July 3, 2007 ShelterBox Announcement
ShelterBox responds to Solomons emergency
Emergency accommodation for 2,000 people is being sent to The Solomon Islands by the disaster relief agency ShelterBox.
The charity is responding to the tsunami that hit the islands early yesterday morning, creating 10-metre high waves that destroyed hundreds of homes along the coastline of the remote island chain.
An initial consignment of 200 ShelterBoxes, each containing a 10-person tent and other survival equipment, is being prepared and will leave for the Pacific island chain within the next couple of days.
ShelterBox publicity officer Huw Thomas said: “The Solomons are a very remote part of the world and we’ve first got to fly the boxes from the UK to Brisbane in Australia, then get them to the Honiara, which is the capital of the islands.
“From there, it’s about another 200 miles by sea to the island of Gizo, which is where the worst damage occurred. The reports we’re getting are that at least 22 people were killed in the disaster and around 5,000 people left homeless.”
The tsunami followed an undersea quake that registered 8.0 on the Richter scale. The epicentre of the quake was just 25 miles from Gizo and the prime minister of the Solomons has said that the town of Gizo will need to be completely rebuilt.
Mr Thomas said the deployment to the Solomons is stretching the resources of the charity, which is supported by Rotary clubs worldwide. He said: “We’ve only just sent 600 boxes out to flooding victims in Bolivia and one of our response teams is still at work there. We do get tremendous support from the people of the South West but unfortunately when disasters like this happen we do need to ask for more funds.”
31st July 2006 SOMALIA: The first pictures of a baby born in a ShelterBox tent have been sent back from Somalia by photographer Mark Pearson.
The little girl, Iqran Ali Mohammed, was born after her mother, Amina, sought refuge in a UNICEF camp set up to help some of the thousands of Somalis forced from their homes by 15 years of civil war and a severe drought.
Amina is just one of 5,000 people so far housed in Somalia by ShelterBox, which is working with UNICEF to provide emergency accommodation for the displaced – many of them women and children.
June 1, 2006 ShelterBox USA Announcement . . . . .
ON SATURDAY, MAY 27TH, 2006, A DEVASTATING EARTHQUAKE HIT JAVA, INDONESIA. 400 TENTS IN 200 SHELTERBOXES WERE DISPATCHED FROM HELSTON BASE, UK, BY ROAD AND AIR-FREIGHTED ON MAY 29TH TO EARTHQUAKE-AFFECTED AREA YOGYAKARTA/JAVA. ARRIVAL TIME FOR THESE BOXES IS SCHEDULED FOR FRIDAY, JUNE 2ND, 2006. A FURTHER 400 TENTS IN 200 BOXES WERE DISPATCHED ON MAY 31ST WITH A DELIVERY DATE ON SATURDAY, JUNE 3RD, 2006.
IT IS ANTICIPATED THAT MANY MORE HUNDREDS OF BOXES WILL BE NEEDED AND DISPATCHED SINCE AN ANTICIPATED 250,000+ PEOPLE HAVE BEEN MADE HOMELESS BY THIS DISASTER. A SHELTERBOX 4-R TEAM ARRIVED IN THE EARTHQUAKE AREA ON TUESDAY, MAY 30TH TO ASSIST IN RECEIPT AND DISTRIBUTION OF BOXES AND MATERIAL TO THE PEOPLE DISPLACED AND MADE HOMELESS BY THE EARTHQUAKE.
The purpose of ShelterBox USA, Inc. is to provide victims of disaster with shelter, by supporting the efforts of the ShelterBox Trust. The Shelter Box USA website can be found at http://www.shelterboxusa.org
The function of ShelterBox USA, Inc. is, within the USA, to raise the money that provides the shelter for disaster victims.
ShelterBox is a grassroots Rotary club project which has rapidly grown to an international level.
The ShelterBox project was conceived and developed by Tom Henderson, a member of the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, Cornwall District, in Great Britain as their Millennium Service Project. Struck with the urgent world-wide need for a self-contained emergency shelter unit when disaster occurs, Tom designed a tent, researched suppliers and, through trial and error, developed the ShelterBox.. The international relief agency Feed the Children, has called Tom’s ShelterBox ‘the best disaster relief tool they have seen in their 20 years of experience’. Working primarily through UK Rotary clubs, Tom and his Rotary club has succeeded in exposing the ShelterBox project to over 25 million Brits and, as a result, distributed over 1200 units (providing shelter and aid for over 12,000 people).
In March, 2002, Tom approached the newly formed Rotary Club of Lakewood Ranch (near Sarasota, FL) to become the primary Rotary administrator for the ShelterBox program in the United State, known as Shelter Box USA. This commitment involves promoting ShelterBox not only through the established US Rotary club network but to other community groups, corporate groups and individuals, as well.
As a result of exhibiting at the 2003 Rotary International Conference, ShelterBox USA was responsible for initiating two other national affiliates: ShelterBox Down Under (in Australia) and Shelter-Box Canada. ShelterBox Japan is the newest global partner..
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