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About Us

A Brief History

1970 Samaritan's Purse is founded by Bob Pierce.
1973 Samaritan's Purse Canada is formed in White Rock, British Columbia
1975 Bob Pierce takes Franklin Graham on a two-month tour of the desperate mission fields in Asia.
1978 World Medical Mission is founded by Drs. Dick and Lowell Furman, who ask Franklin to set up and run the new medical ministry.
1978 Bob Pierce dies after a long bout with leukemia.
1979 Franklin Graham is elected President and Chairman of the Board.
1979 Samaritan's Purse and World Medical Mission respond to the refugee crisis in Southeast Asia with emergency supplies and medical teams.
1980 Samaritan's Purse headquarters are relocated to Boone, North Carolina, from Southern California.
1981 Samaritan's Purse Canada headquarters move to Toronto, Ontario
1983 Franklin Graham preaches in his first crusade in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
1988 Samaritan's Purse and World Medical Mission begin sending teams of doctors to Honduras to treat wounded soldiers during the Nicaraguan civil war.
1988 Sean Campbell is appointed as first Executive Director of Samaritan's Purse Canada
1989 Samaritan's Purse begins a program to train a chaplaincy corp for the contra army.
1990 Samaritan's Purse provides 100 mobile homes for families devastated by Hurricane Hugo.
1990 Samaritan's Purse Canada headquarters move to Calgary, Alberta
1991 Samaritan's Purse Canada supports emergency relief in Bangladesh after a devastating cyclone.
1992 Samaritan's Purse sends several million dollars of aid to the war-ravaged Balkans, including a 72-bed field hospital.
1992 Samaritan's Purse Canada provides emergency relief in Somalia
1993 Through a project called Operation Christmas Child, Samaritan's Purse sends gift-filled shoe boxes to children in Bosnia and Croatia.
1994 Samaritan's Purse Canada builds a field hospital to aid victims of civil war in Rwanda
1997 Samaritan's Purse opens Rachel's House in Constanta, Romania, to care for 10 children who are dying with AIDS.
1998 Samaritan's Purse Canada provides emergency relief and housing for victims of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras and Nicaragua
1999 Samaritan's Purse Canada supports emergency relief, housing and school projects for victims of civil war in Kosovo
2001 Samaritan's Purse Canada provides emergency relief, education programs and assistance for women and children in Afghanistan
2003 Samaritan's Purse Canada opens a new Ministry Centre in Calgary, Alberta
2003 Samaritan's Purse Canada celebrates 30 years of ministry
2004

Samaritan's Purse provides emergency relief for desperate refugees in Darfur, Sudan and in Chad.

2005

Samaritan's Purse provides emergency relief for victims of the devastating South Asia tsunami.

2005

Samaritan's Purse Canada responds to Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast, USA, with our Disaster Relief unit and volunteer relief teams.

2005

Samaritan's Purse responds to the earthquake in Pakistan with the largest airlift of emergency supplies in the history of the organization.

2006

Samaritan's Purse Canada partners with the University of Calgary and CIDA in the Sudanese Physician Reintegration Program, helping 14 Sudanese doctors return to their homeland with upgraded skills and training.

2006

Samaritan's Purse commits to rebuilding hundreds of churches destroyed by the civil war in South Sudan.

2006

Country recording artist Paul Brandt convoys across Canada in a gift-wrapped semi-truck in support of Operation Christmas Child.

2006

Samaritan's Purse launches the Turn on the Tap campaign to support the Household Water Program.

2007

Samaritan's Purse responds to natural disaster on three continents—flooding in Africa and Latin America, and earthquake in Asia.

2007

Samaritan's Purse supports Iraqi refugees in Lebanon Syria, and Jordan, as they flee violence in their homeland.

2008

Samaritan's Purse deploys its Disaster Relief Unit to support hundreds of local volunteers as they respond to flooding in New Brunswick.

2008

Samaritan's Purse brought relief supplies, including emergency water, to victims of a massive earthquake in China and a devastating cyclone in Myanmar.

2008

Samaritan's Purse brought relief supplies, including emergency water, to victims of a massive earthquake in China and a devastating cyclone in Myanmar.

2009

Samaritan's Purse Canada and the Disaster Relief Unit partner with local volunteers to reach out to neighbors after flooding along the Fraser River in BC.

2009

Samaritan's Purse provides emergency relief in the wake of a typhoon in the Philippines and earthquake in Indonesia.

2009

The number of BioSand water filters that Samaritan’s Purse has installed worldwide exceeds 100,000, bring safe water to almost a million people.

2009

Samaritan's Purse Canada launches the if campaign to support women’s projects around the world.

2009

Samaritan's Purse Canada renews a partnership with the University of Calgary and CIDA to rebuild clinics is war-ravaged Sudan and provide ongoing medical training and support.

2010

Samaritan's Purse embarks on its largest ever disaster response following a devastating earthquake in Haiti.




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