Children's Medical Care Foundation

In 1981, CMCF was founded with the mission of improving the care and treatment of children. Our founder and visionary, Dr. Stefan P. Wilk, recognized that the healthcare provided to children was inadequate in many parts of the world.

In spite of the tremendous advances in healthcare in some Western regions, this advanced care did not reach the pediatricians who work in some underprivileged regions and the children there did not share in the benefits brought on by modern medical knowledge and technology.

Rather than providing medical equipment and supplies, CMCF focuses on bringing these dedicated doctors to teaching hospitals and universities throughout the United States and Western Europe for a period of six to eight weeks to learn the most advanced medical information. These doctors then return to their homes and share their newly learned techniques with their colleagues. These “Packages of Medical Knowledge” can change the course of the care for children throughout an entire nation.

Our philosophy is based on the ancient proverb “if you give a person a fish, you feed them for a day, but if you teach a person to fish, you feed them for a lifetime.” CMCF provides innovative fellowships that facilitate the education of pediatricians at top medical centers who then implement what they learned in their own countries for the direct benefit of children suffering from illness and disease. We also dedicate ourselves to building “Medical Bridges” between countries through the open exchange of knowledge, lasting friendships and alliances.

Every child deserves an opportunity. When we lose a child, their dreams and contributions to the world fade away. Our mission is to distribute the best pediatric knowledge around the world. Our goal is for all children to have equal access to the best medical care available.

To date, over 185 pediatric specialists from Poland, Ukraine and Latvia have received fellowships in the form of “Packages of Medical Knowledge”. The areas of specialties for these fellowships are illustrated in the chart below:
CMCF introduced successfully CAPD (Continuous Ambulatory Peritoneal Dialysis) in Poland.
In 1981, several CMCF nephrologists trained at UCLA and with their newly acquired medical training, they performed the first ever kidney and liver transplant at the Children’s Memorial Health Institute in Warsaw. Since then, this transplant team has performed well over 350 kidney and over 90 liver transplants, all with great success.
In the early 1980s, CMCF learned that Poland had one of the highest neonatal mortality rates in Eastern Europe (25 deaths per 1,000 births). Today, due to the training of Polish pediatricians received through the CMCF fellowship program, the neonatal mortality rate is a remarkable 6.7 deaths per 1,000 births.
In 1988, CMCF sponsored seminars on catastrophic kidney diseases in children in Warsaw and a Polish-American seminar on neonatal care in Poznan.
CMCF and CAAU (our Ukranian partners) co-sponsored the cost of publications and translations for the much needed “Textbook of Neonatal Resuscitation” and the “Practical Manual of Neonatalogy.” These books were distributed throughout hospitals in the Ukraine.