Who is Global Samaritan?

TEXT

Global Samaritan began in 1999 with a very simple mission in mind: Collect surplus goods and share them with people in need. We started out of the back of a truck. Today we have shipped goods to people in need in more than 25 countries on five continents.

Global Samaritan has provided millions of US Dollars of humanitarian aid and disaster relief. We have partnered directly with thousands of people worldwide. Global Samaritan Resources, Inc. has been a 501(c)3 Texas Corporation since 2006.

Our Board of Trustees is comprised of missionaries, doctors, lawyers, accountants and educators who are experienced and well traveled in the areas we serve. Our staff has experience in domestic and international mission and relief work.

Today we have 55,000 square feet of storage in a warehouse in Abilene, Texas. The warehouse is filled by kind people.  Families, individuals, corporations and churches donate out of their surplus. They donate new items and sometimes they donate slightly damaged goods.

Often mission teams and churches bring their goods to our warehouse. We store and arrange shipment for them. We handle all the logistics. What does logistics mean? It is the management of getting goods from their point of origin to their place of destination. But when logistics is receiving, storing, and shipping material for people in need,”logistics” means hope.

One way to understand who we are is to look at what we have done

In 1999 we shipped our first 40′ container to Honduras.

A typical 40' container. Global Samaritan fills containers like this one with donated goods and ships them around the world.

Often someone asks, “What exactly is a container?” Think of what you see on a train or the back of a semi-truck. These are taken to port, put on a ship and delivered around the world.

We repeated our first shipment in 2000 when we loaded another 40′ container of donated goods and shipped it to Honduras.

It costs about $10,000 to ship one container. While that might sound expensive, think of how much you can give away in a 40′ container! Medical supplies & equipment… furniture… beds for children… books & Bibles… Even tractors & trailers! It is an incredibly efficient way to ship kindness!

Warehouse & Logistics manager Esther Kissell with volunteers from Dyess AFB loading a container for Physicians Assisting Physicians Abroad. This container is on its way to Zimbabwe.

In 2001 we tripled our output, with the help of generous donors. We shipped a 20’ container to the Ukraine, and 40′ containers to El Salvador and Belize.

We not only collect, store and ship goods to mission destinations. We also respond to disasters. Last year we sent people and goods to Japan after the tsunami. We were in Bastrop during the fires. We were on the second plane to touch down in Haiti following the earthquake.

Global Samaritan Board member Dee Lott and others load a trailer headed to help tornado victims in Missouri

Recently we had the opportunity to send several pallets of school supplies to Afghanistan on an Air Force C-130. This past spring break we partnered with university students who came together via social media to rebuild homes in Joplin, our third trip there since last May’s tornadoes.

We are currently raising money for several projects. One example is a simple plan: send bicycles and help to A House on Beekman Street. This is a small yet significant mission in one of the poorest neighborhoods in the United States, just blocks form Yankee Stadium in the South Bronx in New York City. We are committed to long-term relationships that break the cycles of spiritual, emotional, educational, and economic poverty. We are also committed to helping the kids have some fun and ride bikes!

Who is Global Samaritan?

We are people like you. We exist to collect kindness, give hope and serve the world. Global Samaritan was born on the concept of sharing our surplus with those who are weak, sick, poor or in trouble. Today one billion people or one of six people in our world subsist on less than a dollar a day. In America our resources are enormous. Global Samaritan is simply sharing our surplus with people in need.