ShelterBox New Zealand

About

ShelterBox provides emergency disaster relief across the globe. We rely on all our supporters, without you ShelterBox could not continue delivering aid and shelter to those who need it most.

Story

Every year thousands of communities, often with no warning, lose their homes, their possessions and their livelihoods. Every day they are faced with a battle for survival.

We provide emergency shelter and vital supplies to support communities around the world overwhelmed by disaster and humanitarian crisis.

Since we began in 2000, we have responded to earthquakes, floods, volcanoes, tsunamis, hurricanes, landslides, typhoons and conflict, delivering emergency humanitarian aid to communities in need.

The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Syria crisis, and the biggest storm to ever make landfall – Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines; we have responded to some of the largest humanitarian crises the modern world has ever known. Alongside this, we have also helped many thousands of people displaced by disasters that are not featured in the media. Simply put, if there are families in need of emergency shelter, we will do everything we can to help them.

Our vision
A world in which all people displaced by disasters and humanitarian crises are rapidly provided with emergency shelter and vital aid, which will help rebuild their communities and lives.

Our mission
To rapidly provide emergency shelter and vital aid to stabilise, protect and support communities overwhelmed by disaster and humanitarian crisis.

Mission

To provide shelter, warmth and dignity to families who have been affected by disasters worldwide.

Products

We deliver the essentials people need to begin rebuilding their lives in the aftermath of a disaster. When we send boxes, each one is tailored to a disaster but typically contains a disaster relief tent for a family, thermal blankets and groundsheets, water storage and purification equipment, solar lamps, cooking utensils, a basic tool kit, mosquito nets and a children’s activity pack.

For colder countries, we can deliver winterised aid that includes more blankets and groundsheets and a thermal liner that fits between the inner and outer layers of the tent retaining more heat.

Sometimes our aid is not packed in boxes but sent in bulk. It is essential that we always support the needs of those who have survived disasters and this can vary enormously based on the type and scale of a disaster. We also do this to maximise donors’ money ensuring that we only send what is really needed and appropriate for the situation and culture.

We are also constantly evolving as a charity and developing our aid. There are different needs for different disasters. We sometimes provide midi tents that are a more compact version of our standard disaster relief tent. They are smaller to transport, easier to put up and take up less space, ideal for responses where space is at a premium or where temporary shelter is required for a shorter amount of time, like flooding. We can also deliver shelter repair kits containing plastic sheeting, basic tools, rope and fixings that enable families to rapidly provide their own shelter or make repairs to their damaged houses in the aftermath of a disaster.

In any disaster a large number of people without shelter will inevitably be children. Schools will often have been destroyed along with homes and other buildings. ShelterBox will, therefore, sometimes include ‘SchoolBoxes' in their aid consignments. These contain essential supplies for teachers, including blackboard paint and chalk, along with school equipment for 50 children.

Please note: We do not fundraise separately for the SchoolBoxes. These are only sent out as part of an overall aid consignment and are paid for through general funds. This is because our main focus is on the emergency humanitarian aid and we only send these boxes where we have heard a school or several schools have been destroyed.