Samaritans Purse

A new fear gripped thousands of homeless families in Haiti when an evening downpour drenched makeshift tent camps across the Port-au-Prince area. It’s April and the rainy season has begun.

As the rains increase, people living under old sheets and scraps of plastic face a dilemma. They can stay outside and try not to get soaked, or seek shelter in earthquake-damaged homes and buildings that are ready to collapse. Sickness brought on by exposure and the spread of disease are also major concerns. (more…)

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Samaritan’s Purse has a strong network of churches, schools, and community groups in the relief catchment areas through Operation Christmas Child. Initially we were asked by the Relief Centers of Whittlesea and Diamond Valley to help supply necessary recovery equipment to families who have lost their homes and belongings.

Since then we have entered a new phase of recovery where we are working with the Salvation Army and the local communities and mobilised volunteers to help rebuild essential fencing and help get communities back on their feet.

Since the earthquake on January 12th, your support – both through your gifts and prayers – has helped Samaritan’s Purse take on an extremely active and helpful role in the disaster relief efforts in Haiti. Here is a summary of how your support is making an impact in Haiti:

Emergency items/shelter: We have been able to distribute blankets, solar flashlights, hygiene kits, shelter kits, plastic for temporary shelter, water purification kits and jerry cans to around 300 families per day.

Water: Our teams have brought in 20 large community water filters, each capable of producing 10,000 gallons of clean drinking water each day.

Medical: We have flown in $130,000 in vaccines for tetanus and other diseases from the US, and we have supplied one of the mission hospitals in Haiti with clean water, fuel and medical supplies and set up a community water filter.

Sanitation: To improve sanitation, we have installed 55 bathing facilities, eight hand-washing stations, and 363 latrines.

Rubble cleanup & employment: To date, our team has removed more than 10,000 cubic meters of rubble and cleared five miles of road, six public buildings, three local businesses, and three churches.

Through this program, we have employed 386 Haitians, 42 percent of whom are women. Samaritan’s Purse has sent 185 staff members and non-medical volunteers to Haiti. We have also sent 90 medical staff members and volunteers, and 22 chaplains from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association’s Rapid Response Team have worked with our team on the ground.

Please continue to pray for the immediate and ongoing relief efforts as well as our long-term strategy for rebuilding communities in Haiti. Pray especially for the two Australians, Trevor Adams and Alistair Clelow who are both serving with the teams in the transitional relief phase.

Did you miss the Seven Network Good Friday special called New Life: Three Stories of Hope? You can view it right here…

Christian Television Australia (CTA), in association with international aid agency Samaritan’s Purse Australia (SPA) presents Three stories of Hope and new life which was broadcast at 12 midday, on Good Friday 2010 on the Seven Network. (more…)

Working through a network of 20 churches, Samaritan’s Purse distributed three tons of food to earthquake survivors in Concepcion, Chile, on Wednesday. Concepcion has been put under a strict curfew, but our team has been given special permission to work during restricted hours.

Concepcion, the second-largest city in Chile, is about 70 miles from the epicenter of the massive 8.8 magnitude quake that hit Saturday. A member of our Operation Christmas Child National Leadership Team has purchased food in a neighboring area and is delivering it to Concepcion for distribution Thursday. We are coordinating with missionaries in Santiago to secure more food for residents who lost everything in the disaster. (more…)

The South Pacific Tsunami that washed away coastal villages in Samoa on September 2009, claimed at least 140 lives, and left thousands of people in need of emergency assistance. Samaritan’s Purse immediately mobilised a Disaster and Assistance Response Team (DART) that arrived on the ground within days of the Tsunami.

We partnered with Reverend Nu’uausala Siaosi and the Apia Protestant Church to assess the situation and how to best meet the needs in the affected communities. The DART team included experienced relief workers from Samaritan’s Purse in Australia, the UK, Canada and the USA. (more…)

Click to see how your gifts are changing lives around the world.

Operation Christmas Child

Many innocent children are caught in poverty and hostile environments, trying to survive while constantly at risk of being exploited. Samaritan’s Purse is there to offer compassion assistance and protection. (more…)

Over the last few weeks we have been overwhelmed by the financial support that has flooded in to support the people of Haiti. To date, we have raised over $110,000 to provide relief and support to victims of the earthquake there.

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Samaritan’s Purse teams are working with local churches to deliver emergency relief supplies to earthquake victims.

Samaritan’s Purse teams are working with a network of pastors to distribute critically-needed relief supplies for victims of the massive earthquake that rocked Haiti last week.
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Samaritan’s Purse is sending a disaster assistance team to Haiti after the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere was rocked by one of the strongest earthquakes to hit the Caribbean in decades.

Samaritan’s Purse dispatched a team just hours after the quake to help with water, shelter, medical care, and other emergency needs. We will focus on medical help, shelter, clean water, and hygiene supplies. (more…)

In the shadow of an imposing Buddhist monastery, hundreds of students spend hours each day focusing on their schoolwork. They sit on sturdy chairs behind wooden desks, and their teachers instruct them with new blackboards and other supplies.

Just a few months ago, none of the parents in this Myanmar village dreamed their children would ever have an opportunity for a quality education.

Their previous ramshackle school building was blown apart by Cyclone Nargis’ winds last year.

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Samaritan’s Purse has worked in disaster relief areas all around the world and recently used that experience to meet the needs of communities in Victoria that were devastated by the bushfires .

While we were at work in the relief centres providing trauma and grief counselling, a practical need of families and farmers became apparent. When the time came for each of these families to finally be allowed back to their destroyed and damaged homes, they had no tools to work with.

“I survived the fire with my two daughters but lost everything else. The tools Samaritan’s Purse provided helped me sift through the remains of our home and re-establish my vegetable garden. You’ve encouraged me and helped me focus on the future”. – Toni-Anne, victim of bushfire at St. Andrews

The immediate needs of food and clothes were well in hand so Samaritans Purse, enabled by donations received for the Bushfire Appeal of more than $72,000 set to work to provide Emergency Recovery Kits of tools and equipment.

Our expansive network of churches, schools and community groups attached to the Operation Christmas Child program were fundamental to distributing the kits in their communities. This is a model we strongly believe in as it is cost effective and it empowers local churches to care for their neighbours.

Two hundred kits comprising new items like safety equipment, pliers, wrecking-bars, hammers, shovels, screwdrivers and even brooms, were included in each kit. A further 50 kits were put together due to extra donations and these included items such as sledge hammers and generators.

“As a church seeking to reach out with Christ-motivated practical assistance we have greatly valued our partnership with Samaritan’s Purse whose involvement has extended to the provision of Emergency Recovery Kits… for donation to those who have lost everything”. –Pastor Steve Messer, Community Church at Warragul

The town of Marysville has only just been re-opened, allowing people to return to their properties and assess their damage. Another 100 Emergency Recovery Kits will be needed in Marysville to help the residents recover and rebuild.

If you would like to give a gift for the residence of Marysville please click here.

Again, these kits will be distributed through the local church, connecting the shaken people of Marysville with their Christian neighbours.

Thank you for helping provide 330 Emergency Recovery Kits to victims of the Victoria bushfires. And please continue to pray as they work to rebuild their lives in the coming months.