One of the Sumatran children helped by ShelterBox
The founder and head of a global disaster relief charity, ShelterBox International will be coming to Sarnia on October 17th to speak at a reception hosted by the Rotary Club of Sarnia, Sarnia Bluewaterland and Sarnia-Lambton After-Hours at the Sarnia Library Theatre, 124 Christina St. S., beginning at 7:30 pm.
Tom Henderson, from Helston, UK, is former Royal Navy search and rescue diver, who has received many awards in recognition of the work ShelterBox does around the global to help people displaced by disaster.
He was featured on CNN heroes, awarded the Beacon Prize (the non profit world’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize),and recently won the Forum3 Alternative Rich List, which recognises society’s true heroes; the people whose wealth is measured not in dollars, but in the way they have enriched the lives of others through their actions. On hearing he’d topped the Rich List, Tom remained as pragmatic as ever: ‘I always say life is about doing the most for the most. To win the Alternative Rich List is a tremendous honour but it’s an honour I share with the thousands of ShelterBox supporters and volunteers, not just in the UK, but around the globe.
‘ It’s because of these people, the people who work tirelessly day in and day out, that ShelterBox has been able to respond to more than 90 disasters in close to 60 countries across the globe, providing hundreds of thousands of people who have lost everything with shelter, with warmth and with dignity.’
Recently ShelterBox has been stretched to the very limit responding to Typhoon Morakot in the Philippines, Taiwan and China, the 7.3 magnitude earthquake in Indonesia and the catastrophic flooding in West Africa. Tom said: ‘In the past few weeks alone we’ve sent aid that will provide emergency shelter for close to 15,000 people in seven different countries. We’re stretched, we can’t do this by ourselves and we need people’s generosity to help replenish our depleted stocks of aid – please help us if you can.
About ShelterBox
ShelterBox is an international disaster relief charity, and a global Rotary club project, which exists to provide humanitarian aid worldwide in the form of shelter, warmth and dignity for people displaced by natural and other disasters.
An initiative of Rotarian Tom Henderson, a former Royal Navy search and rescue diver, ShelterBox started in 2000 as a project of the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard, Cornwall. ShelterBox, now the largest Rotary Club project in the world, has raised over $60 million and responded to over 80 major disasters including the Indian Ocean Tsunami, Hurricane Katrina and Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar (Burma) and has operated in 57 countries.
Each ShelterBox contains a 10-person tent, blankets, water purification and cooking equipment, basic tools, a stove and other essential equipment. Every box is individually numbered and can be tracked by donors. Each box costs $1200 – including the cost of all materials, packing, storage, transport worldwide and distribution to the needy.
All aid delivery is undertaken by international volunteer ShelterBox Response Team members who have carried out extensive training with ShelterBox. By working with local Rotary clubs in the countries where disasters have occurred, ShelterBox is often able to get aid where it is needed faster than any other organization.
Tom Henderson will speak to Sarnia on Saturday, October 17th, 7:30 pm at the Sarnia Library Theatre.
Tickets will be available at the door or downtown at Distinctive Eyewear and Taylors Furniture, London Line at DeGroots Nurseries, Northgate at Flowers Plus and Huron Web Printing in Wyoming, Ontario.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
