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News

Princes William and Harry volunteer at a British Red Cross aid centre

7th January 2005

Princes William and Harry helped survivors of the tsunami tragedy by working in a warehouse sending aid to stricken victims.

The brothers spent the morning shifting boxes and pallets of much-needed emergency supplies for the British Red Cross in Warmley, Gloucestershire.

William, 22, and Harry, 20, joined 24 volunteers in preparing and loading hygiene packs being sent to the Maldives.

More than 12,500 people have been made homeless on the chain of islands by the devastating tidal wave. At least 82 people died, including three Britons, and 26 are missing.

They asked to become physically involved in the large-scale campaign, after making a donation to the Disaster Emergency Committee from their private money two days after Boxing Day while watching news of the growing disaster unfold on television.

In the Red Cross‘s warehouse on an industrial estate in Warmley, the Princes were dressed in blue Red Cross sweaters emblazoned with the charity‘s distinctive logo and labelled with handwritten name stickers.

Final year university student William helped wrap stacks of containers in clear plastic, before manoeuvring the trolley of 16 large boxes of hygiene packs outside into the loading bay.

Harry, who is joining the Army later this year, lined up a pallet of toilet rolls pulling it along, before unpacking shampoo bottles.

The pair worked quickly in the noisy bustling warehouse, hurrying around, helping volunteers to rip up used cardboard boxes and move goods outside.

Their appearance followed a week of royal family engagements relating to the disaster, with The Queen visiting the emergency hotline for worried relatives and The
Prince of Wales visiting Red Cross Headquarters on New Year's Eve and meeting volunteers at a London Buddhist temple yesterday.

Two thousand hygiene packs are being processed at the warehouse each day and will be sent to the Maldives on Monday to try to prevent the spread of disease in the area.
Each one contains enough supplies to last a family of six up to eight weeks.

They are made up of: 20 toilet rolls, six packs of sanitary towels, six tooth brushes, six tubes of toothpaste, six packs of razors, four bars of soap and two large bars of clothes washing soap. The packs and other toiletries will be sent to the capital Male along with a mass consignment of water sanitation equipment.

Sir Nicholas Young, Chief Executive of the British Red Cross, said: “The Princes‘ time is a small but important part of the major logistics effort that swung into action on Boxing Day following the catastrophic quake and tsunami.”

Twenty of the Maldives‘ 199 inhabited islands have been described as “totally destroyed” in the Boxing Day disaster. More than 100,000 people - a third of the country‘s population - has been affected by the extensive flooding.

The Princes later joined the makeshift production assembly line, filling the hygiene packs with toilet rolls, while others added additional goods from sanitary towels to bars of Fairy soap.

William said: “I didn‘t think I‘d ever see a tsunami in my life. I‘ve been learning about it in geography.” He described the response by the British public as “amazing”.

“I couldn‘t believe it. It shows you how Britain pulls together,” he said.

Harry, standing by his brother‘s side, remarked on “all the countries working together”.

“The (Red Cross) are worried that the media will move on and find something else to talk about. We hope it‘s going to stay in people‘s minds. People in India and Sri Lanka and places aren‘t going to be forgetting.”

The Princes were expected to spend around three and a half hours working at the warehouse, but chose to extend their stay for an extra two hours to continue helping.

Joyce Middleton, from Sutton Coldfield, who worked alongside William, said: “I was showing William how to do the boxes and we were having a race with Harry to see who could do the most.”

The Red Cross staff member said she had had no sleep last night having left to drive to the site at 4.30am to volunteer. “It gets to you when you see the suffering. You can‘t help but want to do something really. It doesn‘t seem very much to do this and all those people have lost their homes and families.”

Another helper Matt Jenkins, 23, from Bath, who works for the Ministry of Defence, said: “William was saying how he was probably going to have nightmares about toilet rolls he was packing so many of them.”

William and Harry said they were moved to tears by the plight of the thousands of children orphaned by the tsunami. Taking a break from the work outside the warehouse, William told how they first heard about the disaster.

“We were both seriously shocked. We didn‘t quite know what to expect. Reports were sketchy. We didn‘t know what the casualty destruction was. As it got further on it got worse and worse and we couldn‘t believe it.”

William said they had followed the aftermath on television. “We were watching a documentary about orphans. It brought tears to both our eyes. We were really, really upset about it.

“You think how tragic it would be if that happened to you. It‘s truly desperate.”

Harry said: “It‘s been far the worst thing I have ever seen. The size is abnormal.”

He said they both had wanted to take part in the aid effort.

“We‘re not exempt from what everybody else does. We just wanted to be hands on. We didn‘t want to sit back and just give donations,” Harry said.

He added: “At the moment, being here packing boxes with volunteers from our local area is something that‘s very rewarding for us – to know that these boxes are going to be handled by the people we‘re helping.”

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