Rotarian discusses club’s relief efforts

While hundreds of relief organizations provide essential needs to refugees and disaster victims across the globe such as food and medicine, Rotary International offers another necessity that is often overlooked – shelter.

Visiting Rotarian Jaime Yeats offered the members of the Dowagiac Rotary Club an up-close look at their innovative ShelterBox, an all-in-one trunk that provides a temporary shelter and other essentials for families who have lost their home due to tragedy. Members were greeted by the sight of a giant tent pitched in front of their meeting room inside the Elk’s Lodge, which is one of thousands employed around the globe.

The idea of the ShelterBox was devised by an English Rotarian 14 years ago, as a humane and dignified way of supporting displaced families, giving them the support they need while allowing them remain together.

“Our focus is on providing short-term shelter and tools for families to take care of themselves,” Yeats said.

The main item the box provides is the tent, which has room for a small family to rest inside. It contains a waterproof shell, and an optional solar blanket layer that provides additional insulation in colder environments.

The container has several other key amenities as well, including stoves, blankets and mosquito netting.

“My personal favorite is the water filtration system,” Yeats said. “That will filter enough water for a family for a year. It will remove 99.99 percent of bacteria and pollution.”

Since it’s inception, the organization has distributed 140,000 of these boxes across 86 countries. They are particularly important today in disaster relief in the Philippines, with 7,200 families receiving shelters after being displaced by typhoons, volcanoes and earthquakes within the country multiple times throughout the year.

“We used up the entire stockpile responding [in the Philipines],” Yeats said, referring to the organization’s stock at the former air base in the nation. “We’re backfilling that now.”