What?
A tsunami is a giant wave of water - also known as a tidal wave.

Why?
A tsunami is what happens when a large area of the sea suddenly moves . It is usually triggered by an undersea earthquake, the cause of which is explained in greater depth on the 'Earthquake' page.
The undersea earthquake makes the whole sea shake and this can create the giant wave known as a tsunami

What are the effects?
The force of the water in a tsunami can destroy buildings, roads, railways and anything else in its path. Many people are left homeless when the water knocks down their houses.

Tsunami Fact:
The word 'tsunami' comes from the Japanese language, 'tsu' meaning 'harbour', and 'nami' meaning 'wave'.

How can ShelterBox help?
On 26th December 2004, a tsunami hit the coast of many countries in Southeast Asia, taking the lives of tens of thousands of people and causing widespread destruction.

Many of the victims were from poor fishing communities - people who made their living from the sea.

Because they lived so close to the sea, when the tsunami struck, nearly all were left without homes or possessions.

After the disaster people wished not only to provide shelter for their families, but also to return to work and get their lives back to normal.

ShelterBox responded by providing aid to more than 210,000 people. The aid sent was chosen especially to meet the needs of those worst affected by the disaster and included things like tools that could be used for rebuilding boats as well as homes.

ShelterBox Response Teams

When ShelterBoxes are sent out to a disaster, a 'ShelterBox Response Team' is also deployed. These teams are all made up of volunteers, who have trained with us, and are ready to go with the ShelterBoxes anywhere in the world.They ensure the safe delivery and distribution of the ShelterBoxes. Our team members are men and women who usually work in very different types of jobs e.g.
policemen and policewomen,paramedics,firemen,chef,writer,accountant,graduates,ex-navypersonnel,businessmen etc.

The main person we deploy is Mark Pearson. Mark is a photographer and journalist, and his photographs are very important to our work. He sends back to our Headquarters up to date information and pictures and advises us where the greatest need is, and the type of aid required.Almost all of the photos that you can see on the website have been taken by Mark.

Below you will find some true stories of some of our 'ShelterBox Response Team' members, we hope you will enjoy them.

Sri Lanka – Tsunami relief.

My name is Ray Dawe and along with Ray Filbey, I responded to Sri Lanka following the horrific aftermath of the Boxing Day Tsunami.

We are both Fire-fighters working for Cornwall Fire Brigade and affectionately became know as “Team Ray “

We were going to be deployed to Sri Lanka to assist with disaster relief, but, such is the dynamic response provided by Shelterbox, late afternoon on the day before our departure, our plans were changed.
We were re-tasked with getting, by hook or by crook, 1000 Shelterboxes (£500,000) released from Sri Lankan customs.
If they were not going to be used in Sri Lanka, then we were to get them put on a ship and sent to Indonesia.
This proved to be quite a task working through the different levels of governmental bureaucracy.
We were also hampered by the fact that, unbeknown to us, our Sri Lankan Rotary Club contacts had been involved in a road accident and were un-contactable.

With nowhere to start on our 1st day, we found our way to the British Consulate.
There we managed to talk the consulate official into taking us with him to a major televised meeting of all the major aid agencies at the Sri Lankan Ministry of Defence.
We made loads of contacts including a very nice lady from Cornwall who was in post as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

That pretty much summed up our trip, meeting people, going to meetings and making a nuisance of ourselves to get our Shelterboxes back.

Eventually we met a local businessman who had befriended an earlier Shelterbox team. His friend turned out to be, believe it or not, the Chief of Defence of the Sri Lankan Armed Forces.
You’ve guessed it…. We blagged a meeting with him and with his assistance, we finally achieved our aim in getting the boxes released to the local Rotary members.

We also tried to help a local aid worker who was trying desperately to help those in her local community.
We visited one of her sites and found 135 families living in and around a church that had one tap for drinking water and one toilet! It was shocking to see how much help these people still needed.
In that vain, and with constant communications with Shelterbox Helston, we carried out a needs assessment of the local people to try and develop a “Toolbox “
It was quite obvious that the local tradesmen and craftsmen could not even begin to provide for their families without the tools of their trades. We highlighted the need for a range of tools and supplies to facilitate their needs and this was being taken forward by Shelterbox when we returned.

Station Officer Ray Dawe.
Cornwall County Fire Brigade.