ShelterBox in Action 2010
ShelterBox in Action 2010
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In 2010 ShelterBox had its busiest year and the great work of these boxes has been only too apparent; in response to desperate world-wide need deployments were made in 16 countries responding to earthquakes, flooding, cyclones and landslides. (click on image to enlarge) |
Haiti
28,417 ShelterBoxes were sent to Haiti after the earthquake; more than they have ever sent out before in one year, let alone to one country delivering emergency shelter to more than 284,000 people.
The first boxes were used to build emergency field hospitals. There were desperate conditions with amputations happening every half hour.
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| Carlos(4) using the Childrens Pack after his leg amputation, girls recovering from surgery and injured girl recovering in a ShelterBox 'hospital' | ||
Only 7 weeks after the disaster more than 7,000 ShelterBoxes provided shelter for over 70,000 people. Several small encampments throughout the country had been set up and thousands of people left homeless in the Capital were able to move to a 'city of tents' - a camp with hundreds of ShelterBox tents situated near to the US Embassy in Port au Prince. The encampment named Congress Camp allowed them to stay close to their communities and carry on with their daily lives.
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This emergency shelter solution has been robust enough to last over a year and close to a million people are still sheltering in makeshift camps throughout Haiti. Tragically, it seems very unlikely that families will be moving out in 2011.
Pakistan
The floods that swept through Pakistan in August 2010, with nearly a month of rain, were described as having the scale of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami coupled with the devastation of the Haiti earthquake. At one point, a fifth of the country, an area bigger than the UK, was under water and an estimated 20 million people were directly affected by the flooding.
The floods killed thousands, wiped out villages, infrastructure and farmland, and left millions of people homeless. Picture shows a camp near Karachi.
ShelterBox’s partners in Pakistan, ensured aid was delivered to the families in most need while the German Red Cross helped distribute thousands of the family LifeStraws ShelterBox delivered to Pakistan. Provision of clean water in the Sindh and Punjab provinces was of critical importance and each family LifeStraw can filter up to 10 litres of water an hour.
Africa
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Throughout the year ShelterBox was present in Africa delivering aid in Kenya, Egypt, Uganda and Niger, helping hundreds of families on both sides of the continent. This year’s annual flooding in West Africa caused chaos across the region. The floods in Benin were the worst to hit the country in close to 50 years. |
Central and South America
ShelterBox also responded to a series of disasters throughout Central and South America – floods in Brazil, Colombia, Panama and Mexico, landslides in Guatemala and Peru, Hurricane in St Lucia, Cyclone in Figi and a massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Chile.
Indonesia & China
In mid-October, ShelterBox was operating in Indonesia and the Philippines. Indonesia was hit by twin disasters – a tsunami off the coast of Sumatra and the eruption of Mount Merapi in Central Java. These a week after super-typhoon, Megi, left a trail of destruction behind it. ShelterBox is also helping families who lost their homes in the eruption of Mount Merapi, Central Java.
The tsunami was triggered by a 7.7 magnitude earthquake that struck 20 kilometres beneath the ocean floor off the island of Sumatra. Reports say that the massive wave swept up to 600 meters inland in some places.
ShelterBox also responded to an earthquake in China.
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