Our History

PCI was asked by the Government of Tanzania to support the development of the country’s first National School Feeding Guideline and scale the organization’s model across all 20,000 public and private schools.

CHF International officially became Global Communities, launching a new organizational brand to reflect the interconnected global nature of our work. PCI launched Women Empowered (WE), its first cross-cutting program, to support the social and economic empowerment of women through community-based savings groups.

In response to the devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Global Communities and PCI collaborated from 2010-2014 on KATYE, an innovative neighborhood-based rebuilding project. During the outbreak of Ebola in West Africa, each organization brought individual expertise in public health and humanitarian assistance to advance community-led responses.

A Mobile Health Unit was launched in the Tijuana area of the U.S.-Mexico border region, providing health services to more than 4,000 children under age five.

India’s first AIDS Walk for Life was initiated and continued for 365 consecutive days, culminating on World AIDS Day, December 1, 2005.

HIV/AIDS prevention and education programs began in both Zambia and India. In the U.S., the San Diego Birthing Project was established to fight high rates of infant mortality and low birth-weight babies in the African American community.

Global Communities developed a participatory approach to conflict resolution, peacebuilding and community cohesion in Guatemala in 1996, then expanded the proven methodology to the Balkans.

As the Cold War ended, Global Communities responded by expanding into Eastern Europe, and then the Middle East, utilizing a deep knowledge of housing to develop microfinance programs for entrepreneurs and homeowners that still exist today.

Existing programming expanded to address gender inequities, prioritizing the inclusion of women in community health training and economic advancement activities in Bolivia, Guatemala, Indonesia and Mexico.

Global Communities shifted focus from housing to addressing community needs more broadly in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia. The organization also became a pioneer in housing microfinance. Geographic reach expanded to include Belize, Somalia, The Gambia and Papua New Guinea.

Over the course of the 1980s, Global Communities shifted focus from the United States to international programming, scaling proven programs customized with community input.

In the second half of the decade, programming grew across Latin America, including work in Guatemala and Bolivia.

A health outreach program was launched in Bali, Indonesia, and work started in Ethiopia, the first country presence in Africa.

U.S.-based work continued with a new dental clinic for Indigenous peoples of New Mexico on the eastern edge of the Navajo Reservation.

The first Walk for Mankind, held under the banner of PCI, took place in Santa Rosa, California, establishing the organization as an early leader in raising awareness through walk-based fundraising events.

Project Concern was founded in San Diego with the goal of helping families along the U.S.-Mexico border region access better health. Shortly thereafter, a health clinic was opened in Hong Kong’s Walled City, followed by a hospital in South Vietnam, which provided healthcare and services through the Vietnam War.

Global Communities began as the Foundation for Cooperative Housing, an organization that worked in the United States to help build houses for people in need using the cooperative model. From its inception, the organization focused on working with communities, helping build 60,000 houses for people in need over three decades in 35 U.S. states. Within a decade of its founding, programming expanded to Central America, demonstrating the successful housing model could be replicated in partner countries.