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Tag: ShelterBox

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Partnership with ShelterBox

We’re delighted and honoured to have been awarded Gold Partnership status by ShelterBox for the fundraising that we have been able to carry out with our community and as a club.

Swanage and Purbeck Rotary is one of just 17 Gold Partner clubs.

Of course, none of this would have been possible without the support of our wonderful local community who have turned out time and time again to support our fundraising efforts. In particular, recent appeals for help with victims of the war in Ukraine and the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria generated a truly amazing response and has contributed heavily to the funds that we have been able to donate.

From us to you all, many thanks for your ongoing support to the millions of people who are suffering around the world and would be in an even worse situation without your support.

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Assistance for Moroccan Earthquake and Libyan Floods

We’re sure that everyone has been shocked at the enormous impact of the earthquake in Morocco and the devastating floods in Libya, where the number of deaths is multiplying almost by the hour.

Swanage & Purbeck Rotary CIO is well aware of the requirement to act quickly in situations like this, as was the case previously for the Türkiye / Syria disaster, and made a decision this week to fund up to five ShelterBoxes (such as the one pictured above) from its own funds (some of which were raised at the recent Summer Fête).
You can see more of the work that ShelterBox are already doing in the affected areas here and on their YouTube channel here.

If you would like to contribute to this initiative, please scan the QR code below where you can donate directly to our fundraising effort.

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The Shelterbox charity, originally founded by a Rotary club in Cornwall, is always one of the first organisations to get to disaster zones when they happen around the word, and the boxes can literally be lifesavers in the first few days following an event such as an earthquake or flood.

Please give whatever you can to help.

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Swanage Community Once Again Rises to the Challenge

One of the younger members of our community donating!

We have all seen the horrific pictures of the aftermath of the earthquakes in Türkiye (formerly Turkey) and Syria, and many people are desperately trying to find ways in which they can help.

Last weekend (Friday 10th and Saturday 11th February) members of Swanage & Purbeck Rotary were out in Swanage Town Centre collecting funds to pass on to ShelterBox, who are experts in providing shelter and equipment to those affected by natural disasters.

And once again our local community rose to the challenge, donating in their droves, with many putting £10 and £20 notes in the collecting buckets.

Every penny counts, of course, and all donations, however much people were able to give, were gratefully received. We are delighted to advise that we will be making a donation of £5,500 to ShelterBox as a result of the collection.

From all of us in Swanage & Purbeck Rotary, we would like to express our sincere thanks to everyone who donated. Every penny raised will go towards helping those in desperate need in the affected areas.

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“Rotary In Action” Helping the Pakistan Floods

We’ve all been hearing on the news about the devastating floods that have hit Pakistan in recent days.

And this is where Rotary comes into its own.

Through its partnership with ShelterBox (who provide boxes similar to those shown in the picture which can provide temporary shelter and support for up to 10 people) aid can be provided extremely quickly to areas that desperately need it. ShelterBox works with Rotary clubs local to the area where the help is needed to deploy these boxes.

And thanks to the support that we have received from the Swanage and Purbeck community through events such as our Christmas activities and the recent Summer Fête, Swanage and Purbeck Rotary CIO (the fundraising arm of Swanage and Purbeck Rotary) have been able to fund three ShelterBoxes for urgent deployment to the devastated area.

Thank you all, from the bottom of our hearts, for enabling us to be able to demonstrate Rotary In Action. 

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The Road Ahead

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It’s that time of year when we start to look at our targets and objectives for the new Rotary year, which begins on July 1st.

The group holds an ‘Assembly’ every June to identify the events that the CIO plans to run and the areas that it would like to support, assuming we are able to raise the funds to do so, in 2022/23. These include:

  • The Rotary fete on August 11 2022
  • The Young Musicians competition for school children
  • Help with the Friendly Food Club
  • Environmental projects including helping Greengage and restoring the Rotary garden
  • A host of Christmas events including the street market, Santa’s sleigh and charity Christmas mail
  • Christmas shoeboxes for deprived children in parts of the world less privileged than our own
  • A pop up shop to raise funds for various international projects including Rotary’s disaster relief charities, Shelterbox, WaterAid and the people of Ukraine 
  • Support for pre-school and primary schools in Swanage and surrounding villages
  • A range of projects with Swanage School
  • Initiatives to help local children get involved with various sports clubs
  • Silver Saturday – an afternoon of fun and refreshment for Swanage’s older residents

We look forward to seeing our wonderful local community at many of the events and sincerely hope that we will be able to raise the funds required to fulfil these plans.

Anyone who would like to know more about the group, what we do and how they can get involved can contact us via email here.

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Disaster Response from Swanage Rotarians

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Our Rotarians getting down to work!

Swanage & Purbeck Rotary is proud of its fast response to disasters around the world when they happen.

So when the earthquake hit Haiti last week, it was “all systems go” to try and do something to help.

Thanks to Dorset Council granting us a Street Collection Licence in double-quick time, we were out in Station Road Swanage on 24th August collecting money for a ShelterBox to help those in Haiti who are in dire need.

The ShelterBox charity provides equipment that enables up to 10 people to have shelter and basic equipment to be able to survive the aftermath of a natural disaster until more permanent help is able to be provided. More details about the charity is available on their website.

Each ShelterBox is numbered so that they can be tracked wherever they go around the world and organisations like Rotary who raise funding for them can see exactly where the money that they have raised has gone.

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We were also indebted (as always) to Corbens Estate Agents, who once again offered to take donations in envelopes on our behalf. Total funding raised from the day so far is almost £900, from both cash and card donations, which is a fantastic achievement and we are incredibly grateful to the generous Swanage residents and visitors to our town who gave so willingly.

Grateful thanks also go to Rotarian Maggie Hardy who co-ordinated the day and to our Rotarians and friends who turned out on the day to help collect.

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‘Hybrid’ Meeting Hears Shelterbox Update

In a first for our club, this week’s meeting was an experiment in combining a Zoom Meeting with a socially distanced physical one at our normal meeting venue of Swanage Conservative Club.

Just under half of the members met in person, with the venue ensuring that safety was paramount, people seated in accordance with Government guidelines and both food and drink served to us to avoid unnecessary movement around the venue. Then, after the meal, we started the Zoom meeting with other members joining us virtually via a laptop and projection onto the large screen in the club.

Our speaker, also joining us via Zoom, was Keith Lockett, who is our local Shelterbox co-ordinator. He gave us a superb presentation, screen shared via Zoom so that everyone could see it, on the work of Shelterbox since it’s inception, how many people it has provided assistance for, how our own club has made significant contributions over the years and how the organisation has had to adapt in the current COVID-19 circumstances.

After the presentation, Keith answered a number of questions from members on the various topics that had been presented. On behalf of the club Rotarian Dai Hounsell proposed a vote of thanks for an excellent update on the work of the charity.

Initial reaction to this experimental form of meeting was very positive and assuming that follow-up feedback is equally positive we are likely to conduct further meetings via this method, assuming the virus situation does not adversely affect plans.

As ever, anyone wishing to join us for future meetings is most welcome. Just contact the secretary for joining details.

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ShelterBox Update

Click here for the latest news from ShelterBox.