By Erin Holdgate | Donor Relations and Communications Coordinator
Thank you for helping ShelterBox provide emergency tented shelter and supplies to families that have lost their homes and possessions following natural disasters and conflict around the world, and allowing them to rebuild their lives with dignity and in safety.
ShelterBox continues to respond to natural disasters and conflict across the globe. Your support has helped ShelterBox deliver boxes and other emergency supplies to families in the Philippines that have lost everything due to Typhoon Haiyan, Syrian families that continue to flee to neighboring countries as a result of the escalating conflict and violence at home country, as well as those affected by widespread flooding in Sudan.
Philippines
The Philippines are hit with typhoons and other tropical storms quite frequently, but none that could ever compare to Typhoon Haiyan, the most powerful storm to every make landfall, which hit the Asian country of islands on November 7, 2013.
Typhoon Haiyan wreaked havoc across the coastal islands of the Philippines causing up to 95% damage in some towns and cities. This left communities reeling but also caused widespread infrastructure and communications damage heavily hampering the ability of governments, aid agencies and NGOs to respond swiftly.
Since then, ShelterBox has been busy helping the most vulnerable families by bringing them emergency shelter and other vital aid at the time when they need it the most. Response Teams are now operating across seven islands, many of which are very isolated. ShelterBox’s operational response to Typhoon Haiyan is proving to be one of the most complex and large scale of recent years.
Where We Are Responding:
ShelterBox Response Teams are operating on the Island of Bohol, where a 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck in October, damaging buildings and infrastructure and claiming lives across the region. ShelterBox immediately sent a response team to the area. The team was distributing aid on Bohol Island when Typhoon Haiyan struck, and has since completed the distribution of ShelterBox tents to earthquake survivors before travelling to join another response team operating in Manila to help oversee the movement of aid through to Cebu Island.
The logistics of getting aid cleared through airports and harbors is, in itself, a challenge due to the damaged infrastructure and the surge of overseas freight arriving in the Philippines. Experience gained from years of responding to disasters such as the earthquake that struck Haiti in 2010 and the tsunami that hit Japan in 2011 has allowed the ShelterBox Operations team to "drip-feed" a constant supply of aid into the Philippines through a variety of different entrance points. This has in turn enabled the Response Teams on the ground in the Philippines to have a continual but manageable flow of aid to distribute amongst the Typhoon affected communities.
On the remote island of Bantayan our response teams have been distributing much needed aid to families who have lost their homes since Typhoon Haiyan hit. The island has a population of 30,000 people and some 27,000 are now feared to be without homes.
With your help, a ShelterBox response team continues to work in the country, identifying unmet needs for emergency shelter and other non-food items.
Syrian Crisis
Some 6.8 million people have been forced from their homes in war-torn Syria, according to the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR), having been exposed to violence and unremitting fighting. Many now remain within the borders with no home to go to and no possessions.
There are 1.6 million refugees, three quarters of them being women and children, seeking safety and shelter across neighboring countries. Many are living in flimsy cramped makeshift shelters. The vast majority of fleeing families arrive with little more than the clothes on their backs. Many are injured from continuous bombing and shelling. They have no regular food and no income. Men, women and children are suffering through no fault of their own. They are in desperate need of emergency shelter and other lifesaving supplies. ShelterBox is responding, committing over $1 million of aid to date.
Since last fall, ShelterBox has been providing humanitarian aid to refugee families living in Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey, and continue to work with implementing partners to pipeline ShelterBox aid to internally displaced families within Syria's borders.
Today, a response team has returned to Iraqi Kurdistan where they will distribute aid to refugee families living at Krwigorsk camp, like Qadria and her daughters, who fled Damascus after their home was looted and her husband killed.
Despite the triple-digit temperatures endured by thousands living there, Qadria brought with her several blankets, in preparation for the harsh winter months that await. She is one of 15,000 in the camp today, with thousands more coming each day.
Your support has provided hope, comfort and a sense of normalcy to those who would otherwise be living in fear, thank you.
Sudan
As ShelterBox’s disaster relief efforts continue in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan, the charity has been helping communities in need in other disaster-affected countries, one being Sudan.
Thousands of families have been left with close to nothing after floods up to seven feet high inundated the Khartoum state of the African country. Teams continue to work in the country to identify the most vulnerable of these families, such as 22-year-old Manal and her families.
Manal, a widow who had recently graduated from university with a degree in engineering, is now living in a ShelterBox tent in Al-Kriab with her grandma, mother, sister and two brothers. She told me she studied at Cairo but was unemployed as apparently you need to know people to get a job as a female in Sudan. She had still been helping her community rather than doing nothing by volunteering with the Sudanese Red Crescent who had been helping us set up tents there.
Manal’s older brother supported the family but two months before the flooding he had surgery on his spine. At the time, he could no longer walk or move let alone try and work. Their family home was destroyed except two walls that still stood. The tent has given the family a sense of security there as they now have somewhere permanent to rest until they manage to get some money to begin rebuilding. The kitchen has been set up with the two remaining walls and they are growing their own food.
With your support, ShelterBoxes continues to be distributed to those in need of a temporary home. Other lifesaving supplies in these boxes will protect these families from the elements and enable them to focus on rebuilding their homes, and their lives.
ShelterBox’s vision is to help 50,000 families who lose everything in a disaster every year.
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