ShelterBox supporting more than three million people
More than three million people have been supported by a Cornwall-based disaster relief charity 25 years after it was formed to support people across the world with emergency shelter. That’s more than 300 people every day.
To mark the milestone moment, ShelterBox was recently invited by The King and Queen to a special event at Buckingham Palace. The occasion was celebrating work in the humanitarian sector.
Since being founded in 2000, ShelterBox’s dedicated supporters, volunteers, and staff have supported people uprooted by conflict, the climate crisis and other disasters in around 100 countries with shelter and other essential items. Its work has spanned Asia, Africa, South America, Oceania, Europe and North America.
ShelterBox was founded in 2000 after an idea from the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard to reach a few dozen families a year. It’s now a global community working to see no one without shelter after disaster and is project partners with Rotary International.
When the charity started at the turn of the century, the number of people displaced around the world was no more than 40 million. Some 25 years later and it’s three times that number.
The charity says more than 120 million people worldwide have been forced from their homes by disasters, conflict and the climate crisis – a number that is growing every day.
The work of the charity has never been more urgent and it’s scaling up by building a global network of partners and storing aid around the world so it can support more people and respond wherever there’s a disaster.
Tailoring responses
‘Our aid has developed over time, and we learned to go beyond the green ShelterBoxes that gave us our name to reach more people in more places,’ says Sanj Srikanthan, Chief Executive of ShelterBox.
‘Every disaster is different, and our responses are too. We listen to affected communities to find out what is needed most and tailor our response depending on what is culturally appropriate and what works best with the local weather.’
‘As well as tents and other shelter aid, we provide essential household items, training, and cash assistance which means people can pay for tradespeople to repair or rebuild.’
‘In a perfect world we wouldn’t be marking this milestone, but the need for emergency shelter around the world has never been more urgent and we recognise that our work is not yet done.’
The charity says that over the course of the next 25 years, around 1.2 billion people will be at risk of losing their homes to disaster – that’s around 1 in 6 of people alive today.
‘ShelterBox has always been good at reacting to events, responding quickly when major disasters unfold. But we want to get even better,’ explains Alice Jefferson, Head of Emergency Responses at ShelterBox.
‘That’s why we are putting more effort into anticipating what might happen where and preparing accordingly.’
‘We are working to expand and improve our supply chain infrastructure: prepositioning aid more effectively, increasing our database of approved suppliers, and plotting potential pipelines.’
‘And we are building our network of potential partners to ensure we have eyes and ears on the ground in the places we most often work.’
‘When disasters strike without warning, emergency shelter can be the difference between life and death. This preparedness work will help us be ready and become even more efficient and effective.’
