In recent years, the Rotary Club of Turramurra has made significant contributions to Rotary’s worldwide Shelterbox Program which has done so much to ease human suffering resulting from catastrophes in various parts of the world.

ShelterBox was founded by Tom Henderson, a Rotarian and former Royal Navy search and rescue diver. He saw 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 help them through the first few days, weeks and months as they tried to rebuild their lives. ShelterBox was launched to fill that void.

In 1999, Tom started researching the idea, sourcing equipment 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 adopted it as its millennium project. Little did they know that it would become the largest Rotary club project in the world, with affiliates in eight countries.

The first consignment of 143 boxes was sent to earthquake victims in the Indian state of Gujarat in January 2001. Over the next three years the project matured and by the end of 2004 nearly 2,600 boxes had been dispatched, following 16 major disasters. On 26 December 2004, news came of the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami and ShelterBox faced its most significant challenge, one that would change its course forever. Donations and volunteers poured in and we were able to ramp up our operations on a scale unimaginable just six months earlier.

In 2005 we sent out more than 22,000 boxes, almost 10 times the number we had sent out in the previous three years. Not only were we sending aid to victims of the Tsunami, but we were also able to help those who had lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina in the USA and the massive earthquake that hit the Kashmir region of Pakistan. In just a few short months, ShelterBox had emerged as a major player in the field of international disaster relief.

We have continued to build on our Tsunami experience, helping as many people as we can, as quickly as we can, the moment disaster strikes.

We have now worked on every continent, responding to earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, typhoons, hurricanes, volcanoes and conflicts.

Shelter Box Contents

Shelterboxes contain the essentials for survival -- dry shelter, warm beds, clean water and cooking supplies. Contents vary with climatic and other local conditions.

Video: How they provide Shelter Warmth and Dignity

Bob Burnett, the first President of the Rotary Club of Turramurra and a current Club member, perceived a level of interest in the Shelterbox Program from residents in the Lourdes Retirement Village where he resides. Following liaison with the RC Turramurra’s then International Service Director, Peter Lyons, and the District Shelterbox representative, John Dean, it was decided to give a presentation about Shelterbox as part of Lourdes’ activity program.

With the cooperation and approval of village authorities, brochures and posters were left at the village for publicity purposes some weeks before the event. Following this early publicity, a Shelterbox tent was erected inside the village lounge area where the presentation was to take place the next day. Thus interest was stimulated. The following afternoon there was an audio visual presentation to a good number of residents. It involved a practical demonstration of the Shelterbox contents, audience participation, and concluded with a moving video of its use in devastated areas.

The response was amazing. After the presentation, an emotional resident rose to suggest that "Between us, can we agree to raise the cost of four Shelterboxes?" However, during the afternoon tea that followed, several residents donated a total of 7 Shelterboxes outright. By the time others had retrieved their chequebooks, in the next week, large and small donations had paid for 15 boxes in all. $3,500 has come from Lourdes Village in the years since.
Such was the success of the initiative that two other local retirement villages were approached. After planning with the village authorities and interested residents, the same publicity and presentation procedures were followed at The Cotswolds and Huon Park. Again, residents were moved by the needs of such destitute people throughout the world and 6 more boxes were donated both by combined residents’ contributions and separately by individuals.

Contributors to the program have been impressed by the fact that each donor of a box, apart from an official certificate of thanks, is given a box number which allows them to check via the internet the devastated area to which their particular box has been sent.

Thus, the interest stimulated in this worldwide Rotary program has prompted some of the previous donors to contribute boxes again in subsequent years when new catastrophes have occurred.

A past member of the Club, hearing of our drive for boxes, has donated $14,000 over two years.

As at 30 June 2009, Club Treasurer, Michael Barnett, reported that these contributions, together with those of individual members of the Rotary Club Turramurra, a community raffle, and the Club itself had raised funds for 46 Shelterboxes, a total of $55,210 !

More detailed information about the administration of this program in Australia, case studies, videos and procedures for donations to this life-saving program are available here.