Thursday, Apr. 01, 2010
Rahul Singh
Age: 39
Occupation: Founder and director of Global Medic
Previous TIME 100 Appearances: 0
In the early 1990s Singh's wife left him, and in despair the successful entrepreneur went on an extended trip around the world. While in Nepal, the country was afflicted with crippling landslides. Singh was changed forever, becoming a paramedic and founding Global Medic. The Canadian NGO is lean: run almost completely by volunteers, the office itself is donated. It has two divisions, capacity training and disaster response, but in the wake of Haiti's devastating earthquake, it focuses mostly on providing clean water. Global Medic has thus far produced more than 9 million L of clean drinking water and is now producing a million liters a week.