Case Studies
Shelterbox in Haiti: Two-Year anniversary
January 2012 marks the two year anniversary of the earthquake that struck Haiti devastating the capital of Port-au-Prince and surrounding villages, killing an estimated 230,000 people and making a further 1.5 million homeless.
International disaster relief charity ShelterBox responded immediately by mobilising a ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) to assess the need for emergency shelter. One day later, volunteers arrived at the warehouse at the charity’s HQ in Cornwall to pack the first ShelterBoxes bound for Haiti, which arrived four days later in Port-au-Prince. They were put to immediate use as large-scale distribution began with 7,000 ShelterBoxes delivered to the most affected areas in Haiti in the first month. 28,417 ShelterBoxes were sent to Haiti; more than the charity has ever sent out before in one year let alone to one country.
‘The response to the earthquake was our biggest, longest and most complex deployment to date. It began 12 minutes after the earthquake struck and continues two years later,’ said Tom Henderson OBE, ShelterBox Founder and CEO.
ShelterBox worked with Scouts
ShelterBox has a partnership with the Scout Association and alongside many other groups and agencies. ShelterBox worked with Scouts in Haiti to set up tents.
SRT volunteer Mark Pearson was in Haiti one month after the quake hit and said: ‘I personally trained ten Scouts from Port-au-Prince at the 82nd Airborne HQ (US Military in Haiti). After I did a first demo the Scouts then set up a tent to perfection in ten minutes.’
On Friday 5th February, 50 Haitian Scouts set up 70 ShelterBox tents in the central Palace area where 3,000 people were homeless. They did it in less than four hours.
Mark added: ‘The Train the Trainer sessions paid off and all the Haitian people were so happy, it was a great day for all involved. We did the same the next day with a further 140 ShelterBoxes.’
Alex George, President of West Department International Scouts d’Haiti, said: ‘Our Scouts are themselves homeless but in the Scout tradition we are happy to help our people and feel good doing so with ShelterBox and the US military. This is brilliant equipment and the tents are perfect for Haiti.’
Rebuild lives
Working with other partners has also been key in helping families rebuild their lives in Haiti. Recently ShelterBox has been coordinating a project with the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) to help families to either return to their place of origin, or set up homes in a new location they have identified. Residual stocks of tents and emergency equipment have been distributed to these displaced families to enable them to finally start to rebuild their lives.
Tom Lay, ShelterBox Operations Coordinator, has been in Haiti working with the IOM.
‘Helping families to restart their lives after a disaster is exactly what ShelterBox endeavours to achieve,’ said Tom. ‘The fact that we are still delivering aid two years on from the earthquake just shows what a huge disaster this was.’
59 individual SRT volunteers were deployed to Haiti coming from all corners of the globe including the UK, USA, Canada, France, Germany, New Zealand and Australia.
Each ShelterBox contains a tent for an extended family and other lifesaving supplies delivering shelter, warmth and dignity to families in need and enabling them to rebuild their lives.
To find out more about the work that ShelterBox does around the world and to donate please visit their website at www.shelterbox.org