ShelterBox Update 2021
Guest Speaker ShelterBox Rotary Engagement Officer, Olivia Jeffries, gave a wide ranging and comprehensive account of the work of ShelterBox to the Club meeting Monday 13 December. In her address, which was very well received, she also thanked the Club for its continued support and noted that the Club’s generous donations had helped their support to 28,000 families - 140,000 people - across 9 different countries this year.
Olivia advised that as ShelterBox’s Rotary Engagement Officer it was her job to help and encourage clubs with their support for ShelterBox. She noted that in their 21 year history they:
- have grown and evolved to support more communities on their first steps towards recovery
- have learnt that every disaster is different
- have listened and learnt from the communities they work with to make sure they provide the right support and
- have developed a flexible approach in the ways in which they prepare and deliver aid; the range of aid they provide and how they respond to different situations.
She highlighted the important part ShelterBox have played in the global response to coronavirus by offering protection and promoting better health. She particularly reflected on how the coronavirus pandemic made ShelterBox’s work more urgent than ever with its devastating impact on vulnerable communities in the least developed regions particularly those living in refugee camps or in makeshift settlements and the problems the pandemic caused and how they had to adapt.