Update from Haiti; biggest deployment in four years

The Biggest Deployment of ShelterBoxes in Four Years, Saving Lives One Box at a Time -- Emergency shelter for more than 20,000 people is now in Port au Prince and surrounding areas with small camps in Delmas, Petion-Ville, Carrefour and Leogane. More ShelterBoxes containing disaster relief tents and other life-saving
supplies are being sent to the Haiti in the next few days from Miami, Curucao and France with enough for an another 11,000 people.

“Nearly 100 tons of additional aid is being flown to Haiti this week as thousands of people who lost their homes in the devastating earthquake are being given the chance to start rebuilding their lives in ShelterBox tents” said Veronica Brandon Miller, Executive Director of ShelterBox USA.

“The need in Haiti is massive. Our team in Port au Prince is working with Dutch marines to ensure the safe and effective delivery of disaster relief tents and hundreds of these are already being used in four different locations,” John Leach, Head of Operations for ShelterBox. “Distribution of aid by our highly-trained ShelterBox Response Team members is underway but the need for emergency shelter
is still desperate.”

A number of ShelterBoxes have also been used at an orphanage and at two hospitals in Port au Prince where tents are being erected to help save lives.

Speaking from Bernard Mews Hospital in Freres, a suburb of Port au Prince, ShelterBox Response Team member Wayne Robinson (volunteer from Tennessee ) said, “Right outside the hospital there have been hundreds of people who have been laying in the sidewalks, on the streets and in blankets right on the ground in unbelievable conditions. They are bleeding, they have missing limbs and there are even women giving birth. We felt this was a good use of the initial boxes that we had here on the ground and we’ll be bringing more here and using them as a transitional point to get people out of the elements while they are waiting for treatment at the hospital.”

Public donations are vital to ShelterBox’s continuing work around the world. To make a donation go to www.shelterboxusa.org to donate online and get the latest updates on the charity’s response to the Haiti earthquake.