Samaritan's Purse

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Samaritan's Purse
Founder(s)	Dr. Bob Pierce
Type	Faith Based
Founded	1970
Headquarters	Boone, North Caroline, USA
Key people	Rev. William Franklin Graham III
Area served	World Wide
Focus	Crisis Relief & Development
Method	Direct Aid / Program Funding
Revenue	> US$300,000,000 [1]
Website	Samaritan's Purse International Canada United Kingdom Germany Australia New Zealand Ireland Netherlands

Samaritan's Purse is a nondenominational evangelical Christian organization engaged in crisis relief and community development. Founded in 1970 and active around the world, Samaritan's Purse offers aid to the victims of war, poverty, natural disasters, disease, and famine in response to an evangelical interpretation of the teachings of Jesus Christ. The organization is based in Boone, North Carolina, USA, and is headed by Franklin Graham, the son of Christian evangelist Billy Graham.

Contents 1 History 2 Turn on the Tap 2.1 BioSand Water Filters 3 Operation Christmas Child 3.1 History 3.2 Process 4 Prescription for Hope 4.1 History 4.2 Programs 4.2.1 Abstinence and Behavior Change Programs for Youth 4.2.2 Other Programs 4.3 Countries 5 Other Projects 6 Criticism of the Organization 7 References 8 See also 9 External links

[edit] History

Bob Pierce founded Samaritan's Purse in 1970. His mission for this organization was "to meet emergency needs in crisis areas through existing evangelical mission agencies and national churches"^[1]. Franklin Graham, whom Pierce met in 1973, became the President of Samaritan's Purse in 1979 following Pierce's death in 1978.

Samaritan's Purse operates a number of projects including: Operation Christmas Child, a program where shoe boxes are packed with personal hygiene items, school supplies, and toys, and distributed to nearly 8 million children annually in 95 countries; World Medical Mission^[2], a program that sends doctors, dentists, and other medical professionals to distressed areas of the world; Turn on the Tap, a fund raising initiative to supply household water filters in the developing world; plus other programs such as those helping the AIDS/HIV afflicted, orphans, community development, and evangelism.

[edit] Turn on the Tap

Turn on the Tap is an initiative to raise funds for Samaritan's Purse's Household Water Program. The campaign (spearheaded by the UK and Canadian divisions of Samaritan's Purse^[3][4], followed by Germany ^[5]) aims to install an additional 65,000 BioSand Water Filters by 2010.^[6] Between 70,000 - 75,000 filters have been installed since 1997. 600,000 people have been provided with clean water. There are 21 ongoing projects in 18 countries.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that unsafe water is responsible for approximately 1.8 million deaths annually, 90 percent among children.^[7] The WHO further believes that increased access to safe water, and improved health and hygiene would significantly reduce the amount of disease in developing countries.^[8]

The mission of the Household Water Program is to implement household water treatment programs to improve health and foster holistic transformation in communities. This will be done in partnership with country offices, local partner organizations and local communities. This program incorporates beneficiary engagement, health and hygiene training, and BioSand Water Filters to address the lack of safe water.^[9] The UK version of the campaign also focuses on a wider range of solutions including household water treatment (BioSand Water Filters) as well as projects incorporating hand dug wells, boreholes and borehole rehabilitation, and other appropriate solutions.^[10].

A 2007 study conducted by the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill indicates that BioSand Water Filters can reduce the incidence of diarrheal illness by up to 40 percent.^[11]

[edit] BioSand Water Filters

The BioSand Water Filter used by Samaritan's Purse was developed by Engineer, Dr. David Manz of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, and is an adaptation of the process of slow sand filtration. Contaminated water is poured in the top of the filter and passes through layers of sand and gravel by gravity until collected by a standpipe at the bottom of the filter. A biological layer which forms in the top one or two centimetres of sand aids in the filtration process by digesting most organic contaminants, parasites, bacteria, and viruses. BioSand Water Filters are used effectively and inexpensively to remove pathogens including helminths, parasites, bacteria and viruses, (100% removal of helminths and parasites, 90-99% removal of bacteria and viruses. ^[12]

[edit] Operation Christmas Child

[edit] History

Operation Christmas Child (OCC) was begun by Dave and Jill Cooke of Wrexham, Wales in 1990 to send gifts and supplies to children in Romanian orphanages.^[13] The program was adopted by Samaritan's Purse in 1993^[14], when 28,000 shoe boxes were delivered to children in war-torn Bosnia. Since then, Samaritan's Purse has collected and distributed more than 46 million boxes to boys and girls in over 130 countries.^[15]

[edit] Process

Though there are thousands of volunteers around the world who work year-round, this project generally begins in the month of September and finishes with a worldwide collection week near the middle of November. Groups, families, and individuals in 11 developed nations^[16] pack shoe boxes with gifts selected for a child of a specific age range and gender (such as "Boy, 10-14 years old" or "Girl, 2-4 years old"). The most common items placed in the boxes are school supplies, small toys, and hygiene products. The boxes are then collected by Samaritan's Purse and shipped to third-world countries, where they are distributed mostly by National Leadership Teams comprised of local pastors and civic leaders drawn from religious, government, and community organizations.^[17] When culturally appropriate, the boxes are distributed with an evangelical pamphlet called "The Greatest Gift of All", describing the New Testament story in the local language.^[18] In 2006, the program delivered 7.6 million boxes to children in 95 countries.^[19] Tens of thousands of volunteers process the boxes in Operation Christmas Child collection points and warehouses during the holiday season.^[20]

[edit] Prescription for Hope

[edit] History

In 2002, Samaritan’s Purse hosted Prescription for Hope, a global, Christian-focused conference on HIV/AIDS, held in Washington, D.C. Prescription for Hope has since developed into an ongoing effort to strengthen the international Christian response to HIV/AIDS; to mobilize private, church, corporate, and government resources; and to develop a unified plan to defeat HIV/AIDS. The goal is for various aspects of the effort to positively impact more than 2 million people by 2010.

[edit] Programs

[edit] Abstinence and Behavior Change Programs for Youth

Across the globe, people aged 15-24 have some of the highest rates of HIV infection. Samaritan's Purse US uses funding from the USAID President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief to operate a program called MET that mobilizes, equips, and trains older youth and Christian youth leaders to prevent new HIV infections in the 15-24 age group. Samaritan's Purse is deploying the MET program in over 480 communities in Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, and Ethiopia.

During the program's five-year period, youth leaders and parents will benefit from an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign, training in basic home care for people living with HIV/AIDS, micro-media campaigns, mentoring, and/or a life skills and character-based curriculum. The program teaches all participants to initiate HIV/AIDS awareness aimed at youth, to involve youth in care programs for people living with HIV/AIDS in their own communities, and to mentor and teach life skills to at-risk youth. The program emphasizes building the capacity of pastors, parents, and youth leaders to speak about HIV/AIDS in a culturally accepted way within churches.

Since the Prescription for Hope effort began in 2002, Samaritan’s Purse has reached over 188,679 youth with AB messages and trained over 9,260 pastors and community leaders through the MET program.

[edit] Other Programs

• Workshops are offered to church leaders of various backgrounds to teach them how to develop positive, nondiscriminatory, culturally relevant approaches to HIV/AIDS in their communities.

• In partnership with World Medical Mission, the medical arm of Samaritan’s Purse, the Prescription for Hope effort supports HIV/AIDS prevention, testing, and treatment programs in mission hospitals worldwide.

• Prescription for Hope supports grassroots community organizations by giving them training and resources.

• Samaritan’s Purse field offices throughout the world incorporate HIV/AIDS programs into ongoing relief efforts.

[edit] Countries

The Prescription for Hope effort is active in the following countries:

[edit] Other Projects

Please help improve this section by expanding it. Further information might be found on the talk page or at requests for expansion.

• Children's Heart Project
• World Medical Missions
• Crisis Relief

[edit] Criticism of the Organization

Throughout the 2000's, critics have questioned the altruism of Operation Christmas Child, noting that Evangelical Christian literature has been distributed with the shoe boxes, and have alleged that the project's underlying aim is the proselytization of non-Christians =.^[21][22]. Rev. Franklin Graham, the head of Samaritan's Purse, was also criticized for calling Islam "a wicked religion,"^[23] leading to opposition campaigns by Islamic leaders.^[24] In the UK criticism has come from prominent Chistian clergy, such as Rev Giles Fraser, as well as from Muslim ^[25] and atheist groups ^[26].

The accounts for Samaritan's Purse UK for 2006 show a turn over in excess of £22 million.^[27]. Of this total, £1.3 million were disbursed on relief and aid projects with the balance spent on promotion and operations associated with the evangelical project Operation Christmas Child.

Samaritan's Purse responded to many of these concerns by highlighting their evangelical focus and their long history of interfaith cooperation.^[28]. Following censure from the UK Charity Commission, Samaritan's Purse UK also released a leaflet clarifying their intent and methods.^[29]

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Slow Sand Filtration

[edit] External links

• Samaritan's Purse US - External Newsroom
• The 2CJC Project
• Turn on the Tap Canada
• Turn on the Tap UK
• Samaritan's Purse Operation Christmas Child Exposed
• BioSand Water Filters Info - Dr. David Manz (Creator)
• Charity Navigator Rating of Samaritan's Purse