Red Cross / Shelterbox Fundraiser CDs
French Caribbean CD image courtesy of Putumayo
Plenty is pleased to join Putumayo in raising funds for relief work in Haiti. In response to the devastating earthquake in Haiti, Putumayo is rereleasing the French Caribbean CD and donating 100% of their proceeds from the sale of each CD to The Red Cross, throughout 2010. Five of the songs on the collection are by Haitian musicians. Music has helped Haitians survive their difficulties over the years. Plenty will also be donating $9 from the sale of each French Caribbean CD to Shelterbox Canada.
The Shelterbox Canada project was founded within the Rotary Club of Ladysmith, British Columbia, and is promoted and administered by Rotarians from across Canada. Shelterbox delivers immediate relief to victims of natural and other disasters anywhere around the world. To-date they have sent aid to 31 different countries, providing shelter for over 500,000 people. Thank-you to Gillian Gravenor for bringing my attention to this great project.
Each ShelterBox is a large, rugged, green plastic container that holds a 10-person tent and a range of other equipment. In general, typical box contents could include:
• Thermal blankets and insulated ground sheets
• Waterproof ponchos and bin bags
• A multi-fuel stove that can burn anything from diesel to old paint!
• Cooking pans, utensils, bowls and mugs
• Collapsible water containers and water purification tablets
• A basic tool kit – hammer, axe, saw, pliers, hoe head, trenching shovel, rope etc
• A small, children’s pack containing drawing books, crayons, pens etc.
However, a range of equipment is kept in stock. This allows ShelterBox to be flexible and adjust the contents of the box according to local conditions and what is most urgently needed.
Each ShelterBox costs – on average – $1000 Canadian.
In the last few weeks Shelterbox has established emergency shelter for more than 20,000 people in Port au Prince and surrounding areas with small camps set up in Delmas, Petion-Ville, Carrefour and Leogane. Hundreds more ShelterBoxes containing disaster relief tents and other life-saving supplies are being sent to the city meaning another 11,000 people will be given emergency shelter. Please click here to read more about their efforts.
Below is a January 29th BBC report that shows a Shelterbox camp that was constructed in Haiti and expresses how their aid work in Haiti remains vital.
Construction slow on Haiti’s ‘tented villages’
“More than two weeks after the earthquake in Haiti, there are still no signs of the tented villages the government there has been promising.
At least one million people were left homeless by the quake, which flattened most of the capital, Port-au-Prince.
Only aid workers have so far succeeded in the construction of a ”tented village” for 3,000 refugees”.
Rupert Wingfield-Hayes reports from Haiti.