Rod Delisle introduced our guest speakers for the evening. Ron Noseworthy is the past President of the Rotary Club of Kenora, is an active Rotarian in his community and has been very involved in World Community Service at the club and district levels. He has been involved in a broad range of other community volunteer activities, often in a leadership role.
Ron is the immediate Past Chair of ShelterBox Canada and has played a key role in both the Canadian and international management of the organization. Beyond his role in leadership and governance, Ron is a ShelterBox Response Team member and has been deployed 11 times to deliver aid in disaster-struck countries, including the Haiti earthquake, the Japan tsunami, twice to typhoons in the Philippines, as well as disasters in Indonesia, Turkey, China, Fiji and twice to Bangladesh. He has seen first-hand the devastation that disasters cause and how ShelterBox brings shelter, warmth and dignity to families in their time of greatest need.
Claire Noseworthy is an involved Rotarian with the Kenora Club and is active in the community with the United Church, Meals on Wheels and palliative care. She has had many different adventures all around the world. Having been blessed with good health and a wonderful family, she wanted to give back and saw ShelterBox as a great opportunity. Claire qualified as a ShelterBox Response Team (SRT) member in 2007 and has had 5 deployments responding to the China earthquake, a typhoon in the Philippines, a tsunami in Indonesia, flooding in the African country of Malawi and most recently flooding and the Rohingya crisis in Bangladesh. She is strongly committed to ShelterBox`s mission and says that the rewards of giving to those in need are hard to measure.
Claire & husband Ron have had several deployments together. They have 3 grown children who are all very independent and now 7 wonderful grandchildren.
Ron opened their presentation by stating that it is a pleasure to come to the Charleswood Rotary Club due to its long-standing support of ShelterBox over the years.
Rotary has a major role in the operation of ShelterBox. Rotary International is a project partner with ShelterBox. R.I. does not become a project partner with many non-profits. There are 85 million displaced people in the world, most are due to conflict. The U.N. has estimated that by 2050 there will be 200 million displaced people in the world. ShelterBox started in year 2000, it has given aid to 1.1 million people in that time. ShelterBox has responded to 290 disasters in 95 countries. This year alone ShelterBox is giving assistance to 130,000 to 140,000 people, this is expected to grow to one million per year by 2027.
The Vision Statement is “No Family Without Shelter”, transforming lives, rebuilding hope, improve resilience. Right now, ShelterBox is operating in 9 countries (7/9 are conflict regions). It has been operating in Syria since day 1, seven years ago. There are not a lot of natural disasters right now. What is always needed is donations of money. The response must be immediate, therefore there is no time to raise funds for each situation as it arises. ShelterBox is looking for people to consider making a commitment to be a regular scheduled monthly donor.
www.shelterboxcanada.org
Having local Rotarians in the disaster area help is critical. Photos were shown of the iconic ShelterBox (green plastic case) and ShelterKit (white cloth duffle bag) and their respective contents. The actual tents available do vary in size. The standard tent, Flex 3 tent (cold weather situations), U.N. tent (large groups). An important item given out is a solar powered light. The ShelterKit is used more often now than in the past.
Claire Noseworthy took over the presentation at this point. In 2015 she traveled to Malawi because of flooding. The U.N. estimated ¼ million people displaced due to the flooding. It was a radical adventure for Claire. They distributed many more ShelterKits than ShelterBoxes. The Kits allow people to build a tarp home. She showed photos of a local that had built himself a home with the kit in about 24 hours. They have found that the kits aid in recovery, the kit makes them move on to recovery. There is never enough aid for all that request help. This must be explained to the local elders. Interviews are completed, and a list of aid recipients is made. The most vulnerable are given 1st priority.
The females tend to be the people that line up for the aid trucks. The package weighs 45 pounds. Various methods of transportation are used. Aircraft, large trucks, bicycles, mules, outrigger canoes, people power. Both Ron and Claire have traveled to Bangladesh with ShelterBox missions. Ron went there in 2008 and distributed mostly ShelterBoxes. When Claire went in 2017 they were giving out ShelterKits mainly. In Bangladesh they had to work with other organizations because they did not have a licence. They partnered with the Red Crest. For Claire`s trip to Bangladesh it was very dangerous to be out in public with ‘branded clothing’ on. It was a very diverse group of people that Claire worked with on her 2017 trip to Bangladesh. The flooding was mostly in the North of the country and involved ~6 million people being displaced. They had to be very diplomatic as to how they handed out the aid. They went where no other aid groups were going. ShelterBox was also involved in helping with the Rohingya crisis. Mass migration in the South of Myanmar (also known as Burma) traveling to Bangladesh. A history of persecution and flooding.
The people given aid are overwhelmed that people from Canada care for them. The ShelterKits come with white colored tarps. A photo of a refugee camp showed black tarps on structures in 37 C temps. This would make the tarp home extremely hot. The white tarps from ShelterKits were very welcomed as they would help to keep the tarp homes cooler. The people receiving ShelterBox aid were 60% children with many of them orphans. They set up U.N. tents to create ‘Children Centres’. When this worked, a decision was made to use the U.N. tents to set up ‘Female Centres’. Most of the women were abused but would not seek medical help when they arrived. Once they were in a female group setting, they felt safe and asked for the medical assistance.
Q/A
1.- Mandy Kwasnica asked where the boxes/kits are stored prior to being shipped?
A.- Bulk storage is at Truro, U.K. blankets are usually shipped directly from the factory of origin. Setting up pre-deployment sites in 20 locations around the world chosen to be near historically disaster /conflict areas.
2.- President Bob asked what edition / generation is the actual box at right now?
A.- Program started in 2000. It is refined and updated every year according to what worked and what didn`t. the tent itself has likely had 20 updates. The standard tent is considered to be ‘bullet proof’, meaning very strong. It can survive 120Km winds.
3-Darvin asked the cost of a Box?
A.- $1,200 CDN
4.-Brian Campbell asked if the aid is always in 3rd world countries?
A.-No, there have been offers to help in the USA. We have a safety net in North America. Almost deployed to the 2013 Alberta floods.
5.- Ed Thompson questioned what is going to happen in Bangladesh to existing Rohingya refugee camps with expected monsoons?
A.- It is not clear what is going to happen. Aid workers are trying to get the refugees to move to higher ground and away from landslide areas
Lloyd Talbot thanked Ron and Claire for their presentation. The Charleswood Rotary Club is a significant contributor to ShelterBox over the years. Lloyd advised that we donate to ShelterBox for each presentation made to the club. The donation will be made in their name to ShelterBox. A cheque was presented to Ron and Claire Noseworthy by President Bob from the Charleswood Rotary Club for ShelterBox.
