ShelterBoxes for Haiti

In January 2010 Stowmarket Gipping Valley Rotary Club donated two ShelterBoxes, at a cost of £980, in response to the Haitian earthquake disaster. ShelterBoxes provide emergency shelter and basic survival equipment for people affected by worldwide disasters. Each ShelterBox contains a large tent, blankets, water purification and cooking equipment, basic tools, a stove and other essential equipment and costs £490 – this includes all materials, packing, storage, transport worldwide and distribution to the final recipients. Three months on from one of the worst disasters ever witnessed, over 100,000 Haitian earthquake survivors, who lost everything in the magnitude 7 quake, are rebuilding their lives in ShelterBox tents, with each box able to house a family of up to 10. The tents provide the only form of shelter for thousands of families in heavy rains and the hurricane season. At the heart of every ShelterBox is the ten-person tent which is designed to withstand extreme temperatures, high winds and heavy rainfall. Internally, each tent has privacy partitions that allow recipients to divide the space as they see fit. In addition to the tent, the boxes contain a range of other survival equipment including thermal blankets and insulated ground sheets, essential in areas where temperatures plummet at nightfall, malaria nets where malaria is prevalent as well a life saving means of water purification. Water supplies often become contaminated after a major disaster, as infrastructure and sanitation systems are destroyed presenting a dangerous threat to survivors. The basic tool kit contains a hammer, axe, saw, trenching shovel, hoe head, pliers and wire cutters and enables people to improve their immediate environment, by chopping firewood or digging a latrine, for example. Every box also contains a children’s pack with drawing books, crayons and pens for children who have lost most, if not all, of their possessions.