OUR IMPACT
READ OUR NEWEST NEWSLETTER
Click the gray arrows on the left and right sides of the page to flip through the pages, or click on the image to make it full screen.
HEAR FROM OUR SCHOLARS
Scholarship Students Worldwide
4 schools of medical care provided on medical missions
Service trips conducted
%
Wealth increase for scholarship graduates
Patients served on Medical Missions
3 service groups can complete a home
FROM OUR VOLUNTEERS
I’m so happy that I went on this trip. The joy that people have in Guatemala is incredible. It’s bittersweet: When I went to Guatemala and I was serving people, it was the happiest I’ve ever been in my life, and I don’t know if I’ll ever be that happy again.
Medical Missions like this allow you to come home and look at your own patients a different way. I think it’s very rewarding, both personally and professionally.
We did this exercise where we had to buy a week’s worth of groceries on $7, and it was absolutely eye-opening. It was really hard, and what I came up with wasn’t food that I wanted to eat. But that’s the reality for them. I get a Starbucks every morning that costs as much as their food for their whole family for the whole week.
Note: We are committed to respecting and uplifting our scholars. Due to some stories containing sensitive information, we redact or change the names of the scholars, their parents, their schools, and other details that could compromise their anonymity.
When Nothing’s For Dinner
Our team meeting this past week was a tough one. Each week, we discuss the 100 or so “connections” that our team members recorded the week before about their one-on-one meetings with our Samaritan Scholars or their parents around the world. These conversations tend to be either challenging or uplifting, but last week’s connections were just unsettling. More and more of our scholars’ families are returning to dumpsites to find food to eat. We can’t look past that.
Here’s an excerpt from a connection that one of our team members, Laura, made in Villa Guadalupe:
There are days when things go so badly that Rosa’s* grandma has to resort to bringing food that she finds in the garbage dump, and it is not in good condition. She is aware that Rosa must have gotten sick from food that she found on Saturday, and she knows that it was not in the best condition. But she said that she does not know what else to do.
She feels terrible for having to give that type of food to her grandchildren. She knows that God does not abandon them, but she feels that these moments are really difficult and there are days when she breaks down.
Laura took this photo of the chicken that Rosa’s grandmother found in the dump.
Our Health and Wellness Specialist in Ethiopia, Selam K., wrote this in a recent connection:
Amira* asked me for a multivitamin. When I asked her why, what she said broke my heart.
“There is a scarcity of food at home. The price of Teff and other commodities has skyrocketed, leading us to exhaust the last piece of Teff we had a week ago. There are kind teachers in our school who buy lunch for us struggling students three times a week. We are about ten in number. The meal typically consists of bread with stew. I thought that by taking multivitamins, I could at least stay healthy. Today, I had to pack the bread for later, so that I won’t get so hungry when I study late at night.”
She opened her bag to show me the loaf of bread. I couldn’t meet her eyes directly. I felt so bad.
From Erika, our Program Director in San Pedro Sula, Honduras:
Today, Mrs. Guzman* asked us for permission to take her daughter Carmen to work at the garbage dump, because the situation at home is very difficult. She and her husband work inside the dump all day to be able to sell recyclables, and they are also bringing food home from the landfill because sometimes they go to bed without eating.
There were a handful more like these, and all these connections were just in the last week alone!
Hunger and malnutrition are problems we had actually solved for 30 straight months after the pandemic began. With your support, we were providing roughly $100 worth of food per month to all 900 of our Samaritan Scholar families to help them survive the impact of the pandemic on the informal economy.
In those two and a half years, you could literally see the difference in the texture of their skin. Their teachers marveled at how healthy they had become.
Last year, we reduced the food support we were providing by 75%, and gave our team leaders discretion to use the remaining funds to help families with the most need. We have learned that this is not enough to stave off malnourishment, and we are determined to do more.
No child should ever have to work in a dump to survive. And nobody of any age should ever have to look for food in a dump. These are the beliefs we live by for the people in every International Samaritan community.
In discussing these challenges with our Board of Trustees, we have decided to increase our commitment to support food and other urgent needs in our communities.
So now we turn to you, friends and supporters of these communities, to ask you to consider supporting the cost of a food basket each month for the rest of the year. Would you prayerfully consider becoming a monthly donor? If you give $100 per month, you will give a family a lifeline of strength and hope each month.
They need you desperately. We are praying for miracles for them. The smile on this scholar’s face from a connection this week is the difference you can make for others today.
Using the critical needs fund, team members were able to provide food for this scholar and her family.
Laura wrote:
Our scholar couldn’t stop smiling when she saw so much food! She said that they were finally going to eat well. For her, this represents that God is always at their side and that there are people who really care about their well-being and look for ways to help them with whatever they need, from their education to their health.
*Names were changed to protect their privacy.
Mike Tenbusch, President
Mike joined International Samaritan in 2018 after two decades of leading social change in his hometown of Detroit, Michigan. He’s a University of Michigan Law grad and author of The Jonathan Effect: Helping Kids and Schools Win the Battle Against Poverty. He and his wife, Maritza, have three children who keep them young.
When Nothing’s For Dinner
Our team meeting this past week was a tough one. Each week, we discuss the 100 or so “connections'' that our team members recorded the week before about their one-on-one meetings with our Samaritan Scholars or their parents around the world. These conversations tend...
Faith, Hope, Love
I see our organization as a beacon of light, a force for good. The Samaritan Scholars and team members I work with are a testament to the boundless power of faith, hope, and love to transform lives and uplift communities.FaithAt the heart of International Samaritan...
A 180-Degree Turn
Working as our Program Director in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, I regularly see one of the worst forms of child labor: children working in garbage dumps. And yet I also get the chance to tell students, in person, that there's another way. By studying and working hard at...
8 Over 80
In just about every big city, a 40 under 40 list is published each year to recognize 40 people under the age of 40 who accomplished something special that year. It’s supposed to be a big deal, but is it really? Heck, you can do so many things under 40. Do something...
Filling the Gap
A note from Mike ...In our mission to help people break out of poverty, we find it helpful not just to study the causes of poverty but also the causes of prosperity too. Factors ranging from national policy issues to cultural values and local community challenges can...
A Race to Remember
Every year, we host a global 5K run, aiming to raise funds to support education for young scholars. However, in 2023, something extraordinary happened. Amidst the crowd of determined athletes, a young man named Mihretu emerged, not just as a winner but as a star. He...
Now That’s a Trip
This is kind of a big year for International Samaritan. Thirty years ago this summer, we were born out of desperate compassion after a priest driving a car filled with high school students on an immersion trip came across Guatemala City’s garbage dump and stopped to...
Mapping Your Life
In a world brimming with uncertainties, equipping scholars with the tools to navigate their personal and professional journeys is paramount. At the beginning of this year, our team in Jamaica decided to have life mapping and vision board workshops. These workshops...
Line of Sight
“We can care deeply—selflessly—about those we know, but that empathy rarely extends beyond our line of sight.” These words from the 2014 movie Interstellar weren’t just a few seconds of entertainment on a flight back from Honduras earlier this year, but accurately...
Stars of the Show
“What would you like to do for a family day?” I recently asked my 50 Samaritan Scholars in Uganda. Their response was touching: They wanted to see their parents perform for them. Driven by this unique request, our team of dedicated volunteers worked tirelessly for two...
president’s blog
A New Life in the New Year
By Mike Tenbusch | December 28, 2022
Daniel Castelanos has not had an easy life. He was abandoned at the dumpsite in Tegucigalpa when he was nine years old. For two years, he slept on a piece of cardboard in the dump and foraged through trash for food to eat each day. He made flower pots out of old tires that he sold to get by until tragedy struck when he was 11.
Danny recalls, “While I was with my childhood friends waiting for someone to give us something to eat, a dump truck arrived with an amazing haul of food. I ran ahead of my friends to be able to get the best of it, but it didn’t go well for me. I fell from the back while the truck was reversing. The tires ran over me from my feet to my waist.”
Suffering from shock, Danny woke up in a hospital with only minor injuries, but still no home to go to. He asked one of his aunts for help. She took him in and gave him a job helping her sell tortillas. A church ministry eventually helped him to finish high school and even start college. When their funds ran out, we were able to step in and help Danny get through the last three years of university.
For some time now, Danny has been dating his high school sweetheart. He’s known for a long time that he wants to marry her, but he wanted to prove himself worthy first. So, the very first thing he did after getting a bachelor’s in business management a few weeks ago was to invite his closest friends to share this moment with him…
Experience this special moment from Danny’s graduation party
Danny and his fiancée, Julissa
The miracle of Danny’s turnaround was supported by complete strangers: People like you who give to our holistic scholarship program for him and 800 scholars last year. We need some miracles to finish the year well. Please prayerfully consider giving generously before the year’s end to be a miracle for someone like Danny next year.
Danny with his friends
Danny on graduation day
A New Life in the New Year
By Mike Tenbusch | December 28, 2022 Daniel Castelanos has not had an easy life. He was abandoned at the dumpsite in Tegucigalpa when he was nine years old. For two years, he slept on a piece of cardboard in the dump and foraged through trash for food to eat each...
Christ the King!
By Mike Tenbusch | December 21, 2022 When our Board of Trustees voted last January to make “Water” one of our goals for the year, it was a “gulp” moment for us. We knew that we were going to be stretched and running hard all year long simply to raise the $2.4 million...
What Makes Christmas Special?
By Mike Tenbusch | December 16, 2022 We asked our scholars that question, and thought you might enjoy seeing some of their responses and favorite memories from Christmas... Thank you for being a part of their celebration. If you would like to make a final gift to our...
Confounding Women
By Mike Tenbusch | December 09, 2022 The safety and security of our team leaders have long been a concern of mine. They walk hand-in-hand with people living in some of the most difficult places on earth—and then make life-altering decisions to award holistic...
I Second that Emotion
By Mike Tenbusch | December 02, 2022 In a letter I mailed to your home last week, I talked about how often I find myself in tears in the course of our mission at International Samaritan. If you were wondering, “Has Mike just gotten soft?” I wish you had been at our...
A Mother’s Touch
By Mike Tenbusch | November 18, 2022 What would your life be like if you were never able to see your mother in person? If phone calls were the only way you could speak with her, and you had no recollection of her hugs or touch? On my most recent trip to Honduras, I...
About Us
International Samaritan is a nonprofit organization with the designation 501(c)(3). Our headquarters is located in Ann Arbor Michigan.
