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In her January 2018 Newsletter, Tess Widdifield, the Rotary and Community Fundraising Manager for Shelterbox Canada and a member of The Rotary Club of New Westminster writes about the Year 2017 in Review and what is going on in the current Shelterbox Canada deployment areas. Here's more of her story....
Dear Fellow Rotarians,
With another end to the calendar year, everyone at ShelterBox would like to thank Rotarians across Canada for their continued support of ShelterBox. In 2017, we saw unprecedented disasters. From the Rohingya refugee crisis in Bangladesh to Hurricanes Irma and Maria in the Caribbean, ShelterBox had a busy year, working with local partners and Rotary to hand deliver emergency humanitarian aid to people in need.
By the end of 2017, ShelterBox helped more than 32,000 households who lost everything through conflict or natural disaster. We responded to 24 world events and deployed aid to 21 different countries. Rotary groups around the world have helped us provide vulnerable people with emergency shelter and aid in almost all of the countries we worked in this past year.
In 2017, we also surpassed the highest number of days ever deployed in one year at ShelterBox. This includes 84 ShelterBox Response Team volunteers, many Rotarians themselves, who deployed for a total of 1,530 days. We believe that with your continued support in 2018, our goal to help one million people without shelter by 2025, is possible. Thank you for continuing to give your time, support and passion to ShelterBox.
Yours in Rotary,
Tess Widdifield - Rotary and Community Fundraising Manager
The Rotary Club of New Westminster
Current Deployments
ShelterBox is currently distributing a variety of aid across the Caribbean after Hurricane Maria and Irma caused widespread destruction in September. We are working with local Red Cross and Rotarians to ensure families receive the aid they need to rebuild.
We also have a team in Bangladesh working to understand more about the needs of the Rohingya people, 600,000 of whom have been forced across the border into Bangladesh since August 25th. We have been supporting families with blankets, tarpaulins, solar lights and water carriers. We have also been working in Bangladesh to support families affected by flooding. ShelterBox continues to work in Iraq due to the ongoing conflict in the region. With the help of partners working in Iraq, in 2017 ShelterBox provided essential aid and shelter to more than 6,000 families.
ShelterBox teams are also providing emergency shelter to support families affected by the Lake Chad Basin Crisis in Niger, Cameroon and Chad. Since 2009, Boko Haram has been waging an insurgency in Northern Nigeria, affecting around 30 million people.
The conflict in Syria has now entered its seventh year. ShelterBox is working with partner organizations in the region to support affected families. ShelterBox helped 12,000 families in 2017.
ShelterBox Canada – 159 Jane Street, Office 2, Toronto, ON M6S 3Y8
E: support@shelterboxcanada.org T: 647.352.1930 www.shelterboxcanada.org
ShelterBox and Rotary are official project partners in international disaster relief. ShelterBox is a registered charity independent of Rotary International and the Rotary Foundation