The World Family Foundation is dedicated to improving the health and educational opportunities of the undeserved around the world. The Foundation provides eye care and emergency dental care to the children and parents of over 800 families in poorer areas of Los Angeles and has helped to establish an “English as a second language” (ESL) program for immigrants at the St. Joseph’s Center in West Los Angeles. Internationally, the Foundation provides educational and physical therapy equipment to disabled and visually impaired children in Namibia, and furnishes school supplies, clothing, athletic equipment , and funding for the construction of living and educational facilities for AIDS orphans and disabled children in Zambia. The Foundation is also involved in the development of an innovative program that funds a cottage industry in Zambia in which local women manufacture clothing and school uniforms for underprivileged and orphaned children.

A Brief History of World Family Foundation:

The World Family Foundation was founded in 1999 by Caitlin Colvard. The Foundation arose initially in an effort to meet some of the basic needs of the children of the working poor in West Los Angeles.  Caitlin’s first important contact with the undeserved came through her volunteer activities at the St. Joseph Center in Venice, California. The St. Joseph Center is a non-denominational organization, which provides a variety of services for poor families in West Los Angeles. Most of the people served by St. Joseph’s are recent immigrants who speak very little English. While working as an after-school tutor, Caitlin realized that many of the children had visual problems that appeared to affect their ability to learn. She arranged for some of the children, those who were eligible for state funded assistance, to have eye examinations and to get glasses through a local clinic. She discovered, however, that many of the children from working immigrant families were not eligible for these services. While these children were sometimes able to get eye exams at the neighborhood clinic, they were not eligible for eyeglasses under state programs. The free clinics in the area often did not have private funds to provide glasses for these school children, even in cases of extreme need. She learned, moreover, that dental care for the families of the working poor was essentially nonexistent. There was no access to preventative care, and even severe painful dental emergencies often went untreated.

Caitlin began to try to raise money for these specific needs. She learned quickly that it would be necessary to establish a legal entity with a charitable tax ID number, if she wanted to raise significant amounts of money for these programs. She managed to get both the necessary legal and accounting services donated to establish the Foundation, and she then began fund raising through a number of activities. With the help of her friends and classmates at Marymount High School, music and dance programs were staged in local community theatres that were successful in raising funds. Caitlin also began to focus on obtaining direct donations of services and materials from local optometrists and optical companies. These efforts were very successful and resulted in donations of services and materials that have allowed the Foundation to provide free eye examinations and glasses, not only for the children, but also for the parents of over 800 poor families at the St. Joseph Center. This on-going program has been active for the past six years.

The World Family Foundation provides free eye examinations and glasses to the children and parents of over 800 poor families at the St. Joseph Center in Los Angeles.

The problem of providing comprehensive dental care for these families has proven to be more difficult. The cost of providing comprehensive dental care is extremely high. Although funds sufficient to help with emergency dental care have been made available through the Foundation’s efforts, the dream of providing preventive comprehensive care has yet to be realized. This remains one of the primary goals of the Foundation and efforts to secure sufficient funding continue.

The World Family Foundation has made funding available for emergency dental care for children and their parents at the St. Joseph Center. One of the long-term goals of the Foundation is to help to provide preventive and comprehensive dental care for these families.

Caitlin continued to volunteer at the St. Joseph Center through her senior year in high school. Working as a tutor, Caitlin saw that the children of immigrant families faced many obstacles to their education, but all of them had access to public schooling and, in general, with a little extra help, most seemed to learn English quickly. The parents, however, Caitlin realized, faced greater and more difficult challenges. Most of the parents worked long hours at “entry-level’ jobs, trying to feed and house their families. Because they could not read, write or speak English, there was little hope for advancement to better jobs, no matter how hard they worked. As Caitlin prepared to leave for college, she enlisted the help of her sister, Megan, and together they began to work to organize an ESL program for the children’s parents.

The ESL program faced three major obstacles. First, the St. Joseph’s Center was already stretched financially.  Although the Center was excited by the concept, there were no funds available for a new program. Second, everyone realized that it would be difficult to get adults to attend a class. Most of the parents were exhausted by their day’s work and the daily effort of keeping the family housed and fed. Many parents, in fact, were  working a second job at night to earn additional money. Third, if parents did attend class, it was clear that childcare would have to be provided.

Seed funding for the program became available through a $5,000 Award for Community Service presented to Caitlin by the Hitachi Foundation. Caitlin decided to devote the entirety of the Hitachi Award funds to the ESL project. Initially she intended to use the funds to pay for teachers and supplies. A local community college was so excited by the project, however, that they offered to provide ESL teachers and most of the supplies without charge. Caitlin and Megan then realized that they could solve the problem of getting tired financially strapped parents to the classes. They decided to use the money that Caitlin had raised as a stipend for the adult students. By attending classes and reaching established milestones of proficiency, students were able to receive stipends, which were roughly equivalent to the minimum wage they receive for their regular jobs. St. Joseph’s provided the facilities for the classes and an extra room for childcare, and the program was launched. This program has proven to be enormously successful. It now provides an opportunity for the adult members of over 800 families to improve their English skills.

ESL programs through the St. Joseph Center, funded by the World Family Foundation, help to provide adult immigrants an opportunity to improve their English skills.

The Foundation’s activities also include assistance to educational programs for poor and disadvantaged children in Third World countries. Caitlin and Megan became aware of the special needs of African children as they accompanied their father on multiple visits to Zambia and Namibia, where he works each year as a volunteer surgeon. Starting in 1999 they began to visit schools for handicapped children and AIDS orphans in Namibia and Zambia, and quickly realized that they could help the lives of these children by bringing the resources of the Foundation to their aid.

Between 2000-2005, the Foundation has raised and distributed over $25,000 dollars in donations and services from numerous business entities and organizations including Delta Airlines and South African Airlines, Kramer Sporting Goods, the American Youth Soccer Organization, Galaxy Alliance Soccer Club, Pacific Palisades High School, and  the Friends of Vision Foundation. An additional $2500 was raised by organizing a concert, which brought together prominent local rock bands to the Marymount High School campus near Westwood, California. With this financial support, the Foundation has provided teaching supplies and visual aids to the School for Visually Impaired Children in Windhoek, Namibia and physical therapy equipment for the Cheshire School for handicapped children in Katima, Namibia.

Working with the School for Visually Impaired Children in Windhoek, Namibia, the Foundation provides educational supplies, including Braille equipment for blind students, and low vision aids for students who are partially sighted.

In Zambia, the Foundation has provided new clothing and recreational equipment for over 1000 children at the Kalingalinga Community School for poor children and AIDS orphans and at the St. Joseph’s School and St. Muluba’s School for severely handicapped children. Another $5,000 from private donations has helped to fund The Umoyo Center in Lusaka, Zambia, a preschool for AIDS orphans and other severely disadvantaged children. This funding helps to provide educational supplies as well as the basic needs of shelter, food and clothing for children at this facility.

The Kalingalinga Community School in Lusaka, Zambia. This school, under the guidance of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Mary, serves as a haven for poor and orphaned children.  The World Family Foundation helps to provide educational supplies as well as the basic needs of shelter, food and clothing for children at this facility.

Working with the Sisters of the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary, stationed in Zambia, the Foundation has helped to start a cottage industry that employs local women who sew clothing and school uniforms for orphans and other very poor children. Throughout Africa, an influx of used clothes from the U.S. has largely destroyed local textile and clothing industries. Funding through the Foundation for the local manufacture of clothing helps in a small way to restore this industry. The funding provides badly needed jobs, fosters financial independence for women, and brings cash into the local economy. Most importantly, access to free uniforms allows poor students to attend public schools where uniforms are required but financially beyond the means of many children.

The Foundation has helped to begin a cottage industry in Lusaka that employs local women who sew clothing and school uniforms for orphans and other very poor children.