Amigos de Milwaukee Rotary - Disaster Relief Support

ShelterBox

People of all walks of life are doing what they can to help in Haiti. Rotary International has set up a designated fund to receive donations. You can even text message to donate to this fund or other funds, such as the Red Cross.

Your board of directors, after reviewing our current finances and the recent successful fundraising through the Packer Raffle, made a decision to purchase a ShelterBox to be sent to Haiti. Note that this decision was made because of the immediate needs in Haiti. Your board is still committed to continued donations locally.

After much discussion and upon learning that one of the greatest needs that is having the most challenges being met in Haiti is housing, it made sense for us to contribute a ShelterBox. The link below will take you to the website to learn more, however, in general, a ShelterBox provides an extended family of up to 10 people with a tent and essential equipment to use while they are displaced or homeless. Each ShelterBox is $1000 and we will be notified of our box number so that we can track it for delivery. The club will also receive a certificate with this information. www.ShelterBox.org

A MSNBC report from Monday, January 25 reported the following;

Up to 1 million need shelter
"The global agency supplying tents said it already had 10,000 stored in Haiti and at least 30,000 more would be arriving. But, said the International Organization for Migration, "the supply is unlikely to address the extensive shelter needs." The group estimates 100,000 family-sized tents are needed; the U.N. says up to 1 million people need shelter."

The following is from the ShelterBox website;

Nearly 100 tonnes of additional aid is being flown to Haiti this week as thousands of people who lost their homes in the devastating earthquake are being given the chance to start rebuilding their lives in ShelterBox tents.

Emergency shelter for more than 20,000 people is now in Port au Prince and surrounding areas with small camps already set up in Delmas, Petion-Ville, Carrefour and Leogane.

Hundreds more ShelterBoxes containing disaster relief tents and other life-saving supplies are being sent to the city in the next few days from Miami, Curucao and France, meaning another 11,000 people will be given emergency shelter.

On Friday, ShelterBox is chartering a 747 aircraft with 1,800 boxes to fly from Stansted Airport to the Dominican Republic where they will be taken overland to neighbouring Haiti.

It is the second flight chartered by the international disaster relief charity for the Haiti response after a plane loaded with 700 ShelterBoxes and 100 tents flew out of Newquay Cornwall Airport last week. ShelterBox Response Team members Jane Nash (UK) and Gary McCafferty (UK) travelled overland from Santa Domingo with an aid convoy to ensure the ShelterBoxes reached Port au Prince at the weekend.

John Leach, Head of Operations for ShelterBox, said: 'The need in Haiti is massive. Our team in Port au Prince is working with Dutch marines to ensure the safe and effective delivery of disaster relief tents and hundreds of these are already being used in four different locations.

'Distribution of aid by our highly-trained ShelterBox Response Team members is underway but the need for emergency shelter is still desperate.'

A number of ShelterBoxes have also been used at an orphanage and at two hospitals in Port au Prince where tents are being erected to help save lives.

Speaking from Bernard Mews Hospital in Freres, a suburb of Port au Prince, ShelterBox Response Team member Wayne Robinson (US) said: 'Right outside the hospital there have been hundreds of people who have been laying in the sidewalks, on the streets and in blankets right on the ground in unbelievable conditions. They are bleeding, they have missing limbs and there are even women giving birth.

'We felt this was a good use of the initial boxes that we had here on the ground and we'll be bringing more here and using them as a transitional point to get people out of the elements while they are waiting for treatment at the hospital. Buildings have crashed down all around us here and people are just waiting and waiting to get in here for medical services.'