Press Release

ShelterBox team deliver ‘school aid’

12 November 2006

An aid team helping earthquake victims in Kashmir has also delivered much-needed supplies to schools in the mountainous region.

The team of volunteers from the disaster relief charity ShelterBox are in Pakistan distributing emergency accommodation to families facing a second winter living in the open following last year’s devastating Kashmir earthquake.
The charity sent sufficient tents for 8,000 people to Kashmir last month following a direct appeal from Pakistan’s National Rural Support Programme, a national agency that is working to help communities affected by the disaster.
In addition to the ShelterBoxes containing tents, the charity also sent some individual children’s packs and basic supplies for teachers.

Earlier this week, two members of the team reached Balgran, a village about two hours north of Pattika along a dangerous mountain road that is still heavily damaged and hit by regular landslides.

ShelterBox photographer Mark Pearson said: “We stopped at Balgran village and had to walk another 300ft up to reach the school. There were 50 children there, both boys and girls, ranging from five years to 17 years. They were waiting outside the school for lessons but there was no teacher there as he had gone to Muzaffarabad to get his pay.

“The school was an old UNICEF tent that had no floor, just hard earth. There were no chairs so the 50 children sat on the bare ground with only one blackboard and no teacher. We met the local doctor who helped us distribute the school equipment.”

Each of the pupils at the school received a pack that contained a small blackboard, as well as chalk, crayons, pencils, a geometry set and a notepad. The item that made the greatest impact was the blackboards, with many pupils using them to write out their names in both Urdu and English.

ShelterBox founder and general manager Tom Henderson said: “Our first priority is to provide shelter for those people who still do not have decent accommodation and are facing the onset of another winter.

“Another part of our mission is to provide practical comfort to disaster victims and if, by the provision of some relatively inexpensive school equipment, we can also help to improve the lives and chances of these children then that is a massive bonus.”

The ShelterBox Trust is a UK registered charity organised and administered by the Rotary Club of Helston-Lizard. By working through local Rotary clubs in the countries where disasters have occurred, ShelterBox is often able to get aid where it is needed faster than any other organisation