May 2025

I have had the latest briefing from ShelterBox on the situations in Myanmar and in Gaza, and I thought it might be helpful to you if I share this with you here. Perhaps you might like to forward this email to your members or even show the video at one of your club meetings?

Myanmar

Two months after powerful earthquakes struck central Myanmar tens of thousands of people are still living in makeshift camps. We’re partnering with an organisation based in Myanmar to support thousands of people whose homes have been damaged. 

It takes time to respond to disasters in the middle of an active conflict zone and heavy rains add an extra layer of complication to already challenging conditions for people without adequate shelter. That’s why we’re repairing people’s homes so they last longer and can withstand the rainy season.

Over the next five months, we’ll be supporting people from 36 different villages across Mandalay state and Southern Shan state. The types of homes destroyed vary hugely. Some areas are very dry while others are prone to flooding. One solution will not suit all communities.  

We’ll support people living in dry areas to repair homes with timber frames and corrugated iron roofs. In areas prone to flooding, we’ll support people to repair homes with bamboo frames and corrugated iron roofs.

Getting aid into Myanmar is expensive and challenging so we’ll source and buy the items we need in the country – using larger suppliers and local markets. The materials will be delivered to each village, and local helpers will transport them to people. 

Our partner will work with people to repair and improve homes so they can withstand the rainy season and provide shade from intense heat. Local carpenters and masons will make repairs using materials from local markets. Each home will take up to three days to repair. The first will be ready next month (June) in time for the rainy season.

People will receive solar lights and kitchen sets. Solar lights are a practical solution for people without power. People use solar lights in different ways – for comfort, or simply moving around at night, as well as charging phones, for work, education, and family activities. Kitchen sets include essential items for cooking and serving food. This means people can prepare, cook, and share food.

We’ve spent time in Yangon in Myanmar, working closely with local contacts, other humanitarian organisations, and networks like Rotary. We’re focusing our efforts on Myanmar because it has been the most severely impacted by the earthquake and powerful aftershocks.

Responding to such complex crises, we have to plan every move and every decision to ensure we do no harm to the community, our partners, or team.

VIDEO LINK (Myanmar) https://youtu.be/rqJjm9nJDTA?si=sAION38wzu2BziVe

Gaza

For almost three months (11 weeks) no aid entered Gaza: all aid has been blocked entirely by Israel. On Monday, whilst ramping up its military campaign and killing hundreds more people across Gaza, Israel began to allow a trickle of aid to cross the border. 

The restrictions remain so tight that nowhere near enough aid is being allowed through to sustain the growing and desperate needs of an entire population who have been denied food, medicine, and other supplies for far too long. The number of aid trucks entering is woefully inadequate – a small fraction of some 500 daily aid trucks before October 2023.

With famine looming, people are still being displaced, again and again without adequate shelters to move to. Hundreds of thousands of people, who returned to the north of Gaza during the recent ceasefire, are being forced to move south to access what little aid there is. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of people have been told to clear Khan Younis in southern Gaza to make way for an ‘unprecedented attack’ by Israel. People who can, are gathering what they have left and walking to al-Mawasi where they have been told to go but there are others who simply aren’t able to.

What is ShelterBox doing? 

Most of the aid that we had in Gaza before the blockade has now been distributed by our partners PARC, MAP, and SDF, comprising portable shelter items like tents, tarpaulins, and rope.

We have more aid in Jordan ready to go, and enough tents to shelter thousands of people, but we can’t move it because of the ongoing restrictions.

Many clubs have already donated funds to assist, with well over £10,000 contributed to date, for which heartfelt thanks are due to all concerned.

As always if you would like a talk or any assistance with a display, including a tent, please do not hesitate to contact me. I can also put you in-touch with other volunteers who can also help.

For now, warm wishes and my thanks for your help.

Yours in Rotary and as ever,
P. Kerr Fulton-Peebles
ShelterBox Rotary District 1010 Coordinator