Samaritan’s Purse Fact Sheet

President:
William Franklin Graham, III

Founded:
1970, by Dr. Bob Pierce

Purpose:
To provide immediate, no-red-tape response to the physical and spiritual needs of individuals in crisis situations-especially in locations where few others are working.

Projects: Samaritan's Purse works in more than 100 countries to provide aid to victims of war, disease, disaster, poverty, famine, and persecution.

• NATURAL DISASTER
   

  • U.S. Disaster Relief: Samaritan's Purse mobilized and equipped 10,000 volunteers who have made emergency repairs on nearly 8,000 houses in five states hit by Hurricanes Katrina, Rita, and Wilma.  The organization has provided 250 mobile homes in Louisiana and is in the process of making permanent repairs on 1,000 houses and dozens of churches in Mississippi. Volunteer work teams are being scheduled through May 2007. Samaritan's Purse has 5 tractor-trailer units in the United States and Canada stocked with emergency supplies ready to roll at a moment's notice. Since 1999, units have worked in 19 states, helping more than 12,000 families recover from hurricanes, tornadoes, flooding, and wildfires.
     

  • Indian Ocean Tsunami: Samaritan's Purse has helped tens of thousands of families in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India recover from the earthquake and tsunami that struck Dec. 26, 2004. The organization is rebuilding some 3,000 houses and also established large-scale projects to provide water, food, health care, and replacement fishing boats. Samaritan's Purse chartered a 747 cargo jet to airlift 100 tons of emergency supplies and equipment from the United States, including a helicopter that enabled our staff to reach isolated villages to treat outbreaks of malaria.
     

  • Pakistan Earthquake: Samaritan's Purse airlifted 120 tons of emergency supplies to Pakistan, providing winter shelter for thousands of families and medicine and equipment for three hospitals.
     

  • Central America: Samaritan's Purse built more than 3,000 masonry houses in El Salvador after the 2001 earthquakes and more 5,000 houses in Honduras following Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
     

• WAR
   

  • Sudan: Samaritan's Purse established hospitals, schools, and farms to help southerners survive decades of civil war. In 2003, Franklin Graham was invited to Khartoum by President Omar al-Bashir to discuss the peace process and religious freedom, while Operation Christmas Child delivered a plane-load of gifts to 65,000 Sudanese children. Within months, the government and rebels signed a truce to halt fighting in southern Sudan. Since then, Samaritan's Purse has helped feed more than 130,000 Sudanese displaced by separate conflicts in Darfur and near the Red Sea, while launching a program to rebuild hundreds of churches destroyed during the war.
     

  • Middle East: Within days of the outbreak of fighting between Israeli troops and Hezbollah militants in southern Lebanon, Samaritan's Purse helped provide food and other essentials to some 10,000 displaced persons and shipped enough heavy-duty plastic to provide emergency shelter for 1,400 families whose homes were destroyed in the fighting.
     

  • Iraq: Samaritan's Purse airlifted medical supplies and equipment into Baghdad to refurbish a neglected hospital, completed construction of one clinic and supplied medicine for several others, and sponsors a church that provides food to poor families, Muslims and Christians alike.
     

  • Afghanistan: Samaritan's Purse was one of the first organizations to enter Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban. Samaritan's Purse established a hospital in Kholm and has helped 4,000 families rebuild homes in northeastern Afghanistan. The organization also repaired and reopened six schools-giving thousands of girls the opportunity for education denied by the prior regime.
     

• DISEASE & FAMINE
   

  • HIV/AIDS Projects: Samaritan's Purse emerged as a leader of the international Christian response to HIV/AIDS by organizing the global Prescription for Hope conference in 2002 in Washington, D.C., with 900 participants from 87 countries. Since then, the organization has sponsored training programs and dozens of grassroots HIV/AIDS ministries around the world. In partnership with the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, Samaritan's Purse has set up programs in East Africa to reach over 2 million youth with education about HIV/AIDS and abstinence-based prevention programs.
     

  • Niger: Samaritan's Purse has set up a network of therapeutic and supplementary feeding centers to serve hundreds of malnourished infants, children, and mothers.
     

• ONGOING WORK
   

  • Operation Christmas Child: This year the world's largest Christmas program, Operation Christmas Child, aims to collect and ship shoe boxes filled with gifts for some 8 million children. Since 1993, more than 61 million boxes have been distributed in over 130 countries. The gifts are individually packed by kids, families, churches, schools, and other groups and are collected in locations across the United States, and ten other countries.
     

  • Water Filters: Samaritan's Purse has installed 65,000 BioSand® water filters in 23 countries, providing over a half million people with a safe and perpetual source of clean water.
     

  • Children's Heart Project: Samaritan's Purse has brought more than 450 children with life-threatening heart defects to North America for surgery not available in their home countries, which include Kosovo, Mongolia, Honduras, and Uganda. Patients are matched with hospitals, surgeons, and host families who volunteer their time and services.
     

  • World Medical Mission: Each year, the medical arm of Samaritan's Purse places hundreds of doctors, dentists, and other medical professionals in voluntary, short-term service with hospitals and clinics in the world's least developed countries. The project also provides overseas hospitals with critically needed medical equipment and supplies.
     

Budget:
$304 million (projected income for 2008)

Expenses:
Ministry Activity = 88%, Administrative Support = 5%, Fund Raising = 7% (2008)

Three times since 2000 Samaritan's Purse was ranked as the most efficient Christian charity in the United States by SmartMoney magazine.

Offices:
Headquartered in Boone, N. C., Samaritan's Purse has affiliate offices in Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, The Netherlands, Austria and Germany; plus field offices in more than 20 developing countries.

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