ShelterBoxes for Haiti explained
Q. Salt Spring’s Rotary Club is fundraising to send ShelterBoxes to Haiti. What exactly are ShelterBoxes?
— Michaela Wells, Salt Spring Island
A. At $1,000 apiece, each box provides a tent shelter and other supplies for 10 people.
Stepping up to aid in Haiti disaster relief, the international charity ShelterBox has sent 4,100 such boxes to Port-au-Prince with more to follow.
Administered by Rotary Clubs, ShelterBox Canada met its target of sending 1,000 boxes to Haiti on Jan. 28. The organization has now bumped its goal up to 1,500 and Salt Spring Rotarians are urging Gulf Islanders to donate to the cause.
Tracking numbers are assigned to each box, so donors can trace where their ShelterBox ends up, says Dawn Evans, a Salt Spring Rotarian and former director of ShelterBox Canada.
Each ShelterBox (pictured above) is a large, green plastic container with a volume close to that of the average bathtub.
It holds a 10-person tent and a range of other equipment such as basic tool kits, cooking equipment and a multi-fuel stove that burns anything from diesel to old paint. Customized for Haiti, the boxes include a children’s activity pack, shovels for digging latrines and wind-up radios are supplied in one out of 10 boxes.
Haiti’s president, Rene Preval, has urgently appealed for more tents to house the estimated 1.5 million people made homeless by the earthquake.
The ShelterBox response team has provided emergency shelter for more than 20,000 people and is now in Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas with small camps already set up in Delmas, Petion-Ville, Carrefour and Leogane, according to their website.
Priority is being given to families with pregnant women and families with newborns.
As of Jan. 13, ShelterBox dropped the price for Canadians from $1,200 to $1,000.
Anyone wishing to donate can write cheques payable to the Salt Spring Rotary Club Foundation and mail them to Box 513, Ganges PO, V8K 2W2 or give them to any Rotarian. Tax receipts are available for amounts over $25.
Donations can also be made online at www.shelterbox.ca.
Funds received until Feb. 12 will be matched by the Canadian government.
PROGRESS UPDATE: Salt Spring Rotarians report that, as of February 2, they received enough funds for 3 and 1/2 ShelterBoxes.
Several other groups are planning fundraisers for boxes or portions of boxes.
Fernwood students are raising funds and will be setting up a facsimile shelter box tent, an empty Shelterbox, along with posters, and running the DVD, at Country Grocer this Saturday, Feb.6. Their goal is a full ShelterBox.
This is being organised by Tania Aguila and the Aquila/Sanchez Family is donating $100 as is the Fernwood Parents’ Association to help the students reach their goal.
Rotarians are optimistic they may reach 7 ShelterBoxes (including the 2 already donated by Rotary Club)