Samaritan’s Purse

Facts

President & CEO

William “Franklin” Graham III, son of the late Billy Graham

Founded

1970, by Bob Pierce

Purpose

Samaritan’s Purse is a nondenominational Christian organization providing spiritual and physical aid to victims of war, natural disasters, disease, famine, poverty and persecution in more than 100 countries, with the purpose of sharing God’s love through His son, Jesus Christ.

Budget

$707 million (2020)

Offices

Headquartered in Boone, North Carolina, Samaritan’s Purse has affiliate offices in Canada, the U.K., Australia, Germany and Korea; field offices in 17 countries; and ministry partners in more than 100 countries.

Projects

Crisis & Disaster Response

International Relief:Samaritan’s Purse specializes in meeting critical needs for victims of war, disaster and famine in the world’s most troubled regions, often working through local churches and ministry partners. Samaritan’s Purse recently responded to the needs of thousands of refugees fleeing Syria following a violent Turkish invasion by providing hygiene kits, tarp for emergency shelter and winter clothing. Additionally, the organization airlifted more than 360 tons of critical relief supplies, including an Emergency Field Hospital, to aid thousands of affected families after Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas as a Category 5 storm.

Feeding Programs

Samaritan’s Purse has specialized programs to treat severely malnourished children and runs large-scale distributions to feed victims of disaster, famine and war.

Health & Medical

Emergency Field Hospital: Ready to deploy at a moment’s notice, the emergency field hospital provides medical relief in disaster-stricken areas where the medical infrastructure is either damaged, overwhelmed or nonexistent. Each unit is customizable depending on the needs of the response and can include an emergency room, two operating theatres, a critical care unit and more than 50 inpatient beds. This resource has enabled Samaritan’s Purse medical staff to provide life-saving care to more than 18,600 survivors of war and natural disasters. It has been deployed in response to a deadly earthquake in Ecuador, violent fighting in Mosul, Iraq, Cyclone Idai in Mozambique and Hurricane Dorian in the Bahamas.

World Medical Mission: Each year the medical arm of Samaritan’s Purse sends hundreds of doctors, dentists and other medical professionals to 54 remote hospitals and clinics in the world’s least-developed countries, both as short-term volunteers and through its Post-Residency Program. World Medical Mission also supports remote mission hospitals by providing millions of dollars’ worth of critically needed medical equipment and supplies.

Children’s Heart Project: This project brings children to North America to receive life-saving surgery not available in their home countries. To date, Samaritan’s Purse has arranged surgery for some 1,380 children with heart defects, in partnership with 60 hospitals.

Diseases: Samaritan’s Purse fights malaria, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, diphtheria and other epidemic diseases through medical care, health services, hygiene projects, preventative education and compassionate care. At the height of the 2014 Ebola crisis in Liberia, the organization operated the only Ebola treatment centers in Liberia and educated millions on how to protect themselves from the disease. Samaritan’s Purse continues to support Ebola survivors in Liberia through cataract surgery, livelihood programs and leadership training. In response to the second deadliest Ebola outbreak in history, Samaritan’s Purse built an 18-bed Ebola treatment center in the Democratic Republic of Congo in January 2019. Currently teams are providing critical treatment and conducting public education campaigns focused on awareness and prevention.

Operation Christmas Child
The global Christmas project Operation Christmas Child uses gift-filled shoeboxes to demonstrate God’s love in a tangible way to children in need around the world. Since 1993, Operation Christmas Child has collected and delivered more than 168 million shoebox gifts to children in more than 160 countries and territories. Each year the project mobilizes more than 150,000 volunteers in the United States. Since 2010, more than 14 million children who received a shoebox gift have participated in the follow-up program, The Greatest Journey. This 12-lesson discipleship program teaches children about God’s amazing love and guides them through what it means to faithfully follow Jesus Christ.

Animals, Agriculture & Livelihoods
Samaritan’s Purse enables families in third-world countries to meet their daily food and nutritional needs by providing seeds, tools and livestock. Samaritan’s Purse also trains beneficiaries and communities to transition from subsistence living to sustainability.

Construction Projects
Samaritan’s Purse constructs houses, schools, hospitals and churches for families and communities affected by disaster, poverty and war around the world. In Iraq, Samaritan’s Purse has already helped more than 930 Christian families repair houses that were shelled, burned or looted by ISIS, and construction teams continue to work in the Nineveh Plains to help more families return home.

Water, Sanitation & Hygiene
In 2019, Samaritan’s Purse provided water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) programming to communities in 19 countries— coupling health and hygiene education with the construction of 7,000 latrines, 396 clean water points and some 3,800 water filtration units. These clean water programs provided safe drinking water for approximately 210,000 people worldwide in impoverished communities, refugee camps and schools.

Women’s Programs
Samaritan’s Purse works to reach vulnerable women by meeting their physical, emotional and spiritual needs through programs focused on maternal and child health, eliminating gender-based violence, job skills training, education and human trafficking prevention.

Samaritan’s Purse, headed by Franklin Graham, is an international Christian relief and evangelism organization working in more than 100 countries to provide aid to victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, famine and persecution. For more information, visit SamaritansPurse.or.kr.