our fellow man than to be willing to lay our life down for them.’"

Past recipients have included Dallas Cowboys running back Emmit Smith (for his work in educating at-risk youth); "Touched By An Angel" producers; Omega Boys Club of San Francisco (for their work in rescuing inner city children from the influences of gangs) and Cornerstone Schools of Detroit, Michigan (for their cutting-edge approach to education).

Thanks to the generosity of the Embassy Dairy, each week the D.C. Family Missions’ Milk for Many volunteers pick up and deliver approximately 2000 gallons of fresh milk to Washington D.C.’s shelters for the homeless, for battered women and children, and other poor and needy families.

Gail Cline, executive director of the Serve Shelter in Manassas, Virginia writes, "Family Missions are among those who understand what the disadvantaged need. Since we never have enough milk, even for the children who constitute half of our clients, we are always amazed and delighted to see you arrive with what we need most."