We assess needs and provide disaster relief. We endeavor to purchase materials from local businesses whenever possible. The purpose of our disaster relief to help people help themselves recover and regain self-sufficiency with a sense of pride and purpose.

KIRF volunteers have assisted people to recover and regaining their economic and social strength in partnership with local humanitarian organizations in many countries. Below are a few projects we have done in the past few years:

• During the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, KIRF director Mark Kirwin partnered with other volunteers from Rincon Brewery, Kids and Families Together, and World Central Kitchen to distribute thousands of cooked meals to local families who lost their source of income because of the business closures in Ventura County, California in 2020.

• Through the generous donations of the Downtown Lion’s Club of Ventura and others, KIRF was able to assist uninsured renters who lost everything in the Thomas Fire in Ventura County, California in 2017.

• Co-founder Mark Kirwin traveled to Houston, Texas in 2017 to assist with Hurricane Harvey relief. He and two other Rotarians from Ventura worked with the Rotary Club of Houston Space Center, volunteers from ARC, educators, and other local humanitarians, to purchase and deliver care packages of supplies requested by families in need.

• KIRF President, Mark Kirwin, and KIRF volunteer and fellow Ventura Rotarian, Steve Doll delivered disaster relief supplies from May 14 through May 19 to the victims of the April 25th 7.9, April 26th 6.7, and May 1ih 7.3 Earthquakes in Kathmandu, Nepal.
• In 2015, KIRF partnered with Ventura Downtown Rotary and Downtown Lion’s Club of Ventura to assist with the international relief effort providing aid to victims of the devasting earthquakes in Kathmandu, Nepal.  Working with the local Kathmandu Lion’s Club and Rotary Club of Bagmati, we were able to personally deliver requested disaster relief of non-perishable food and building supplies.  We also worked with Sherpas and assisted them by providing building materials they needed to re-build a rural elementary school called Classroom in the Clouds.

Conservation

We won’t have a society if we destroy the environment.

– Margaret Mead

Environmental conservation has been a core value of the Kirwin International Relief Foundation from the beginning. KIRF founder Mark Kirwin, as a former volunteer for Mediators Beyond Borders, had attended the United Nations Climate Change Talks including COP15 in Copenhagen. We have worked directly with members of conservation groups like Ventura Land Trust and Roots & Shoots (a youth service program of the Jane Goodall Institute). One of our goals is to help alleviate the suffering of living beings – not just human beings. Helping the disadvantaged or survivors of a natural disaster benefit by protecting their natural resources and non-human creatures is part of our “KIRF work”.

Sustainable Development

Whenever possible, for example, when we have sufficient funds and a favorable exchange rate, KIRF incorporates sustainable development in disaster relief. In response to the Andaman Sea Tsunami of in Thailand we purchased fishing boats and supplies for fisherman who had lost their source of livelihood when the tsunami destroyed their boats in 2005. Also, in Thailand we funded the building of a fish farm and ecological preserve guesthouse that now supports a co-operative of about 32 families.

In Peru, in 2007, KIRF purchased and delivered school supplies to the Andean Village Huantan as well as textiles and food staples and toiletries needed by a battered women’s shelter and sewing cooperative in Lima.

We strive to help people have a healthier and happier future by investing in capital good for small businesses and offering free literacy education at the local community supported Shekhwara Village School in 2010-2015. We had funded a micro-loan co-operative for woman in nearby rural villages through a local micro-loan program and have drilled (and continue to maintain) seven wells in this region suffering from drought in 2006.