— Disabled adults serving isolated disabled children worldwide —
Turning Longing into Belonging
Friends of the Forgotten connects disabled adult mentors with isolated disabled children throughout the developing world. We renew purpose for adults, dignity for children.
— THE FOUNDING MOMENT —
One moment changed everything.
A forgotten child reached out to a man born without arms — and in doing so, revealed the entire mission.
— THE SCALE OF THE NEED —
Larger — and more specific — than most people know.
5–6 million
children live in institutional care worldwide
30–80%
In some regions, children with disabilities represent this share of them
Sources: UNICEF · Better Care Network · Hope and Homes for Children
Even in well-run facilities, one caregiver may be responsible for 10 to 30 children — making faithful, personal presence nearly impossible. When a child grows up without someone who shows up again and again, the message they absorb is devastating:
“You do not matter.”
Friends of the Forgotten exists to interrupt that message.
— WHAT WE'RE DOING ABOUT IT —
Already showing up.
5
COUNTRIES VISITED
19
WORKSHOPS DELIVERED
2,275
PEOPLE REACHED
2025–2026 Outcomes · Active globally · Growing
— OUR APPROACH —
Most programs send experts to fix children.
We send witnesses.
Those Who
Want to Be Needed
Many disabled adults yearn for purpose and carry remarkable empathy — forged through their own experience of adversity. They don't need to be helped. They need to be sent.
Those Who
Need to Be Wanted
Children growing up in institutional care often face isolation, emotional hardship, and a painful absence of individual attention. What they need most cannot be programmed or scheduled. They need an understanding person to show up.
Together: Freed to Be Loved
When a disabled adult mentors a child in institutional care, both lives change. Children discover they are wanted. Mentors discover they were never sidelined — they were sent. The relationship itself becomes the healing.
Longing becomes belonging.
— THE URGENCY —
Right now, children are waiting.
This is not a distant problem. Right now, in care facilities across the developing world, children with disabilities and other disadvantages are growing up without a single person who knows their name and comes back.
The first five years of life are the most critical window for development — and the most vulnerable to the absence of relationship. Friends of the Forgotten is active globally. The need exceeds what we can currently meet. Every mentor commissioned and every dollar given extends our reach to children who cannot wait.
It begins with one person showing up.
— BUILT ON LIVED EXPERIENCE —
Not theory. Lived experience.
John Foppe—born without arms—is a nonprofit executive with 16+ years of leadership in clarifying and advancing missions. He founded Friends of the Forgotten not from theory, but from lived expertise in what disabled people already know they carry.
Our mentors are not volunteers who feel sorry for the children they serve. They are disabled adults who have navigated a world that underestimated them — and whose presence communicates what no program can:
"I know what this feels like. You are not alone. You have gifts to give."
Aquesia, from Guyana saw how John uses his feet for everything — so she colored him one. The forgotten are paying attention.
— THE VISION —
A different world is possible.
We are building a world where disabled adults are sent with purpose and
disabled and disadvantaged children are no longer invisible.
A world where faithful presence replaces isolation.
A world where the overlooked become the sent, and the forgotten discover they were always wanted.
Sent. Not Sidelined.
Seen. Not Shunned.
Showing up.
— YOUR YES —
Every gift restores what isolation destroys.
You're not funding a program—you're enabling two people to discover they belong. One rediscovers purpose. The other rediscovers worth. Together, belonging replaces longing. Whether you mentor, give, or help build partnerships, your yes joins a mission that proves the world's most overlooked people were never meant to be sidelined."
Are You a Disabled Adult?
This mission was built for you — not around you. If you've known what it means to be overlooked, you may already carry what this mission needs most.
Give to the Mission
Every gift restores two lives at once — purpose to an adult who thought they had nothing left to give, and belonging to a child who has never known it. Your generosity sends mentors where others do not go."
Partner With Us
Facilities, schools, and hospitals can bring this mission to life — through our mentorship partnerships and seminars. No child should grow up forgotten.