Haiti Earthquake Appeal - Rotary Says, “Thank You.”

Rotary Club of Steyning and Henfield held a collection in Upper Beeding, Henfield and Steyning to raise money for Shelter Boxes for the Haiti Earthquake Appeal. The collection raised £1644 which have funded 3 Shelter Boxes. Thank you to the residents of Steyning, Henfield and Upper Beeding.

Rotary in the UK, some 10 years ago, created a rapid reaction system of Emergency Shelter Boxes. Each of these extra large boxes contains a 10-12 person tent, tools, cooking utensils and water purification kits. Enough for 6 months usage.

It was the Rotary club of Helston in Cornwall that came up with the idea and in the last 10 years Rotary UK has sent out 60,000 of these Emergency Boxes...all assembled and packed at Helston, to disasters all over the World ...thus saving the lives of up to a million people.

This Rapid Response facility now occupies a vast warehouse in Helston where Rotary operates a “pick & mix” system . All the potential contents for these Rotary Emergency boxes are on shelves ready to be picked. The idea being that some countries and some disasters need different contents. So for every disaster the appropriate and right contents are “picked”. The local Rotarians and their friends come in and work through the night to assemble these boxes.

Already 1000 boxes have been sent to Haiti and another 1000 will be ready this week. Richard Branson is supporting this Rotary relief effort by flying hundreds of the Rotary Shelter boxes to Haiti on his Virgin Atlantic planes. Thank you Richard.

So far the Rotarians in Bahamas and other West Indies Islands have donated £200.000 which is being used to buy food and medicine which they and other West Indies based Rotary clubs are delivering NOW by 15 small private planes (landing on grass fields where others cannot get to.) and using small boats to deliver these vital supplies.

50 tons of Medical supplies have been sent (and arrived) by Rotary to Haiti. Jamaica Air are flying in “big & heavy stuff” from Florida, huge generators, field hospitals and lots of food & water.

The advantage that Rotary has is ...that there are a lot of us and we can “make things happen”.

As the World`s largest voluntary organisation with 1.3 million Rotarians in 200 countries Rotary is now raising funds to further help the people Haiti. So how can you help?

If you would like to make a donation towards buying more of these life saving emergency boxes...or donating to our overall Aid effort...you can see the Helston Emergency Box web www.shelterbox.org.... where you can donate “on line” or if you want to donate to the main Rotary Earthquake appeal send a cheque made out to...RIBI Donation Trust and mark the envelope Haiti Earthquake appeal..post to...RIBI Donation Trust, C/o of RIBI, Kinwarton Road, Alcester. B49 6PB

Nb Rotary is a registered Charity. Best of all, why not become a Rotarian yourself. See our “local web” www.rotary-1250.org or phone 01903 237787.

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