International Service

The Belfast Club has chosen to highlight the following Rotary Charities for special support.

	Shelter Boxes/Aquabox/Life
	School 4 All in Africa
	Vision Aid Overseas
	Other Projects

Shelterboxes/Aquaboxes/Lifeboxes

Donations have been made by the Club towards the cost of these boxes. It's wonderful that Rotary is able to send in Shelter, Aqua and Life boxes to disaster zones and have them unloaded them from the plane and distributed within days of a disaster.


Shelterboxes

Founded in 2000 by Rotarian Tom Henderson (a former Royal Navy Search and Rescue diver) with the support of his Rotary Club Helston-Lizard in Cornwall, which adopted it as its millennium project, ShelterBox has grown to become the largest Rotary Club project in the 100 year history of the organisation.

ShelterBoxes provide humanitarian aid in the form of a 10 person tent designed to withstand extreme temperatures, high winds and heavy rainfall.  Also included are: thermal blankets, insulated ground sheets, stoves, cooking utensils, tools, water containers and purification equipment and a children’s pack containing drawing books, crayons and pens.  For children who have lost most if not all their possessions these small gifts are treasured.

Rotary Club of Belfast donations since 2006 have provided relief in the form of 38 boxes. We are delighted to report that continuing on previous years donations in December 2009, before the earthquake, the Club donated £5,000 to ShelterBox, with some members donating individually, and this has provided tents for over 110 people.

According to the ShelterBox tracking service these 11 boxes were sent to Haiti on 29^th January 2010 and are among the first boxes to be deployed in Haiti from District 1160 along with Portadown (6), North Down (3of11), Comber (2) and Enniskillen (1of12). Other District Clubs' Boxes are awaiting deployment.

President Arthur would like to encourage any of our members who wish to support disaster relief work to donate to this very worthy Rotary Charity.

The great work of these boxes has been only too apparent following Haiti’s devastating earthquake on 13^th January 2010. The ShelterBox Response Team arrived the following day and just 5 days after the disaster the first boxes arrived and since thousands more have followed. 

The latest video from ShelterBox can be viewed here.

The first boxes were used to build emergency field hospitals.  "These are desperate conditions, amputations are happening every half hour.  There is an urgent need for tents at hospitals and this is our first priority...they are already saving lives".



 An injured girl recovering in a ShelterBox tent hospital, Carlos (4) who had his leg amputated - he is using materials from the one of the children's packs in the Boxes and girls recovering after surgery.

7 weeks after the disaster more than 7,000 ShelterBoxes provide shelter for over 70,000 people. Several small encampments throughout the country have been set up but thousands of people left homeless in the Capital have now been 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 houses thousands of refugees from the centre of the city allowing them to stay close to their communities and carry on with their daily lives.

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A video of the camp can be seen here.

Founder and CEO Tom Henderson said: “The devastation in Haiti has moved everyone here. We now have our boxes on the ground and it’s a privilege to help. The scale of devastation is huge. By the sheer grit and determination of our staff and volunteers we have been able to respond in record time. Our thanks go to the teams of volunteers, as well as to our donors, who have allowed us to do this. ShelterBox relies entirely on public donations and people’s generosity. We receive no institutional funding.”  ShelterBox will continue to respond to the crisis in Haiti until the job is done while at the same time rebuilding stock levels to have the capacity to immediately respond to the next disaster that strikes.

Aquaboxes

This project provides Single Box kits to support whole families in disaster zones. With all the recent disasters there is be a crying need for Rotary to rebuild its stock of Aqua boxes. Thanks to the generosity of many members of the Club, the provision of 5 boxes has been organised.

The Aquabox comprises three simple components, a rigid re-inforced 75 litre plastic container, a re-useable carbon activated filter and dispensing tap. The container is filled with whatever water can be found locally and is initially strained manually through muslin to remove solid detritus. A single 10 gram purification tablet is then added. After two hours water may be drawn through the filter and tap. In addition the Boxes are filled with additional welfare items at the discretion of the donor.

Again, the value of these boxes has been shown, in the seven weeks following the earthquake in Haiti 1558 boxes have been shipped providing medium to long term aid to families.



LifeBoxes 

These were previously known as Emergency Boxes. The LifeBox is filled with 72 items of tools, clothes, blankets, babycare/hygiene items, toys and classroom materials and is available for both hot and cold climates with the contents lists specifically tailored by the Red Cross, each box providing vital aid for adults and children.

Also contained in the Boxes are LifeStraws.  LifeStraw is a portable water purification tool that cleanses surface water and makes it safe for human consumption. It is just 25 cm long and 29 mm in diameter and can be hung around the neck. LifeStraw requires no electrical power or spare parts. The life expectancy of a single straw can be up to one year from the start of usage (calculation based on the WHO estimate of typical adult consumption of 2 litres water per day) and so provides immediate aid and long term benefit.

As before, the value of these boxes has been shown in the seven weeks following the earthquake in Haiti 159 LifeBoxes and 900 LifeStraws have been shipped providing medium to long term aid to families.
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Leonard Cheshire's School 4 All in Africa

This year Rotary is hoping to help the Leonard Cheshire Foundation with its work to convert schools in Uganda so that children with handicaps can attend. School 4 All in Africa is  a District International project and meets Rotary World President D.K Lee's wish to "MAKE DREAMS REAL". The goal is to provide education for disabled children in Africa, where 90% of disabled children still do not go to school.
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Vision Aid Overseas

Vision Aid Overseas collects and refurbishes spectacles for use in third-world Countries. This enables kids and adults to have vision again. Our spectacle collection for the project continues to thrive; we and our local colleagues have to date collected 60,140 pairs, we are now aiming to collect, with their help, 100,000 pairs.
 
The used spectacles are forwarded to Vision Aid who arrange for their refurbishment and dispatch to a wide range of countries where they can be recalibrated and supplied to local people after sight testing by volunteer optometrists from the UK and Ireland.
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Other Projects

Other Rotary projects, Mercy Ships (Ophthalmic operations in and around Africa) and Jaipur Limbs (Artificial limbs) are also kept under consideration.

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