Pamela Drew, member of the Gibraltar Rotary Club called up Shelterbox the minute she heard about the disaster in Haiti and asked what can she and her club do to help, The response was two things a) If you have time on your hands come over and help in the warehouse and b) get your club to fund raise for the People in Haiti so that’s just what she did.
As well as all the Gib.Rotarians’ efforts at fundraising on the Rock, Pamela has also traveled to the UK as a volunteer helper. She got on a plane on Thursday 21st of Jan , then on Friday made her way to Helston, Cornwall a trip which on its own took over 10 hrs. She arrived late on Friday Night to be met by a Rotarian from Helston, Rested well and was up early to help out as from Saturday morning.
Pamela was met in Shelterbox HQ by Sally Grint, Head of Development and communications, and got Pamela working as soon as all the paperwork was complete, Pamela was then met by Chris one of the line management team who quickly showed her the ropes . It wasn't long before Pamela got really stuck in.
In her own words :
“I met Tom Henderson, a Rotarian (of whom Shelterbox is the brain-child) who seems very down to earth and extremely humanitarian. He told me how this project started and with the Help of Rotary International and individual Rotary Groups around the world started the creation of Shelterbox and how the organization was born.
I then got introduced to John Leach the head of operations who gave me an insight to the problems they where having with flying the Shelterboxes into Haiti, it's amazing to see how people manage problems that are near impossible, but John and his team are experts in the art and attitude of WE CAN DO IT, so no problem is too big or bad for this team, even though they did say "it's like putting a coke can through a straw" They are determined to get the Shelterboxes to people who need them NOW.
I then met the volunteer team and what a bunch! I have had the pleasure to work with these great people for the last week and what a great group of people, I missed the first week after the Haiti disaster struck , but these Volunteers came in thick and fast to help with packing Shelterboxes, they worked around the clock and made sure that Shelterboxes where ready and available for people in need. These Volunteers have a great strength and an inner spirit which makes you think that there are great people in the world one things for sure there are definitely great people in Cornwall, I can go on forever praising these people who give so much of there time for nothing. These guys are a credit to the human race, without them this project would not be as successful as it is today.
I then moved up to the press office and have spent a little time listening to comings and going of this part of the organization, they keep up-to-date with what's going on around the world and feed it back to the website on a regular basis so everything is updated by the hour. check out www.Shelterbox.org for what's happening now, and don't forget it's not only Haiti that this great organisation is working with today, there are a number of other countries that are still being looked after today that lots of us are not aware of. In this office are some of the SRTs these are people who are highly trained ( all in-house and again Volunteers) to deal with working on the ground as Shelterbox representatives, one of the guys flies out to Haiti tonight so you can feel the buzz in the air in this office today , all at Shelterbox are extremely proud of our SRTs.
I also spent a few hours on Saturday at the front reception where I worked with Sue, the part -time receptionist/donation takers plus other things, Sue like many has not stopped working since the Haiti disaster happened and I think she has a bed under her desk as she is always here, ready to help with anything, in the office behind her is a team of donation taking people who again have are voluntary and have been working around the clock, the Shelterbox donations have been great and one thing people like about donating to this charity is you know where your money has been spent, because Shelterbox does run on Volunteers it helps keep the cost of running the organization to a record low. Here at Shelterbox it’s a guarantee that 90p in the pound goes to the people in need and does not get spent on other things.
These last few weeks have been very busy for local Rotarians. Members have been collecting funds in Casemates, the Piazza, The Convent and outside Morrison for ShelterBoxes for Haiti. The Rotary Club of Gibraltar has raised more than £15,000 so far, thanks to the generosity of Gibraltarian individuals and organisations and also foreign visitors.
