“The public sees us as portrayed through the media as people who do the heavy lifting and actually get the work done. A good part of the educated public really cares about where the donor dollars are going and after researching they realize that we don’t have any administrative fees, we’re just about getting work done.”
“They’ve [the Canadian government] got some concerns and they have a pattern of the way they program tax payers’ dollars and we challenge that norm. We think that doing your projects with larger agencies is not necessarily the answer, which is the way the Canadian government wants to spend its money. The government wants to have accountability and we understand that, but we are trying to show them that there are other ways to have the same accountability and deliver more aid with the same amount of money. We try to explain from our side of it. Can they be more supportive? Absolutely.”
Tis’ the season of holly jolly. But in this season of holly jolly and cutting budgets, let’s not forget organizations that help and service the poor across the globe that are hit by natural disasters.
One such organization completely run by a team of volunteers is Global Medic. Originally called Mecant-Gibson Foundation, Rahul Singh, Toronto based paramedic, started the organization in honour of his friend’s memory.
Global Medic has done a lot of work in places like Sri Lanka, the Solomon Islands, Turkey, Pakistan, Somalia and Kenya. Its volunteers are first responders, the paramedics, the police officers, the firefighters, the doctors and the nurses. Global Medic has had over 1,000 volunteers. In the last few years, it has put about 154 folks into the international operations. In 2010, Global Medic deployed over 5 field hospitals that treated 37,000 patients. Global Medic’s volunteers had installed 100 water units that purified and distributed over 20 million litres of clean drinking water in disaster affected areas.
No wonder Global Medic’s work has been recognized internationally. Its Founder has been one of the Time magazine’s most influential personalities of the year, joining President Obama, talk show queen Oprah and Apple’s boss Steve Jobs.
Sharing his experiences working in different countries, Rahul told Generation Next “Some of the countries you’re dealing with are customarily dealing with disasters. Most often you’ll get a country like Pakistan. Bureaucratically it’s accustomed to accepting and asking for foreign aid, making processes easier. So they let agencies come in and some international airlines even bring in free aid on behalf of our agencies. .. You can look at Burma; it’s an isolationist regime and doesn’t necessarily want foreigners coming in a helping role.”
As an organization that provides emergency relief services, Rahul and Rahul’s team goes through trauma of their own when they witness a life lost. However, Rahul says “..it’s the next 6 or 7 that come in through the door that you actually manage to save – who would have died – that you see the difference that your work makes.”
As a non-for-profit organization, Global Medic is constantly looking for innovative ideas to raise funds Unlike many non-for-profit organizations, Global Medic’s admin costs are zero. Funded by public, Global Medic raises funds through dinners, selling T-shirts and asking public for donations.
Rahul noted “the public sees us as portrayed through the media as people who do the heavy lifting and actually get the work done. A good part of the educated public really cares about where the donor dollars are going and after researching they realize that we don’t have any administrative fees, we’re just about getting work done.”
The local South Asian community has been generous. However, Rahul feels much more needs to be done. “They’ve [South Asian community in Canada] funded us and helped us in the past; we’ve got to do a better job of coming in front of them and explaining the work capacities we have and what we can do. The drawback is that we are a group of doers; we want to do the work and not talk about the work, so we don’t necessarily have a group of talkers that go out and say to the community that we need your help and this is why you need to support us.”
With recession rumours gaining momentum, are people inclined not to donate?
“We’ve grown in terms of our charitable numbers every year but I think that’s more to do with the fact that there are more disasters that have grown in a big scale. Everybody’s feeling the pinch in Canada and around the world,” responded the founder of Global Medic.
Global Medic partners with other organizations to discuss and develop strategies to help those who are in desperate need of emergency relief.
As an organization, Rahul believes that the Canadian government’s response to floods in Pakistan was encouraging. Nonetheless, he feels “We need to do a better job of getting it to the government’s ear and also more about the good things we’re doing and how they work and why they should be funding us.”
“They’ve [the Canadian government] got some concerns and they have a pattern of the way they program tax payers’ dollars and we challenge that norm. We think that doing your projects with larger agencies is not necessarily the answer, which is the way the Canadian government wants to spend its money. The government wants to have accountability and we understand that, but we are trying to show them that there are other ways to have the same accountability and deliver more aid with the same amount of money. We try to explain from our side of it. Can they be more supportive? Absolutely,” he adds.
As a South Asian paramedic, Rahul feels that “the South Asian South Asian community has overlooked this field [emergency response], and they should take a second hard look” at their career choices.
Are there enough jobs for youth in paramedics’ field?
“I think we’re coming into a transition in the City of Toronto. For example, in the next 5 years, we’re going to lose a solid 20% of our workforce, so there will be opportunities for younger people to get in and become paramedics so it is a good filed to be studying right now. There are not enough jobs for people coming out of the colleges now because it’s such a specialty profession, but in a couple of more years, that will completely spin the other way and there will be too many jobs and not enough folks to come in,” stated the son of a father who is from Rajasthan, India and a mother who is from Quetta, Pakistan.
As far as the equal representation of visible minorities in Canada goes, Rahul feels “You can’t ask for someone to come into a job of power if you’re not willing to populate that industry to move all the way up..For example in the police force today in Toronto you will see a few Indian officers and South Asian paramedics but in 10-20 years from now when those people climb through the ranks, will you get a South Asian chief? I’d like to think so. So I think the country has opened up the opportunity and it’s up to us to take the advantage of that and rather than making the excuse that the system isn’t good enough..”
For Global Medic, Rahul’s ambition for next ten years is “to see us a bigger agency with a more stable funding base that is recognized by Canada as the primary agency of choice to give money in a disaster. More importantly I’d like to see us as the gritty frontline emergency workers agency that goes in and focuses on doing the work.”















