In 1955, physician Wilbert Saunders and pharmacist Jim McCoy thought it was a shame to throw surplus medications into the trash, especially when they could be used to save lives in undeveloped countries. They founded Medicines for Missions, the precursor to World Concern, and began supplying medicines to clinics and hospitals overseas.
Medicine for Missions became World Concern and joined CRISTA in 1973. At about the same time, World Concern’s work expanded to include emergency relief in response to famines in Bangladesh and Africa, a hurricane in Honduras and an earthquake in Nicaragua.
In each of these disasters, World Concern’s volunteers and staff discovered that much more help was necessary if people were to break the chains of extreme poverty after the relief workers had gone home. World Concern began sending qualified professionals and dedicated volunteers into the field, to work along side the poor and to help them improve their standard of living and quality of life.
Then and now, World Concern provides emergency aid, medicine, clean water, food, education, and livelihood programs to refugees and survivors of war, extreme poverty, disease and famine – all around the globe.
