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ShelterBoxes to HaitiRotary’s ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) dispatched 700 ShelterBoxes to Haiti on 15 January in response to the 12 January earthquake, directly from prepositioned stock in Curacao and El Salvador, ‘with even more to be packed before the end of the week.
ShelterBox volunteers were among the first international relief workers to reach Haiti. SRT is a U.K. based disaster response organization supported by Rotary clubs worldwide. There are now around 5,000 ShelterBoxes in Haiti, enough to assist about 20,000 people, but firstly, targeting pregnant women and families with newborns, but as team member Mark Pearson says, “The walking wounded are everywhere.” Rotary District 9600 Conference 2010
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Haiti - Rotary responds
“ Rotary clubs and districts worldwide are mobilizing resources to deliver urgently needed relief to the millions affected by Haiti's devastating earthquake. District 7020, which includes Haiti, has flown in 55 planes filled with more than 50,000 pounds of medical equipment and supplies into the cities of Pignon and Port-de-Paix to bypass logistical problems in the hard-hit capital of Port-au-Prince. …Dick McCombe, past district governor and Haiti liaison chair said, ’Rotary had an incredible infrastructure established before the quake, which has made our relief efforts very effective,…We're flying in supplies through backdoor channels and doing things a lot of agencies can't do.’ A Gift from Philippine Mothers
A couple of years after my term as President, I was invited to visit the Philippines on my way home from a meeting in the States, to attend a Rotary Foundation Seminar. With typical Filipino generosity, the organisers had asked one of their Rotary members to paint a portrait of me, for pesentation at the seminar. He came to the meeting with this beautiful pastel, and made the presentation. He said that although he had been commissioned to paint my portrait, he thought I would already have several of these - so, because I had been instrumental in the immunization of 6.3 million Filipino children, he had decided instead to portray the concern of an indigenous Filipino mother for her children, and to present it as a gift from the mothers of the Philippines. It was an emotional moment. Neither of us could control our tears. Whenever I look at it, which is often (it hangs in my office) I re-live that moment. I have been told that young man has become famous in The Philippines for his skill at a portraitist. Clem Renouf What In The World Is Rotary? |
Each ShelterBox contains a tent that will accommodate 10 people, together with blankets and/or mosquito netting, basic tools, cooking equipment, water purification tablets and even colouring books for the kids..
Activity of Rotarians in support of Haitians;