Letter – celebrating the power of partnership

Dear Editor,  

Recognising and celebrating the power of partnership is important. At the international disaster relief charity, ShelterBox, partnership enables us to do more and make a bigger difference to the people we support with emergency shelter aid. Our partnership with Rotary International has been renewed for another three years, which is significant as we continue to help people whose homes and livelihoods have been destroyed by conflict or disaster. 

This special humanitarian alliance means ShelterBox can support more people, in more places, in more ways. It gives us the flexibility and scale to respond in fast changing emergencies like in Ukraine, and after Typhoon Rai made landfall in the Philippines in December.  

Rotary members in the UK, and across the world, help ShelterBox in so many ways – navigating import challenges that delay our lifesaving aid, providing us with warehousing space for our shelter kits, and making the community contacts needed to reach disaster-affected families in remote areas. 

It’s incredible to think that the Millennium project of one Cornish Rotary Club, which is how ShelterBox started, led to an extraordinary international movement that has provided emergency shelter to millions of people around the world.  

Becoming Rotary’s official project partner in disaster relief in 2012 helped transform ShelterBox into an internationally recognised disaster relief charity, and we continue to work together to reach those most in need of emergency shelter around the world. 

Alex Youlten 

Rotary Partnership Manager 

ShelterBox