ShelterBox advocate and Rotarian Peter Jarvis (RC Berri) gave us a detailed account of ShelterBox.
We had a good rollup of members, and also guest Rotarians from:
- Largs Bay
- Port Adelaide
- West Torrens
Peter gave us an insightful view into ShelterBox:
- history, commenced in England as a Rotary Club project, and is now a standalone entity;
- current operations in crisis areas
- Ukraine
- Morocco earthquake
- Sudan etc
- Gaza
- how the organisation operates.
When a humanitarian crisis evolves, ShelterBox sends in an expert team within a couple of weeks to assess the damage and needs. They have such a good arrangement with Governments that visas and access is typically a mere formality.
They then organise shelter equipment based on the needs assessment, and this is typically sent in pronto with assistance from local and global airline carriers.
The scale of their operations is credible.
As you can imagine, they have a dire need for funds, with a very low overhead.
A collection was taken and $105 raised to donate.