Bill Tobin Presents ShelterBox USA!
Our speaker for Thursday, July 16, 2020 was Bill Tobin of ShelterBox USA. The program was fantastic! Bill is a member of the Rotary Club of El Dorado, past president, and past “Rotarian of the Year.” He has been a committed participant in ShelterBox since he was the president of his club in 2010. While he was President he was asked by several Interact kids how they could help in an international project. He asked them to do some research and come up with a project. They found ShelterBox and he has been hooked ever since! Interactors rule!
ShelterBox was founded in 2000 by a Rotary Club in Cornwall, England. The Cornwall Club ‘adopted’ ShelterBox as a club project. ShelterBox has never been a project of Rotary, although it partners with Rotarians and Rotary International in disaster relief projects all over the world. The original ShelterBox idea was to find some way to help people survive during a disaster. The solution was to distribute emergency shelter materials to families to allow them to survive during the disaster. This concept has grown to include boxes with materials for tents, cooking, solar lights, warm weather clothes, blankets and activity sets for children. Most people love having tarps, rather than prefabricated tents, because tarps can have multi-purposes after more permanent homes are found.
ShelterBox has been on the ground in such disasters as the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, the 2010 Haitian earthquake, the Syrian civil war, and the Chad River Basin. Key current projects include Syria (civil war), Bangladesh (Rohingya massacre), the Philippines (Covid-19 and volcano), Somalia (drought), and the Chad River Basin (drought and terrorism). Most of these projects involve some of the most incredible population displacement events the world has ever suffered! Bill estimated that over 88 million people have been displaced recently, including 70 million as a result of armed conflict. Places like Syria present an overwhelming problem of population displacement. The conflict has been brutal for at least 8 years. Millions have been displaced. Rotary cannot function in Syria. All ShelterBoxes have to be sent directly from the factory.
ShelterBox has distributed over 1.6 million shelters in 100 countries over the last 20 years. It has received the U.S. Presidential Voluntary Service Award 7 times! It is four-star rated by Charity Navigator.
