A Shelter Box is a plastic box which is sent out to areas which have suffered a disaster. The box contains 10 sleeping bags, a rugged 10 person tent and tools to assist the people in the affected area. In addition the box doubles up to provide fresh drinking water.
Disaster aid paid for with funds raised by the Rotary Club of Leven is helping villagers in the Solomon Islands whose homes were destroyed in the recent tsunami.
Following a massive undersea earthquake in April, the remote island chain was battered by enormous waves that destroyed dozens of towns and villages.
In response to the disaster, the aid charity ShelterBox sent 200 boxes of tents and other equipment to the Solomons. The consignment of aid was made possible thanks in part to the Rotary Club of Leven, which raised £490 for ShelterBox through our many fund raising events.
The location of the Solomons – hundreds of miles off the coast of Australia – meant getting aid to the disaster victims involved an extremely long and complex journey.
ShelterBox is operated by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard in Cornwall and the charity’s aid ended up travelling by truck to London, then by 747 jumbo jet to Brisbane, Hercules aircraft to the island of Munda, light truck to a nearby port, landing craft to the island of Gizo and various smaller boats to reach outlying communities.
The operation was overseen by Lasse Petersen from the ShelterBox Response Team, who said: “The Royal Australian Air Force flew out the first 100 ShelterBoxes, while I hitched a lift from Brisbane in a helicopter. They were landed at Munda in the Solomons but the nearest docks had been destroyed by the tsunami so we had to take them another 20km to Noro.
“After spending one night sleeping on the boxes, I managed to get them on a vessel going to Gizo, which was where the worst damage had occurred. It was one helluva journey getting them here – and then the work to distribute the aid began.”
Most of Gizo’s population of 25,000 fled to higher ground when the tsunami struck and many remained living in hilltop camps – some because their homes had been destroyed, others because frequent aftershocks had left them terrified another tsunami might occur.
By the end of April, all 200 ShelterBoxes had reached Gizo and many were taken to smaller islands yet to receive help. Lasse said: “Other aid agencies were working on the ground in Gizo so we wanted to make sure help also reached the outer islands. Some of these had been equally devastated with complete villages erased from the face of the earth with barely a trace to show they had ever existed.”
The force of the quake had lifted one 20-mile long island, Rannongga, out of the sea by three metres – leaving what had been a stunning underwater coral reef stuck up into the air. Lasse added: “Overall the death toll was low because the population of the islands is small and, following the Boxing Day Tsunami, people are quick to run to the hills if quakes happen. Nevertheless for the people affected it is hard to imagine a much more devastating event and the communities here are going to take a long time to recover.”
For more information about ShelterBox call 01326 569782 or visit www.shelterbox.org.
If you are interested in Rotary or how you can help those less fortunate than ourselves just click on the e-mail link below
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The final tally for the 2007 Leven Am-Am Golf Day has raised over £2500.00 net for the Leven Rotary charity fund. This is more than last years total largely because ALL the prizes, 70 in number, for the competition and the raffle, were donated.
The event was organised by Alistair Clark gives special thanks to all who participated and donated the many prizes for the event.
