ShelterBoxes: Project WR104
ShelterBox is a global Rotary Club humanitarian program, bringing emergency shelter, warmth and basic equipment to people displaced when disaster strikes.
Since the project began in 2001, more than 500,000 people in 33 countries have been helped by ShelterBox. They include people displaced by the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster in 2004, floods in Nepal, and the May 2008 Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (Burma) and the tragic earthquake in China. See Burma Cyclone Disaster.
By 23 May 2008:
- ShelterBoxes were providing housing for some 20,000 people in Burma's two worst-hit disaster areas of Labutta and Bogale;
- ShelterBox Response Team members were heading into the worst-hit areas of China, with a disaster zone around the size of Spain; and
- Volunteers at the ShelterBox HQ were packing around the clock, preparing more ShelterBoxes for despatch.
In China, the ShelterBox Response Team members delivered boxes into Quhe village, north-east of Chengdu, northern Sichuan Province.
The area was remote, and was cut off by landslides. At one stage, the Chinese Army blasted rocks from the road to enable the ShelterBox truck to get through. For more details and pictures, see the ShelterBox News Update of 3 June 2008.
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ShelterBox tents provide shelter |
Delivering a ShelterBox to victims of China's terearthquake-hit Sichuan Province. |
A ShelterBox usually consists of: It provides:
The boxes are prepared and stockpiled, ready to be despatched to people in need of emergency shelter wherever and whenever disaster strikes.
ShelterBox team members were on the ground in Burma within 24 hours of Cyclone Nargis, assessing the situation and organising immediate shipment of ShelterBoxes from stockpiles in Dubai, the United Kingdom, Australia and the United States.
The project was instigated and is managed by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard in Cornwall, UK. The Australian affiliate is the Rotary Club of Endeavour Hills, and the project is registered with RAWCS. Australian deductions through RAWCS are tax-deductible.
You Can Help by:
- funding a whole ShelterBox (AUD$1,200); or
- contributing to a RAWCS fund (Project WR104) which will pool donated money to buy ShelterBoxes.
To donate funds to support this project, download the donation form, complete it and send it to the RAWCS-WR Treasurer.
For further information on ShelterBoxes. here are the links to ShelterBox Australia and the ShelterBox Trust in the UK.
ShelterBox contacts in Western Australia:
District 9460
D9460 ShelterBox Representative
PP Eric Blogg
Rotary Club of Kwinana Inc., PO Box 118, Kwinana WA 6966
Tel: (08) 9439 2099' Mob: 0412 321 416
Email: eblogg@bigpond.com
D9460 RAWCS Chair
PP Frank Wheel
Rotary Club of Mandurah City
Tel: (08) 9534 4333; Fax (08) 9534 4300
E-Mail: foxx@westnet.com.au