How Rahul Singh's GlobalMedic Is Revolutionizing Disaster Relief | Toronto Paramedic Saving Lives Worldwide
From Nepal backpacker to TIME's 100: how this Canadian first responder delivers aid within hours of disaster, anywhere in the world
The air in Port-au-Prince hung thick with dust and desperation. Forty-eight hours after the earth had violently convulsed, the screams of trapped survivors still echoed through crumbled concrete and twisted rebar.
In the makeshift trauma ward at Adventist University Hospital, Rahul Singh wiped sweat from his brow as he surveyed the hundreds of injured Haitians crowded into every available space.
The Toronto paramedic had just completed an 18-hour journey from the Dominican Republic after Haiti's airport had been overwhelmed. And there was no time to rest. A young girl with a severely infected leg wound needed immediate attention. Amputation or death were the only options on this sweltering January day in 2010.
As Singh's team of volunteers unpacked inflatable field hospitals and portable water purification systems, they embodied his simple philosophy: speed saves lives.
This wasn’t just another disaster response; it was the culmination of a vision born twelve years earlier, when a backpacking trip to Nepal showed Canadian paramedic Rahul Singh that humanitarian aid needed a radical rethinking, and that he would have to be the one to lead it.
I’m glad you’re here with me to explore the story of GlobalMedic and its Canadian founder, Rahul Singh. He’s a Toronto paramedic who saw something broken in the global aid system and chose to fix it.
If you’ve ever felt frustrated that help doesn’t always arrive fast enough in a crisis, this story might give you a boost of hope. It’s about everyday Canadians: paramedics, firefighters, and volunteers, who’ve saved thousands of lives by doing relief work in a way that’s direct, quick, and extremely hands-on.
In 1998, Montréal-born Rahul Singh was backpacking in Nepal, where he witnessed monsoon-triggered mudslides that swept away roads and villages, leaving local communities desperate for help.
At the same time, Singh noticed established aid agencies struggling with what looked like slow and tangled responses.
Frustrated, he wondered why nobody pushed harder for speed and practical solutions. And this sparked his burning desire to do something about it. As he put it: “I wanted to do something to ensure efficient and immediate relief.”
That same year, Singh suffered the loss of his best friend, David McAntony Gibson. To honour his friend’s memory, Singh created the David McAntony Gibson Foundation. He also created an operational for the foundation that was called GlobalMedic, which would eventually become the official name most people recognize.
Singh’s new foundation had one simple goal: show up fast when a disaster hits and deliver lifesaving aid without getting bogged down by logistics or bureaucracy. “We are the doers,” Singh often says. “We deliver the aid and we’re going to do whatever it takes to make the process easier.”
Right from the start, he wanted a lean, volunteer-based model. Rather than juggling huge overhead costs, he used a few dedicated staff and a network of skilled helpers.
This was quite different from big international NGOs that typically get involved in disaster relief efforts. And it grew directly out of Singh’s paramedic mindset: you arrive at an emergency, stabilize the situation, then hand things off to someone else while you move on to your next call.
In the early years, GlobalMedic remained small, focusing on empowering local partners through training. One of its first major projects involved teaching members of landmine clearance teams in Cambodia and Sri Lanka essential medical skills.
These teams were working in extremely dangerous regions still affected by past wars. By equipping them to provide emergency care, GlobalMedic ensured they could treat injuries—both their own and those of others—during the high-risk process of landmine removal.
Singh was juggling all this while still working full-time as a Toronto paramedic.
Luckily, he wasn’t alone, though, as he also had a growing pool of volunteers to draw on. As Singh observed, Toronto’s diversity is an advantage for global work: “In the city of Toronto, more than half the population does not speak English as a first language. Our people are from everywhere, and they care.”
That mix of backgrounds came in handy for missions that needed language skills, cultural awareness, and grit.
GlobalMedic’s first major deployment to a full-blown disaster took place in late 2004. In September that year, Hurricane Ivan, a Category 3 storm with sustained winds of approximately 120 mph (193 km/h), struck Grenada, causing widespread devastation.
The hurricane damaged or destroyed about 89% of the island’s homes, severely impacted infrastructure, and resulted in the deaths of at least 37 individuals.
As soon as Singh heard about the havoc it wreaked, he recognized the urgent need for assistance and led a small team: GlobalMedics’ Rapid Response Team (RRT) there to help with disaster recovery.
This mission marked the first practical application of GlobalMedic’s model: swiftly arriving on-site with portable equipment and trained personnel ready to deliver aid. Upon arrival, the RRT focused on several critical areas:
Emergency Medical Care: Setting up inflatable field hospitals to treat the injured.
Water Purification: Deploying portable water purification units to ensure access to clean drinking water, mitigating the risk of waterborne diseases.
Infrastructure Assessment: Collaborating with local authorities to evaluate structural damages and prioritize relief efforts.
This deployment not only provided immediate relief to Grenada’s residents but also validated GlobalMedic’s approach to disaster response. The experience gained during this mission informed the organization’s strategies in subsequent operations, solidifying its commitment to rapid, efficient, and adaptable humanitarian aid.
Then, only months later, the Indian Ocean Boxing Day Tsunami hit. GlobalMedic quickly mobilized and rushed to Sri Lanka, where the team provided direct medical support to displaced families along the coast.
These early missions became the blueprint for GlobalMedic’s future operations. The team focused on preparing in advance: training volunteers, pre-packing portable gear like water purification units and inflatable medical tents, so they could act immediately when disaster struck.
Singh believed that even a small group of well-trained responders could make a major impact if they arrived quickly and brought the right tools. And GlobalMedic had proved that both in Grenada and Sri Lanka.
Over the next few years, GlobalMedic’s track record of rapid deployments got noticed. By the late 2000s, they were seen as a nimble team that swooped in when floods or earthquakes struck. Where bigger groups might take days or weeks to coordinate, GlobalMedic prided itself on being on the ground within hours if possible.
Their big moment in the spotlight came in 2010, after GlobalMedic’s work in Haiti. Singh was named one of TIME’s 100 most influential people, largely because of how quickly his team set up field hospitals and water filters following the massive earthquake there.
It was a moment of recognition for him personally, but more than that, it was an acknowledgment that his idea of small, lean, and volunteer-driven approaches was extremely valuable in providing timely disaster relief responses.
By 2010, the volunteer base continued growing, especially following the notoriety that GlobalMedic earned. What started as a few paramedics, lovingly dubbed the “dirty dozen,” turned into more than a thousand volunteers within just a decade of Singh founding the foundation.
Firefighters, police officers, and medical professionals all pitched in—many using their vacation time or taking unpaid leave from their regular jobs to deploy wherever their expertise and humanitarian commitment were needed most.
Meanwhile, Singh stuck to his principle of not drawing a salary from GlobalMedic. The biggest criticisms of big NGO’s and other aid agencies are their management (or mismanagement of funds). He wanted donors and governments to see that there was no hidden agenda.
“I think we’ve got more credibility when we are unpaid, and more importantly, it’s pretty hard to question our motivations,” he said in a 2010 interview. The team’s annual budget in 2010/2011 was only $1.4 million, yet they still tackled multiple crises each year, and put every dollar into helping people in need.
As mentioned above, GlobalMedic approaches disasters like a 911 call: get in, stabilize, and then hand over to bigger or longer-term agencies. Singh is outspoken about how bureaucracy can cost lives.
In Haiti, he famously confronted officials who claimed they were doing enough: “I’ve just been in Haiti watching nine-year-old girls getting their legs chopped off, so don’t tell me you’re doing a good job.” He also pushes for governments to store “inflatable hospitals and portable water units, ready to go at all times,” instead of waiting for red tape to clear.
As GlobalMedic evolved, it developed Rapid Response Teams with three core specialties: search and rescue, emergency field hospitals, and water purification. This focused structure improves efficiency and allows the organization to ‘parachute in’ with the right tools and personnel tailored to each unique disaster.
Volunteers train regularly to handle cutting-edge, innovative, high-tech gear. The water purification systems they use range from backpack filters to large-scale Nomad units that purify hundreds of liters per hour.
When you think of disasters and disaster relief, you often think of medical aid, search and rescue efforts and the need for shelter, but without access to clean water, all other efforts are futile. Water is life, and after the worst disasters, contaminated drinking water is a major issue that needs attention.
GlobalMedic also adopted new technologies, such as the use of UAVs (drones) in disaster zones. The idea is simple: if you can see where the damage is from above, you can get help there faster. And drones are much more practical and cost-effective than coordinating helicopters that require supporting infrastructure and crews.
Because of their emphasis on speed, GlobalMedic sometimes bumps heads with large institutions. As should be clear by now, Singh believes that big agencies and governments move too slowly.
As Singh sometimes shares, his “pigheaded paramedic” attitude has rubbed some officials the wrong way. But volunteers like Julie Colgan admire him for it. “He has a no-nonsense, ‘get out of my way’ approach,” she says. “That’s how we save lives quickly.”
A big part of GlobalMedic’s story revolves around its most dramatic missions. Below are three of the many disasters where they showed just how far a small, determined team can go.
On January 12, 2010, at 4:53 p.m., a powerful earthquake struck near Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It devastated the capital, killed at least 200,000 people, and left over a million homeless.
Within 48 hours, Rahul Singh and his team were en route. They couldn’t land directly in Port-au-Prince because the airport was overwhelmed, so they flew to the Dominican Republic, then made a grueling 18-hour journey by road.
GlobalMedic’s first stop was the Adventist University Hospital in Carrefour. This modest 71-bed hospital had hundreds of injured Haitians jammed into every corner.
The GlobalMedic crew—doctors, paramedics, and other volunteers—jumped in right away, treating crush wounds, doing amputations (sometimes on makeshift tables), and dispensing critical antibiotics.
One volunteer recalled a young girl needing an emergency amputation or she would die of infection. For a few days, they were doing round-the-clock trauma care in harrowing conditions.
GlobalMedic erected two inflatable field hospitals on the campus to expand hospital capacity. Bright yellow tents went up in a matter of days, each one accommodating hundreds of patients daily. Meanwhile, mobile medical teams fanned out beyond the capital to areas that hadn’t seen much help.
Because water infrastructure was destroyed, cholera and other water-borne diseases became a major threat. GlobalMedic specialized in portable water systems, so within 12 hours of arrival, they had a filtration unit running, pulling water from a damaged swimming pool and purifying it on-site. They also handed out backpack-sized Trekker filters and millions of water tablets.
A local Haitian motorcycle club, nicknamed “the Eagles,” helped by loading portable units onto bikes and delivering safe water to remote parts of the city. Another group, “the Lions,” ran stationary water systems that served 15,000 people daily.
Within a month, GlobalMedic had distributed more than 10 million liters of clean water in total.
In the end, GlobalMedic’s mission in Haiti treated over 7,000 patients and installed more than 60 water purification systems. TIME magazine cited it as proof that “a tiny group of medics can save thousands of lives” when every minute matters.
One volunteer, David Sakaki, described Port-au-Prince as “just in ruins,” with no power or functioning roads, but that’s precisely where GlobalMedic’s speed-first model shone. Their efforts turned chaos into life-saving action.
In November 2013, the Philippines was slammed by Haiyan (locally called Yolanda), one of the strongest storms ever recorded. With 6-meter storm surges and extreme winds, coastal cities were flattened. Over 6,000 people lost their lives, and millions were displaced.
GlobalMedic had previous experience in the Philippines, which helped them jump into action quickly. Within a day, an advance team landed and quickly set up base in the hardest-hit areas: Tacloban, Iloilo, and Cebu.
Tacloban, in particular, was devastated. One firefighter volunteer recalled, “The airport is gone… the city is just in ruins. There isn’t a building untouched.”
As in Haiti, GlobalMedic focused on water purification and medical relief. They shipped in systems like the Rainfresh AquaResponse-10, Trekker filters, and a larger Nomad unit.
To speed things up, they arranged a private C-130 Hercules cargo plane just a day after they arrived. Water trucks delivered safe water to roughly 50 communities, refilling from bigger purification stations.
Meanwhile, medical teams treated over 1,200 patients, patched up local clinics, and set up an inflatable hospital on Panay Island. They also distributed food, rice, and other essentials through a “Quick Intervention Project.”
This deployment to the Philippines lasted for months, with volunteers rotating in and out. By January 2014, the operation was still going strong. GlobalMedic also tested drone technology during this mission to map damage zones.
This brand-new tool helped them quickly identify which areas were cut off by debris, so they knew where to focus their efforts. In total, they purified over 2.4 million liters of water and handed out more than 5 million water purification tablets during this campaign.
For many storm survivors, GlobalMedic’s presence in those early weeks was crucial. It was a race against time to prevent disease outbreaks and keep injured people alive until other relief efforts caught up.
Around noon on April 25, 2015, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked Nepal. Buildings and temples in Kathmandu collapsed, and rural villages were hit by landslides.
More than 9,000 people died, and 25,000 were injured. GlobalMedic reacted within hours: an advance team flew in from Toronto, and another group came overland from India.
Kathmandu’s small airport became congested with aid flights, but GlobalMedic lucked out; their plane was one of the first commercial flights allowed to land. Volunteers arrived to find a city rattled by aftershocks. People were camping outdoors, too afraid to go back inside. Despite the chaos, the team quickly unpacked drones, water units, and medical supplies.
Water was again the top priority. GlobalMedic set up multiple community-scale purification systems throughout Kathmandu and surrounding districts. They placed large chlorination units in hospitals, schools, and camps, and gave out nearly 6,000 Rainfresh household filter kits to families.
At Kathmandu Children’s Hospital, they fixed broken water infrastructure and taught staff how to chlorinate storage tanks. These moves prevented a dangerous wave of waterborne illnesses.
Shelter was also critical because the monsoon season was coming. GlobalMedic flew in 30 large tents within the first week. Some became makeshift clinics and maternal health centers, while others served as emergency housing for families who’d lost everything.
Volunteers also distributed hygiene kits with soap, toothbrushes, and towels. This might sound basic, but it’s essential if you want to prevent disease in crowded camps.
Nepali authorities requested GlobalMedic’s drone assistance to map landslides and locate remote villages that had been cut off. In one instance, the team helped search for a missing U.S. Marine helicopter in rugged terrain. By viewing aerial footage, rescuers had a clearer picture of the disaster’s layout, speeding up lifesaving efforts.
For months, GlobalMedic kept water stations running, returning often to restock supplies and maintain equipment. Even when a major aftershock rattled the region in May, volunteers pressed on.
Local partners eventually took over operations, which is exactly how Singh envisions it: GlobalMedic shows up early, provides immediate relief, and hands off to local groups or larger agencies.
For Singh, helping Nepal felt like a full-circle moment. That backpacking trip he took in 1998 was what inspired GlobalMedic. Now the organization was returning with advanced tools, delivering the swift action he once wished he could have provided back then.
To date, GlobalMedic has provided humanitarian assistance to over 4 million beneficiaries in more than 80 countries through 240+ deployments since 2004.
They’ve responded to earthquakes in Indonesia, Pakistan, Peru, and Japan; to floods in Bangladesh and India; to droughts in East Africa; even to conflict-related crises in places like Gaza, Libya, and Ukraine.
In East Africa in 2011, when drought turned into a famine crisis, GlobalMedic volunteers set up water filtration assembly lines in a Mississauga, Ontario warehouse to ship life-saving units to Somalia and Kenya. A Canadian parliamentary report once called GlobalMedic “a great Canadian story” for being small yet unbelievably agile and effective.
One key to this success is an extremely diverse volunteer base. Singh points out that volunteers come from “all genders, all ages, all ethnicities, all educational backgrounds, all political views.” In other words, a microcosm of Canada.
They also partner with local communities, corporate donors, and sometimes governments, but always with minimal overhead. Singh is known to persuade big-box stores to donate supplies and airlines to waive cargo fees for relief gear. Over the years, they’ve proven that a big budget isn’t the only way to have a big impact.
You might be wondering what keeps GlobalMedic going after all these deployments. The answer is the same principle that started it all: speed matters when lives are on the line. “Time is of the essence when it comes to saving lives,” Singh says, reminding us that following disasters, a slow response can mean the difference between life and death.
Rahul Singh’s no-salary approach, the volunteer-driven system, and the willingness to test new ideas, like drone mapping, have all shaped GlobalMedic’s reputation.
They’re often the first in and the first out, bridging that critical window before large organizations ramp up long-term aid. That short window is exactly where they shine.
And even though Singh has piled up accolades such as Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Award (2009), Time’s 100 Most Influential People (2010), and the Order of Ontario (2012), Singh keeps going back to his paramedic roots. He has never stopped working shifts in Toronto, and he’s still that guy who answers a 911 call.
For Canadians, GlobalMedic is a reminder of what’s possible when you combine compassion, expertise, and a dash of stubbornness.
Even if you and I never rush into a post-earthquake zone ourselves, it’s heartening to know that a small group of Canadians is out there, pushing past barriers, and proving that swift, direct action can save thousands of lives.
They don’t wait around for someone else to handle it. They simply show up and get to work. And that, perhaps, is the real lesson in this story.
Have a rad rest of your day!
Sources used to research this story:
https://cambridgehouse.com/u/44061/rahul-singh
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahul_Singh_(paramedic)
https://stories.td.com/ca/en/article/globalfire-wildfires
https://portal.clubrunner.ca/160/event/rahul-singh---global-medic
https://globalmedic.ca/board-members/
https://ca.linkedin.com/in/rahul-singh-0a390b22
https://emergencyexpo.com/speaker-collection/2025-governing-body/rahul-singh/