ShelterBox
Our Club is a major supporter of ShelterBox in our region with displays during the Garden Safari, Northern Crossing and at the Waimate North Show.
In December 2010, Owen Smith left Kerikeri for 3 weeks service in the northern, extensively-flooded, plains of Colombia. Sacrificing Christmas with the family, Owen is joining the ShelterBox initiative there to provide families, whose homes have been inundated or completely swept away, with shelter on higher ground. Owen is stationed at Sucre in the Magdalena River region.
ABOUT
SHELTERBOX : an International Rotary Project
Each ShelterBox contains a 10-person dome tent, thermal blankets, water purification tablets, a multi-fuel stove, tools and other essential equipment. These can be life savers as initial survival kits after natural disasters.
They are usually among the first aide to arrive after any disaster, such as the recent ones in the Solomons, Myanmar-Burma, China and the Ukraine. President Owen Smith is now a trained ShelterBox deployment person and was sent to Bangladesh in June 2009 after cyclone Aila.
The cost of a Shelter Box is $1,500.
An initiative of Rotarian Tom Henderson, a former Royal Navy search and rescue diver, ShelterBox started in 2000 as a project of the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, Cornwall and is supported by Rotary clubs worldwide.
ShelterBox, the largest Rotary project in the world, has raised over $40 million and sheltered over 550,000 people in 44 countries so far.
Please help us provide these excellent disaster relief kits by donating generously.
For more information about this tremendously useful and efficient Rotary project see the ShelterBox website.
Owen Smith
In view of the 30 September 2009 Tsunami in Samoa, Rotary looked to raise further funds for at least another shelter box by collecting donations in High Street Kerikeri on Wednesday 7th and Thursday 8th October 2009.
Photo: In Kerikeri High Street collecting donations (left to right: Robert
Collins, Lian Brott and Pete Roffey)
Then president, Owen Smith, was part of the team that was rushed up to Samoa to deploy Shelter boxes two days after the Tsunami.
The Shelter Box was also displayed and donations welcomed during the Garden Safari, Northern Crossing and the Waimate North Show.
Rick Stacey
Rick Stacey joined the membership of our Club in 2010 as a swallow who spends half the year in the UK and the other half in NZ.
Rick has become a familiar sight on the roads around Kerikeri as he gets fit for his Bluff to Cape Reinga bike ride to raise the profile of the world-wide ShelterBox Rotary project. He will be back in October to undertake his mammoth bike ride, with support being provided by fellow Kerikeri Rotarian Paul Radley. They expect to be back in Kerikeri just before Christmas.
He is undertaking to ride from Bluff to Cape Reinga to raise awareness and funds towards ShelterBox, a Rotary disaster response organisation.
Kerikeri Rotarians and supporters, including representatives of sponsors FnF fuels, greeted Rick Stacey as he arrived on 9th December 2010 in Kerikeri on the last leg of his cycle epic from the Bluff to Cape Reinga.
His cycle ride towing a ShelterBox the length of New Zealand was completed with a special moment as he met his latest grand-daughter Charlie (9 months) out from England with his daughter especially to celebrate his safe arrival at Cape Reigna on Sunday 12th December 2010.
MP John Carter Minister for Civil Defense said: 'Prime Minister John Key knows I'm here today and has asked me to thank you Rick, for this effort. You have single handedly raised the profile of an important Rotary programme for immediate response to a natural crisis, something that New Zealanders are more and more aware of since the Canterbury earthquake.' He reflected that these sorts of efforts went a long way to informing the public about the plight of others around the world, and our need to be prepared.
Club president John Toms presented Rick with a cheque to cover the cost of a ShelterBox in support of his ride.
With spectacular views across the Capes, Rick walked his bike the last kilometre down to the lighthouse accompanied by the Minister, family, Rotarians and supporters.
Find out more >>> and more >>>.
ShelterBox founder Tom Henderson visits Kerikeri
Razza on Cobham Road, 6pm Wednesday 26th May 2010
Tom Henderson, a Rotarian and former Royal Navy search and rescue diver, shared his experiences with Rotarians and other Civil defense volunteers in Kerikeri on 26th May. His vision started what has become the largest international Rotary club project in the world, with affiliates in eleven countries.
He realised that the aid response to most disasters was in the form of food and medicine to help people survive the immediate aftermath. Little or no assistance was given in terms of proper shelter to support them through the first few days, weeks and months as they tried to rebuild their lives. ShelterBox was launched to fill that void by giving people the dignity of the shelter over their heads and basic tools and living requirements.
In 1999, Tom started researching the idea, sourcing equipment to fit into one 55kg large box and twisting arms to get the project off the ground. His persistence paid off in April 2000 when ShelterBox was launched and the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard in Cornwall UK adopted it as its millennium project. They have been deployed to 75 countries to date with a million people having used these specially designed and developed tents.
Ten years on and Tom visited Kerikeri to catch up with ShelterBox Response Team leader Owen Smith of Kerikeri, just back from the recent earthquake in China. Owen was based in the provincial capital Xining where he helped coordinate the distribution of 200 disaster relief tents to remote villages outside the earthquake epicenter of Yushu.
ShelterBox Response Team member Tony Zhang travelled through mountainous terrain in freezing temperatures to get the 800km from Xining to Yushu, inside the Tibetan border, which was hit by a 6.9 magnitude quake on April 14. Thousands of families lost their homes in the disaster which killed over 2200 people and injured more than 12000. Damage was widespread with 90 % of houses destroyed as well as schools, hospitals and offices.
Owen was impressed by the way the Chinese authorities responded to the disaster.
'The Chinese government did a great job of getting aid to the people affected by the earthquake' he said. 'They really were putting in a huge effort but there was still need particularly in the remote villages.'
Last year the Kerikeri public generously donated funding for 4 ShelterBoxes to Samoa Tsunami. The need for boxes is on-going. Each box costs $1500. Donations are very much appreciated.
If you wish to make a donation, please ph David Owen on 407 3535 for more details.
