ShelterBox USA launches Stock the Box to prepare for intensifying storms
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. - Directors at ShelterBox USA are busy these days.
"Right now shelter box is raising money for our overall deployment of essential kit," said humanitarian director Serena Kelsch of ShelterBox USA.
The new campaign is called Stock the Box.
"What we really trying to do is preparing for disasters … prepare for meeting the needs of people displaced by war by earthquake by hurricanes by flooding," said Kelsch.
The ShelterBox team is filling the boxes with a variety of supplies families need to recover from disaster.
"In the last five years 11.2 million lost their homes due to climate driven storms … if that number were to continue over the next 20 years … we’re looking at over 200 million people that are losing these homes due to these storms," said communications director Jeremy Jacobs of ShelterBox USA.
There are several ways you can help those in need over seas such as choosing which items you wish to donate to ShelterBox.
"There will be tents where family is 6 to 10 people can live in the next year while they’re building their homes," said Kelsch.
These efforts are going to low income countries like Uganda, Tanzania, the Philippines, Syria, and Ukraine.
“So we are inside of Ukraine right now … inside the country and we’re distributing shelter kits which is this kind right here," said Kelsch.
This year’s campaign comes as the Atlantic hurricane season is forecasted to be above average for the seventh year in a row.
Directors of the organization hope to ensure its warehouses are stocked and ready to provide lifesaving aid in anticipation of climate change-strengthened storms.
ShelterBox has responded to more than 60 weather-driven disasters.
It provides emergency shelter and other essential items like solar lanterns, water carriers and filters, thermal blankets and tools to people who have lost their homes.
Climate change is making those storms stronger, causing more damage and displacing more people.
On average over the last five years, more than 11.2 million people have been displaced annually by storms per year, according to figures by the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, (iDMC).
“Climate change is making life-threatening storms even more dangerous, and we need to be prepared,” said Kerri Murray, president of ShelterBox USA, based in Santa Barbara. “Stock the Box helps us replenish our supplies prepositioned around the world so we can respond when disaster strikes. The next disaster is not a matter of if, but when.”
If the 11.2 million average is sustained over the next 20 years, almost 45 million homes could be damaged or destroyed, uprooting at least 224 million people, according to ShelterBox’s analysis.
And ShelterBox also recently deployed an assessment team to Bangladesh after of some of the worst flooding to ever hit the region displaced more than 9 million people.
“ShelterBox is seeing how climate change is affecting the most vulnerable populations in the world,” said Murray. “We’ve supported more than 400,000 people impacted by storm-related disasters in the last decade, and we fear that unless more action is taken, this trend will continue to accelerate.”
For $1,000, for example, a supporter can donate an entire ShelterBox, which includes everything a family would need after it loses everything in an instant. Or they can donate a family tent ($500), cooking set ($250), mosquito net ($40), solar light ($30), or several other items.
Because of its well-stocked warehouse and staff in the Philippines, ShelterBox was one of the first to respond to Typhoon Rai last December, which damaged or destroyed 1.7 million homes.
ShelterBox provided shelter aid to 100,000 people.
Murray saw first-hand the destruction of 2013's Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, the strongest storm ever recorded to make landfall in the world. She said items like tarpaulins and other shelter tools are critical in the aftermath of severe weather events.
“Our emergency shelter aid makes a tangible difference to people who have had their homes damaged or destroyed by these climate-driven storms,” Murray said.
ShelterBox currently has teams working to support communities in Ukraine, Yemen, Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Syria, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Haiti, and Nigeria. Its experts have recently discussed climate change and storms on CBS and the Weather Channel.
More information is available at www.ShelterBoxUSA.org/StocktheBox
