SHELTER BOX - Shelterbox news

print this page

News update:

ShelterBox team on the ground: ‘There is no more Haiti’

Aid workers for the international disaster relief charity ShelterBox are on the ground in Port au Prince, Haiti.

ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) members Dave Eby (US), Wayne Robinson (US) and Mark Pearson (UK) arrived in the island’s capital on Thursday, January 14 and have already been in contact with government officials, ACTED and Rotarians in the country.

The Response Team, who are completely self-sufficient, has set up base with the help of a Haitian Rotarian.

Speaking from Port au Prince, David Eby said: ‘We’re working hard to resolve security, logistics and communications. The city is totally devastated. Our host told us, “There is no more Haiti .”’

The situation on the ground remains fraught with the damaged infrastructure in Haiti hampering the aid effort but ShelterBox is doing everything within its power to ensure aid reaches Haiti imminently.

ShelterBox’s Head of Operations John Leach said: ‘We spoke with our team in Haiti this morning and already they’ve been working with other aid agencies and the government to assess where ShelterBoxes are most needed. ‘Our priority is now getting logistics in and doing all we can to get it on the island. We’re sending a ShelterBox Logistics team into Miami to work and coordinate logistics into Haiti from there.’

ShelterBox’s Logistics Manager Richard Lewis added: ‘We’re doing everything we can to make sure emergency aid reaches the people of Haiti.

‘The situation is changing by the minute and we’re exploring every single avenue available to us in order to make sure the aid gets on the ground as quickly as possible.’

The ShelterBox Logistics team, made up of SRT members Mark Dyer (US), John Lacquey (US) and Ian Neal (UK), will meet a consignment of ShelterBoxes being flown into Miami, USA and run the logistics into Haiti from there.

930 ShelterBoxes have already been dispatched and are en route to Haiti while another 1,000 are being packed today at ShelterBox HQ by ShelterBox’s team of volunteers.  Virgin Atlantic are supporting the relief effort by flying hundreds of the ShelterBoxes on their planes.

Sir Richard Branson, President of Virgin Atlantic, said: ‘Everyone who has seen the sheer destruction in Haiti over the last few days will have been moved to help in any way they can.

‘We will fly in as much aid as possible so that the agencies on the ground  can respond to the needs of everyone in Haiti whose lives have been devastated by this tragedy.’

With the need in Haiti growing each day, there are millions of people in need of emergency shelter. ShelterBox Founder Tom Henderson, OBE, says support at this time is crucial.

‘The support we’ve seen in the last few days has been staggering,’ he said. ‘It’s all hands on deck for ShelterBox right across the globe. People in Haiti need our help and we stop until they get it.  If you can help, in any way at all, I’d urge you to do so.’  

Our Club reponded immediately by sending a SHELTERBOX to Haiti

LATEST NEWS

The first ShelterBoxes have arrived in Port au Prince and hundreds more are due to arrive later today.

The ShelterBox Response Team of David Eby (US), Wayne Robinson (US) and Mark Pearson (UK), who have been in Haiti’s capital since Thursday, took delivery of the first ShelterBoxes at Port au Prince airport yesterday.

The team say twelve of these boxes will be used to build an emergency field hospital at the airport.

‘We are helping build a field hospital with these tents at the airport,’ said Mark Pearson. ‘These are desperate conditions, amputations are happening every half hour. There’s an urgent need for tents at hospitals and this is our first priority.’

ShelterBox Head of Operations John Leach said: ‘The safety of our staff in Haiti is of paramount importance.

‘We are working with the agencies on the ground to ensure that ShelterBoxes are not only distributed speedily and efficiently, but that our team on the ground is able to work in a safe environment.’

Hundreds more boxes are due to arrive into Port au Prince later today from Miami on a chartered aircraft. Thousands more ShelterBoxes are being packed and shipped from ShelterBox HQ in the UK.

ShelterBox Founder and CEO Tom Henderson said: ‘The devastation in Haiti has moved everyone here. We now have our boxes on the ground and it’s a privilege to help. The scale of devastation is huge.

‘By the sheer grit and determination of our staff and volunteers we have been able to respond in record time. Our thanks go to the teams of volunteers, as well as to our donors, who have allowed us to do this.

‘ShelterBox relies entirely on public donations and people’s generosity. We receive no institutional funding and no DEC money. I’d urge, if you can, to help us.’

Public donations are vital to ShelterBox’s continuing work around the world. To make a donation please ring 0300 0300 500 or go to the shelter box website to donate online and get the latest updates on the charity’s response to the Haiti earthquake.

NEWS UPDATE 26th Jan 2010

Aid for thousands in Haiti with more to follow

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.’