Make a Change Where It Matters Most in the World.
Be a Samaritan. Change a Life.
Globally, 1 out of 10 people live on less than $2 a day.
More than 19 million people turn to garbage dumps to survive.
These dumpsites are dangerous and poorly regulated with waste spilling into the surrounding communities.
Settlements near these dumpsites are home to refugees, lepers, abuse victims, orphans, and other extraordinarily vulnerable groups.
When people have no other way to survive, they turn to dumpsites and dig through trash to find recyclables and other items to sell or use. The majority of the people laboring in these dumpsites are single mothers, women who feel they have no other way to provide for their children.
Let’s give them some other options.
Be a Samaritan. Stop and help.
You can stop and help change a life by becoming a Samaritan. Since 1994, International Samaritan has been connecting Samaritans like you, who have a calling to help, to families who live in and next to garbage dumps around the world. Together, we’re breaking the chains of poverty and improving all our lives.
Holistic Scholarships
Our scholarships cover not only school fees, but help with essential expenses, basic medical care, and other costs that push students to drop out of school.
Safe Water & Safe Spaces
We prioritize bringing clean water and a safe meeting place to settlements next to garbage dumps that struggle with sanitation and violence.
Learn, Serve, Grow
Families, schools, and churches in the U.S. commit to year-long partnerships to learn about our communities and help our scholars break out of poverty.
The Entire School Year
Make your gift monthly and support International Samaritan Scholars throughout the entire school year. Your gifts are used for tuition, school uniforms, school supplies, food baskets, and basic health and wellness services.
Your Impact Lasts For Generations
As a Samaritan, you’re integral in building the Samaritans for Life network, our growing group of graduates who are changing lives. Each year, about 50 Samaritan Scholars graduate from college or trade school with a shared commitment to:
- Love God with their whole heart, soul, body and mind.
- Love their neighbor as Jesus loves them.
- Raise their family to do the same.
The Samaritan scholarship program is dedicated to growing these exemplary young people so they can lead their communities.
International Samaritan News
Two Great Thanksgiving Ideas
I was just with Anthony a few weeks ago in San Pedro Sula. With other scholars, their moms, and some friends from Toledo, we made and packaged 350 tortillas and snacks and then loaded them into pickups and drove into the dumpsite to deliver food to the workers there. Within 20 minutes, we gave away all 350 meals, at least 40 or 50 of them to children between the ages of 5 and 12.
We Heal More Than We Know
Last month, we welcomed an exceptional team of doctors to Uganda from Trinity Health Michigan. They came not for comfort, but to serve. For close to three weeks, they worked side by side with our local health teams at St. Stephen’s Hospital and Kasangati Community...
The Wind Beneath Our Wings
Today I am finishing my seventh year at International Samaritan. This has been the best seven years of my life; no other stretch comes close. Every day I get to work with teams in eight nations made up of some of the most talented, thoughtful, and giving people I have...
The dump is very dangerous. Even the garbage trucks don’t stop for us. They run us over without a second thought. They call us rats. To them, we’re worth less than the garbage.
Even though we live in different places, we share many struggles and triumphs. I now know more about both myself and others.
I’ve been involved with International Samaritan for probably close to 20 years. I cannot imagine a better organization to support than this one. This is a life-changing organization.
The Samaritan Promise
International Samaritan is a Christ-centered organization built on Catholic Social Teaching. As followers of Christ, we serve anyone, regardless of religious belief or practice. One hundred percent of all donations since 2019 have gone directly to services in developing nations, made possible by the generosity of our founding families since 1994.
