Our Mission

We promote friendship and enrichment for members, raise and distribute funds for charitable giving and provide volunteer service in response to the medical, humanitarian, and educational needs in Jalisco, Mexico.

The International Friendship Club (IFC) is a volunteer organization committed to funding charitable causes.  Social activities are also available to the membership, many of whom also volunteer countless hours endeavoring to make our programs a success.

Through financial contributions, as well as devoted and compassionate service, humanitarian aid in excess of ten million pesos has been provided to needy children and families living in this beautiful tropical city.

The IFC takes pride in its unique Cleft Palate Program.  It begins with providing fees for transporting doctors who donate their time to perform the surgeries.  It ends with seeing smiles on the children's faces and their parent's tears of joy at its completion.

Additionally, the IFC provides: free medication; disaster relief aid; educational assistance; monthly financial assistance; a dental hygiene program and food to families as well as gifts to other Charitable Institutions.

Our membership has a caring compassionate camaraderie and love for the less fortunate, in abundance.  In order to maintain the programs that we support, your assistance is requested.  Be so kind as to consider this an invitation to become a valued member of our organization.
 
The IFC is a registered charitable organization in Mexico listed as Club Internacional de la Amistad.

Where Aid Is Provided

Through donations, membership fees and fundraising, the IFC has successfully sponsored many projects.  Your donations, which include educational materials and medical supplies and equipment, make it possible for us to continue to do more.

Your volunteer time enhances projects as well as the lives of all concerned.  We welcome your participation, which is valued.

Your support, which this organization depends upon, is essential to our success.

The International Friendship Club (I.F.C.) has been running its very popular Home Tours since 1985. Our incredibly supportive homeowners open their homes on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings during the tourist season so that the club can sell tickets to raise money for its programs and charities.

Guests are taken by luxury buses to three or four sumptuous homes where they escorted through the homes and gardens by our knowledgeable and friendly docents and guides. There our guests can enjoy the views, the art and the decor of some of the more interesting homes in Puerto Vallarta.

Please refer to our website for details of the tours and for reviews by writers on Trip Advisor.

In 1985 the International Friendship Club began as a social club for people from the United States and Canada. That same year, Celia and Ron Walker learned that a friend’s baby had been born with a cleft palate. She needed surgery.

The Walkers found a surgeon in Guadalajara, took the child and her parents there, and paid for the operation. Word spread, and they had more children to help than they could transport.

Ron then thought to ask the surgeon, Dr. Ezequiel Fuentes, to come to PV every three months. He agreed and years later the Cleft Palate Program remains the flagship program of the International Friendship Club (IFC).

The funding in both the early days and now would not have been possible without our generous homeowners allowing us to use their homes for our now famous Home Tours. Without the homes and Home Tours there would be no cleft palate program.

We’re still a social club and we do love fun, but we also love to help people.

Maintaining the programs we support requires your help.

Please consider becoming a valued member of our organization.

What would your life be like if your child couldn’t smile? Or couldn’t eat? That’s what happens to children born with a cleft palate or cleft lip. No smiles!

Infants born with a cleft palate or cleft lip can be faced with a cascade of possible problems that further impede their development. They can develop middle ear infections, hearing loss, and loss of their ability to speak.

If cleft palates and cleft lips are not treated, children affected may also face a severe impact on their self-esteem, social skills and behaviour as they grow into teenagers.

Since 1985 IFC has been providing solutions to such children and their families. It was then that we began offering free assessments, surgeries and follow-up treatments to children from poor families.

Three or four times a year, a team of caring, compassionate medical personnel fly from Guadalajara to Puerto Vallarta. They donate their time, and CMQ Hospital donates its operating theatre, but the travel costs and the medical supplies must all be paid for by IFC. We co-ordinate everything.

Nearly 900 surgeries later, we can look back on the success of enabling those children and their families to smile again.

Why become a member of the International Friendship Club?

• Receive discounts of at least 10% from supporting merchants and restaurants

• Learn Spanish at the IFC for a 20% reduced rate

• Learn Bridge (Mondays at 9 A.M.) and play Social Bridge (Fridays from 2-5 P.M.)at the IFC, both at a discount

• Play Bingo on Sundays at IFC for 4-6:30 pm at a discount

• Dine around. Join friends or make new ones Fridays as you share a P.V. dining experience

• Watch Monday night movies at the IFC

• Learn about Mexican history and culture at a reduced price through lectures and cultural enrichment programs

• Engage in Yoga and Meditation at the IFC

• Be involved at special events as they come up. See the News Ticker on our Home Page for all the latest offerings!

The greatest benefit is that funds raised by all these activities are given to our many charities that help our Mexican neighbours, especially the children needing cleft palate surgeries.

Have fun and make friends while helping make life better for everyone in Puerto Vallarta.

Please consider becoming a member of the International Friendship Club.