Rotary makes $3,600 ShelterBox donation

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 01/05/2022 (1404 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Members of the Rotary Club of Brandon have arranged a significant contribution toward ShelterBox Canada — an organization that is providing critical needs to refugees fleeing the crisis in Ukraine in the form of temporary housing.

Within the first few weeks of the war between Russia and Ukraine, Brandon Rotarian Cheryl Winger explained the club was able to donate $3,600 toward the implementation of a ShelterBox designed for a refugee family escaping turmoil from their country.

The funding could also go toward what ShelterBox sees as the most urgent needs for the humanitarian effort in the case of blankets or other sleeping and safety materials.

“Right now, the primary focus in on Ukraine,” Winger said.

“ShelterBox is working with an organization called People in Need, delivering thousands of mattresses to collective centres like schools and churches and will be distributed to people sheltering in these places. They need safety and a warm place to sleep at night.”

When the money is put toward a regular ShelterBox unit, the typical green tub is full of contents including a large tent, bedding, portable stove, pots and pans, dishes, toys for children, a rechargeable light, water jugs, and a water filtration device that can be reused several times according to Winger, who has been an ambassador for ShelterBox for five years.

Winger referred to the ShelterBox organization not only assisting Ukraine, but in past years aiding people affected from an earthquake in Haiti, to the volcanic eruption in Tonga in December 2021. She said the $3,600 donated was double what the Rotary Club would typically give in past crises.

Taras Lychuk, a fellow Brandon Rotarian and former resident of Ukraine, said the units have been effective for refugees who have fled from Ukraine into Poland and Moldova.

He noted when the war first began, ShelterBoxes could give refugees close to the border some relief, being able to lie down and sleep after standing for two to three days. The money from the Rotary Club is sent overseas where the unit is transported in a short period of time.

“As long as we have money in the budget, we make it happen and the ShelterBox is there in a couple of days,” Lychuk said.

Lychuk moved to Canada in 2014 and joined the club within the same year. Since the war has started, he has been trying to keep up with the news as much as he can and has been in touch with several relatives, all with a different story of escape from potential violence.

“I had a cousin who was in Kyiv, and she left with her husband to join her mother in the western part of Ukraine where its relatively safe,” he said.

“Although there were a couple of shelling episodes targeting the airport and television antenna.”

Originally from Rivne, a town in northwestern Ukraine two hours from the Polish border, another of Lychuk’s cousins told him they are taking things day by day, trying to live life as normal as they can.

“So far it has been relatively safe, they are seeding flowers on the street and trying to keep it normal,” he said.

“The air raids are still ongoing, but lessening.”

Lychuk told the Sun a third cousin of his left with her three kids and husband to Poland during the first week of the war. The family is renting a place in Poland while the children are able to go to school. All of these conversations have been difficult to process.

“It’s very devastating, my day starts with reading the news with how things are back home,” he said.

“The first couple of nights I don’t think I slept more than four hours total. Deep in our hearts, nobody believed it was going to really happen, until it happened.”

For Winger and Lychuk, the two are grateful to have the feeling they have helped a family in a extreme time of need. A ShelterBox may not bring peace in the conflict, but it can provide hope to ease the suffering of loved ones overseas.

“What gets me the most about these ShelterBoxes is that in areas where there are numerous of them setup, these people have an address on there and they create streets in the tent villages,” Winger said.

“It’s not a tent, it’s not a shelter, it becomes a home.”

» jbernacki@brandonsun.com

» Twitter: @JosephBernacki