International Samaritan partners with victims of severe poverty living in garbage dump communities by providing access to education, housing, food, and medical care. International Samaritan encourages everyone to follow the example of the Good Samaritan, who stopped, and changed a life. Garbage dump communities are filled with men, women, children, and infants who live their lives and scrap together and existence in the most horrific conditions. Displaced by war, civil unrest, natural disasters, and other circumstances beyond their control, they need us to stop and help. Annually, we serve over 25,000 individuals across the globe. The families that we partner with in garbage dump communities have higher incomes, greater safety, better health care, and higher levels of education due to our programs. Through the contributions of generous donors and the hands of volunteers working with local partners, IS has helped tens of thousands of people on their journey.
International Samaritan partners with victims of severe poverty living in garbage dump communities by providing access to education, housing, food, and medical care. International Samaritan encourages everyone to follow the example of the Good Samaritan, who stopped, and changed a life. Garbage dump communities are filled with men, women, children, and infants who live their lives and scrap together and existence in the most horrific conditions. Displaced by war, civil unrest, natural disasters, and other circumstances beyond their control, they need us to stop and help. Annually, we serve over 25,000 individuals across the globe. The families that we partner with in garbage dump communities have higher incomes, greater safety, better health care, and higher levels of education due to our programs. Through the contributions of generous donors and the hands of volunteers working with local partners, IS has helped tens of thousands of people on their journey.
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Charting Impact
What is your organization aiming to accomplish?
International Samaritan aims to break the cycle of garbage dump poverty by providing educational scholarships and support to children and families living and depending on the dump.
What are your strategies for making this happen?
International Samaritan works to alleviate poverty in developing countries through health care, nutrition, education, and housing projects. We partner with people who live in garbage dump communities who make their living by picking through the garbage. Our Paso a Paso scholarship program provides children with the means to go to school and continue their education to be able to get better, higher earning jobs than work in the garbage dump, and thus pull themselves, their families, and their community out of the cycle of poverty.
What are your organization's capabilities for doing this?
International Samaritan partners with in-country partners and staff to determine the needs of each specific community. NGO partners and in-country staff are able to communicate with community members and ensure that programs reach their intended audiences. The Ann Arbor office provides program oversight and ensures that programs run smoothly through administrative oversight.
How will your organization know if you are making progress?
International Samaritan is partnering with another firm to determine a longterm process for measuring the impact of our programs, specifically the Paso a Paso program and the impact of education on the health and future earnings of children who complete school with the assistance of the scholarship as opposed to the health and earnings of those who do not finish school and go to work in the dump.
What have and haven't you accomplished so far?
Since 1994, International Samaritan has served tens of thousands of people who live and work in garbage dumps. We have distributed meals, built homes, provided educational support and scholarships, and provided medical care to thousands of community members across many countries throughout the world. In addition to continuing our programs, we are currently developing measures and processes for measuring the success of our programs to learn how to better serve garbage dump communities. We are already seeing the effects of education through graduates of our Paso a Paso Scholarship program in Guatemala, and we hope to see many more of these successes as our programs continue to develop.
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This impact information is current as of March 2019, when it was provided to us by GuideStar.
At this time, Impact information published on this organization's page has no effect on its rating per our methodology.
Program names and associated costs are listed for the top programs as reported on the charity's most recently filed Form 990. The top programs displayed will include the largest three programs, or those programs covering at least 60% of the charity's total expenses, whichever comes first.
Independent - the organization is an independent organization or an independent auxiliary (i.e., not affiliated with a National, Regional, or Geographic grouping of organizations).
